Transcript
Digital Metamorphosis : A Discussion with Charles Hansen of Ayre
you were initially known for your work with speaker design and analog circuitry, Q : Charles, when did you first become interested in digital designs?
:
We knew when we started Ayre that we would need to build a disc player sooner or later. Back in the early ‘90s everyone was already talking about DVD being “just around the corner”. So we decided to begin the company with an amplifier and wait until a new digital format was available with high-resolution capabilities before making a player.
digital decadence …
In December of 1996, the DVD specification was announced and it included a provision for 96/24 audio. I called up Mike Hobson of Classic Records, Dave Chesky of Chesky Records, Kevin Halverson of Muse Electronics, and Jeff Kalt of Resolution Audio and we formed a small consortium. In January 1998 our group showed up at the CES with four different prototype disc players (Theta Digital developed one independently) and nearly 50 titles, all 96/24. It created quite a stir and put the major record labels to shame, not to mention the major hardware manufacturers. We were way ahead of the curve on that one. But a year later the “powers that be” announced both SACD and DVD-Audio and created a format war where audiophiles became the “collateral damage”. It was a lost opportunity, because both turned out to be flops in terms of what was expected of those formats. The CD patents were expiring, and along with them a $1 billion per year royalty stream. So the big companies were engaging in a turf war with the expectation that CD would be replaced by one of these new formats.
QB-9 DAC : digital-to-analog converter The Ayre QB-9 digital-to-analog converter, in combination with your personal computer, will transform your audio collection into a new musical experience. Simply store CDs or high-resolution downloads on your computer and enjoy the convenience of your entire digital music collection at your fingertips. Proprietary asynchronous technology ensures jitter-free data transfer of your music files. Advanced opto-isolators provide complete separation of your computer from your audio system, resulting in exceptional sound reproduction. You can even use your favorite music playback software to create personal playlists. The Ayre QB-9 brings you closer than ever to your favorite artists— changing the way you listen to music.
Boulder, Colorado • www.ayre.com • 303.442.7300
Of course that never happened. Now ten years later we have come full circle and are finally getting back to 96/24 high resolution audio, but this time it is in the form of downloads, played back on your computer. Check out HDTracks.com—they will have over 1,000 high-res titles by the end of the year! Like they say, “What goes around, comes around.”
introduced the world’s first progressive-scan DVD player back in 2000, how did Q : Ayre a small company like yours manage this?
:
Faroudja had pioneered what was then called “line doubling” using Laserdiscs as the source. With the advent of DVD, the large Japanese corporations were starting to take notice of the interest in ultra-high quality video. And then a group of engineers left Apple Computers to found DVDO. The team at DVDO was an absolutely brilliant group and they made the first single-chip solution to perform deinterlacing—and it did it at a far higher level of performance than anyone else had even dreamed of. Although we were a small customer DVDO was very supportive, and we brought our progressive-scan player to market at the same time as Theta Digital (which also used the DVDO chip).
Digital Metamorphosis : A Discussion with Charles Hansen of Ayre
you were initially known for your work with speaker design and analog circuitry, Q : Charles, when did you first become interested in digital designs?
:
We knew when we started Ayre that we would need to build a disc player sooner or later. Back in the early ‘90s everyone was already talking about DVD being “just around the corner”. So we decided to begin the company with an amplifier and wait until a new digital format was available with high-resolution capabilities before making a player.
digital decadence …
In December of 1996, the DVD specification was announced and it included a provision for 96/24 audio. I called up Mike Hobson of Classic Records, Dave Chesky of Chesky Records, Kevin Halverson of Muse Electronics, and Jeff Kalt of Resolution Audio and we formed a small consortium. In January 1998 our group showed up at the CES with four different prototype disc players (Theta Digital developed one independently) and nearly 50 titles, all 96/24. It created quite a stir and put the major record labels to shame, not to mention the major hardware manufacturers. We were way ahead of the curve on that one. But a year later the “powers that be” announced both SACD and DVD-Audio and created a format war where audiophiles became the “collateral damage”. It was a lost opportunity, because both turned out to be flops in terms of what was expected of those formats. The CD patents were expiring, and along with them a $1 billion per year royalty stream. So the big companies were engaging in a turf war with the expectation that CD would be replaced by one of these new formats.
QB-9 DAC : digital-to-analog converter The Ayre QB-9 digital-to-analog converter, in combination with your personal computer, will transform your audio collection into a new musical experience. Simply store CDs or high-resolution downloads on your computer and enjoy the convenience of your entire digital music collection at your fingertips. Proprietary asynchronous technology ensures jitter-free data transfer of your music files. Advanced opto-isolators provide complete separation of your computer from your audio system, resulting in exceptional sound reproduction. You can even use your favorite music playback software to create personal playlists. The Ayre QB-9 brings you closer than ever to your favorite artists— changing the way you listen to music.
Boulder, Colorado • www.ayre.com • 303.442.7300
Of course that never happened. Now ten years later we have come full circle and are finally getting back to 96/24 high resolution audio, but this time it is in the form of downloads, played back on your computer. Check out HDTracks.com—they will have over 1,000 high-res titles by the end of the year! Like they say, “What goes around, comes around.”
introduced the world’s first progressive-scan DVD player back in 2000, how did Q : Ayre a small company like yours manage this?
:
Faroudja had pioneered what was then called “line doubling” using Laserdiscs as the source. With the advent of DVD, the large Japanese corporations were starting to take notice of the interest in ultra-high quality video. And then a group of engineers left Apple Computers to found DVDO. The team at DVDO was an absolutely brilliant group and they made the first single-chip solution to perform deinterlacing—and it did it at a far higher level of performance than anyone else had even dreamed of. Although we were a small customer DVDO was very supportive, and we brought our progressive-scan player to market at the same time as Theta Digital (which also used the DVDO chip).
Digital Metamorphosis : A Discussion with Charles Hansen of Ayre
Boulder, Colorado • 303.442.7300 • www.ayre.com
The mainstream manufacturers had their hands tied by the DVD Forum who insisted on copy protection. It took nearly a year for Macrovision to develop a new protection scheme for progressive scan, so for quite a while Ayre and Theta had the progressive-scan market to ourselves.
didn’t have to. That part of the job started off simply enough, but in the end we had spent many months achieving the level of performance we wanted.
Ayre didn’t have a strong marketing presence in the US back then, but our player took off like a rocket in Japan. It won multiple awards and was used by virtually every display manufacturer as their reference. It is still considered to be highest performance DVD player ever made. That was our first real “homerun” product and doubled our overall revenue in one short year.
And the third was to create a step-by-step series of instructions for setting up your computer to act as a music server and attain the sound quality that the new DAC was capable of. That part turned out to be a real headache, simply because there are so many permutations of hardware platforms, operating systems, and music player programs. We determined the best music players for each operating system and were able to come up with a complete set of instructions for each combination. But I am glad that job is over—at least until the next version of Windows is released!
In 2004 the release of the C-5xe universal disc player caused quite a stir, few people thought Q : that it would be successful, do you ever regret building this product?
success and longevity of the Blu-Ray format has been a big question since it won the format Q : The war against HD-DVD. How do you feel about Blu-Ray—will you ever release a new video player?
: Yes, the one thing I regret was not introducing two years earlier as we had originally planned. We had done
:
a lot of work on the player, when I was invited to Tokyo to meet with Pioneer’s engineers. They wanted to know more about this small company that was buying their DVD platform by the truckload. They told me that the “universal” platform we planned to use for the C-5xe was going to be replaced and that we should wait for the new platform.
When the video format war started, with HD-DVD on one side and Blu-Ray on the other, we said from the beginning that we would not make a new player until there was a clear winner and there was a platform available that could play all formats with a high level of performance. Some of the first Blu-Ray players wouldn’t even play CDs! We wanted a player that would not only play both Blu-Ray and DVD but also all of the audio formats that are so important to our customers, including SACD and DVD-Audio.
Well, the new platform wasn’t nearly as good as the original platform in terms of performance or features. So we were stuck in limbo for a while. After waiting another year or so, we finally found out that they were actually going to keep making the original platform for another few years. That was all that we needed to move forward. And despite all predictions to the contrary, even from our own dealers and our internal sales force, the product was an instant smash success..
We were very excited when Oppo announced just such a player. When we contacted them about the idea of working with them, they were extremely supportive. We have been absolutely thrilled with the level of performance they are able to provide in their base platform and we have been able to bring it to another level. The Oppo team has been fantastic, and they have made a lot of design decisions that makes our goal of providing the world’s highest level of video and audio performance a reality.
The C-5xe (now in its MP version) was what every customer wanted, but that nobody made—a great sounding, two-channel player that would play any audio disc, but didn’t require a TV set to navigate the menus of DVD-Audio and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. That was our second “homerun” product, and now Ayre was developing quite a reputation as a “digital” company.
For example, they chose the top video scaler chip from Anchor Bay Technology (ABT), which is what DVDO eventually morphed into. So once again we have cone full circle and are again working with the brilliant team that got us started with our progressive-scan DVD player ten years ago! “What goes around, comes around.” But the Ayre DX-5 really represents an entirely new product category. With Blu-Ray it is unbelievable, but it will also give fantastic video quality on standard DVD’s, thanks to the ABT video scaling chip. And for audio playback we can not only play every digital audio disc ever invented, but have also included a USB input for your computer using the jitter-free “asynchronous” USB transfer technology licensed from Wavelength.
this year you started shipping the QB-9, Ayre’s first digital-to-analog converter. Which Q : Earlier was more difficult, designing the product or showing people how to set up their computers?
: There were actually three big jobs and I would hate to have to rank them—they were all hard. The first was
to make a jitter-free interface for USB, called “asynchronous” data transfer. This was actually done by Gordon Rankin of Wavelength Audio. All we did was urge him to keep working on the problem, even when the obstacles seemed insurmountable. He came through like a champ! The second was to develop an analog circuit that used only bipolar transistors and yet sounded as good as our previous FET-based designs. Toshiba had just discontinued one of the FET’s that we use in our circuits, and although we purchased a half-million units (which we figure is at least a 75 year supply) I didn’t want to use them up if we
Now we have a machine that will give not only the best possible video playback, but also serve as a state-of-the- art audio player plus be used as a music server in conjunction with your personal computer. Once again, I think we have hit upon a product that everybody wants. Simply hang a plasma or LCD screen between your speakers and you can turn your stereo system into an incredible home theater. Then connect your computer to put all of your digital music at your fingertips. It is the only source component you need—unless you also enjoy vinyl. We couldn’t fit that into the box also! I am confident that this will be another “homerun” for Ayre.
MP digital filter
VR-2 video option
world’s first progressivescan DVD player retro-fittable to existing units
1993 Ayre Founded
1999
D-1
world’s first modular DVD player
2000
world’s first minimumphase digital filters retro-fittable to existing players
2002
CX-7
world’s first ROM-based CD player
2003
DX-7
world’s first DVD player to offer SDI and DVI video outputs
2004
Ayre C-5xe
world’s first two-channel universal audio player
2008
2009
QB-9
world’s first solid-state DAC with “asynchronous” USB data transfer
2009
DX-5
world’s first all-format Blu-Ray player with USB audio input
Digital Metamorphosis : A Discussion with Charles Hansen of Ayre
Boulder, Colorado • 303.442.7300 • www.ayre.com
The mainstream manufacturers had their hands tied by the DVD Forum who insisted on copy protection. It took nearly a year for Macrovision to develop a new protection scheme for progressive scan, so for quite a while Ayre and Theta had the progressive-scan market to ourselves.
didn’t have to. That part of the job started off simply enough, but in the end we had spent many months achieving the level of performance we wanted.
Ayre didn’t have a strong marketing presence in the US back then, but our player took off like a rocket in Japan. It won multiple awards and was used by virtually every display manufacturer as their reference. It is still considered to be highest performance DVD player ever made. That was our first real “homerun” product and doubled our overall revenue in one short year.
And the third was to create a step-by-step series of instructions for setting up your computer to act as a music server and attain the sound quality that the new DAC was capable of. That part turned out to be a real headache, simply because there are so many permutations of hardware platforms, operating systems, and music player programs. We determined the best music players for each operating system and were able to come up with a complete set of instructions for each combination. But I am glad that job is over—at least until the next version of Windows is released!
In 2004 the release of the C-5xe universal disc player caused quite a stir, few people thought Q : that it would be successful, do you ever regret building this product?
success and longevity of the Blu-Ray format has been a big question since it won the format Q : The war against HD-DVD. How do you feel about Blu-Ray—will you ever release a new video player?
: Yes, the one thing I regret was not introducing two years earlier as we had originally planned. We had done
:
a lot of work on the player, when I was invited to Tokyo to meet with Pioneer’s engineers. They wanted to know more about this small company that was buying their DVD platform by the truckload. They told me that the “universal” platform we planned to use for the C-5xe was going to be replaced and that we should wait for the new platform.
When the video format war started, with HD-DVD on one side and Blu-Ray on the other, we said from the beginning that we would not make a new player until there was a clear winner and there was a platform available that could play all formats with a high level of performance. Some of the first Blu-Ray players wouldn’t even play CDs! We wanted a player that would not only play both Blu-Ray and DVD but also all of the audio formats that are so important to our customers, including SACD and DVD-Audio.
Well, the new platform wasn’t nearly as good as the original platform in terms of performance or features. So we were stuck in limbo for a while. After waiting another year or so, we finally found out that they were actually going to keep making the original platform for another few years. That was all that we needed to move forward. And despite all predictions to the contrary, even from our own dealers and our internal sales force, the product was an instant smash success..
We were very excited when Oppo announced just such a player. When we contacted them about the idea of working with them, they were extremely supportive. We have been absolutely thrilled with the level of performance they are able to provide in their base platform and we have been able to bring it to another level. The Oppo team has been fantastic, and they have made a lot of design decisions that makes our goal of providing the world’s highest level of video and audio performance a reality.
The C-5xe (now in its MP version) was what every customer wanted, but that nobody made—a great sounding, two-channel player that would play any audio disc, but didn’t require a TV set to navigate the menus of DVD-Audio and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. That was our second “homerun” product, and now Ayre was developing quite a reputation as a “digital” company.
For example, they chose the top video scaler chip from Anchor Bay Technology (ABT), which is what DVDO eventually morphed into. So once again we have cone full circle and are again working with the brilliant team that got us started with our progressive-scan DVD player ten years ago! “What goes around, comes around.” But the Ayre DX-5 really represents an entirely new product category. With Blu-Ray it is unbelievable, but it will also give fantastic video quality on standard DVD’s, thanks to the ABT video scaling chip. And for audio playback we can not only play every digital audio disc ever invented, but have also included a USB input for your computer using the jitter-free “asynchronous” USB transfer technology licensed from Wavelength.
this year you started shipping the QB-9, Ayre’s first digital-to-analog converter. Which Q : Earlier was more difficult, designing the product or showing people how to set up their computers?
: There were actually three big jobs and I would hate to have to rank them—they were all hard. The first was
to make a jitter-free interface for USB, called “asynchronous” data transfer. This was actually done by Gordon Rankin of Wavelength Audio. All we did was urge him to keep working on the problem, even when the obstacles seemed insurmountable. He came through like a champ! The second was to develop an analog circuit that used only bipolar transistors and yet sounded as good as our previous FET-based designs. Toshiba had just discontinued one of the FET’s that we use in our circuits, and although we purchased a half-million units (which we figure is at least a 75 year supply) I didn’t want to use them up if we
Now we have a machine that will give not only the best possible video playback, but also serve as a state-of-the- art audio player plus be used as a music server in conjunction with your personal computer. Once again, I think we have hit upon a product that everybody wants. Simply hang a plasma or LCD screen between your speakers and you can turn your stereo system into an incredible home theater. Then connect your computer to put all of your digital music at your fingertips. It is the only source component you need—unless you also enjoy vinyl. We couldn’t fit that into the box also! I am confident that this will be another “homerun” for Ayre.
MP digital filter
VR-2 video option
world’s first progressivescan DVD player retro-fittable to existing units
1993 Ayre Founded
1999
D-1
world’s first modular DVD player
2000
world’s first minimumphase digital filters retro-fittable to existing players
2002
CX-7
world’s first ROM-based CD player
2003
DX-7
world’s first DVD player to offer SDI and DVI video outputs
2004
Ayre C-5xe
world’s first two-channel universal audio player
2008
2009
QB-9
world’s first solid-state DAC with “asynchronous” USB data transfer
2009
DX-5
world’s first all-format Blu-Ray player with USB audio input
