In an editorial at BusinessWeek, Cliff Edwards looks at capacity claims, and the sound quality issues relating to that, between Apple’s iPod and Sony’s Walkman NW-HD1. At issue is the methodology used by Sony to claim that its 20 GB Walkman can hold more music than Apple’s 20 GB iPod, something only possible by using different bit rates to make one’s comparison. Mr. Edwards examines those issues. From the piece:
That’s the logic Apple used to attack Sony’s new player. The creator of the iPod notes that to jam those 13,000 songs onto its player, Sony would have to compress music files to a bit rate of 48 — well below the default 128-bit rate Apple uses. “Clearly, they are trying to use a little marketing trickery,” says Apple Executive Vice-President Philip W. Schiller. Moreover, Sony’s default bit rate for the new player will be 68. But Sony says its compression technology is superior to Apple’s and can maintain quality even at lower bit rates. “Listen to it yourself,” says Todd Schrader, a Sony Electronics vice-president. “I don’t have a golden ear, but it sounds great.”
For now it’s impossible to verify Sony’s claims, since experts have yet to conduct tests on its music player. In a decidedly unscientific test, one BusinessWeek writer and two friends listened to Frederic Chopin’s Etudes Opus 10 and Opus 25, compressed from a store-bought compact disc to a 48-bit rate using Sony’s technology. Then they compared it with the original CD. Guess what? They couldn’t tell the difference.
There is more information on these issues in the full story, which we recommend as an interesting read.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Mr. Edwards referenced test is anecdotal, at best, but he raises a lot of very interesting issues in his piece. Most non-geeky consumers are likely to fall victim to any company’s marketing claims on capacity, and this is exacerbated by the fact that most of those same folks couldn’t tell the difference between different bit rates if their lives depended on it.
If that’s the case, what matters purist arguments about methodology? After all, the geeks and audiophiles already know the what’s what on these issues. Should the FTC regulate the issue, requiring capacity comparisons to be at some sort of standardized bit rate? That would be a disaster, too, as different compression technologies do provide drastically different results, and the technology is subject to dramatic changes.
The solution is likely to remain buyer beware.
In the meanwhile, discussion of this issue in mainstream outlets like BusinessWeek, and before that, the San Francisco Chronicle, helps raise its profile, and provides more publicity for both the iPod and the Walkman.