Scratchy LP’s sound like new with a ‘sound enhancer’ Invention heralds a new audio era
Joan Van Den Dungen.
Scratchy LP’s sound like new with a ‘sound enhancer’ Invention heralds a new audio era
“We call it a toolbox for editing sound and music to your own taste” says ir. Th.Tromp, an engineer, describing the ‘sound-enhancer,’ Philips’ latest brainchild.
Record enthusiasts can dig out their black discs from the attic again. Philips, the inventor of the compact disc, is launching the sound enhancer, a small device that even filters out scratches and rattles on a record without affecting the sound quality. Does this mean that CDs are now a thing of the past? “No, that would be too much,” says Th. Tromp, laughing. As head of the professional audio products department, he is the inventor of the sound enhancer, which means something like a sound enhancer. And he’s quite proud of it. He shows the brand-new brochure that illustrates how a crumpled sheet of music disappears into the device and comes out neatly ironed. “That’s exactly what we mean,” says the engineer. The device is an addition for music lovers and also works with electronic and digital tape recorders. “We call it a toolbox for customizing sound and music to your own taste,” he explains. As an example, he places Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dances” on the turntable. A Philips technician deliberately scratched the record with a screwdriver to ensure a scratch. With the press of a button, he can hear the difference between a scratched “dance” and one that sounds surprisingly clear. The annoying clicking sound has disappeared, as if by magic.
Stereo
But the device can do even more. Pressing a different button transforms the sound of an old mono recording into acceptable stereo. The flashing lights indicate exactly how far you can go without distorting the sound. Fading, the gradual fading of music, also happens automatically at various speeds. And music intended for car use sounds much better when recorded through the sound enhancer. For the technicians among us: the device combines a digital signal processor, a sample rate converter, and analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters.
Extra features
Yet, the product isn’t entirely new. Tromp: “Philips already knew about several features. Together, we explored what we could do with the existing technology to support digital technology. We’ve combined this into a single device and added some extra features to please audiophiles. I expect that within three years, all these features will be built into every audio device as standard,” he says. Tromp considers the sound enhancer, which has also been released in a professional version for studios, somewhat of an outlier in the Philips collection. So, it’s not available at every Philips dealer. “To be honest, we’re not focused on it here at Philips Consumer Products because the production run is smaller than that of other Philips products.”
