Abbey Road (Black Triangle) CD

[Tex]

Hi, could someone explain me the "pre-emphasis" or "de-emphasized" thing? I don't understand those terms. I would really love to listen to this unique version of Abbey Road, if someone could reupload this too I'd be really grateful!

Well, there's a ton of posts about it here and at Hoffman. People make it more technical and confusing than it really is.

A CD with pre-emphasis has roughly a 10 decibel or so treble boost added to the WAV files at the mastering stage. The actual boost is more like a specific curve but we don't need to get into the weeds with charts.

CD players would then shave off that boost by applying the inverse of that boost with an additional analog circuit in the playback that kicked in if it saw the emphasis flag in the file.

The point of this was to remove/reduce supposed digital noise hidden in the highest frequencies. It's the same principal as Dolby noise reduction.

This emphasis was only used on some of the earliest CDs and then ditched as better A/D and D/A stuff came along eliminating the need for it.

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The issue today is that when you rip some very early CDs that 10 decibel boost is still there because it's part of the WAV file. Ripping does NOT re-equalize the file to take it out.

The Toshiba CD was released in 1983 without authority of EMI. It represents Japan's master tape.

[harrylime]

Also note that pre-emphasis is very common in electronic signal recording, media and transmission where noise and other quality hampering effects play a significant role. Vinyl records have always used it to allow narrower grooves and thus narrower styluses (improving quality and reducing wear), this is also why you need a specific phono-preamp or a phono-in on your amp, which contains the required de-emphasis circuit. Also FM radio and all post-WW2 television systems like PAL and NTSC (which also rely on FM), home video recording systems etc etc have all used it from the beginning.

CD was invented just before the improved circuitry became common that removed its need in the digital landscape. I read the claim somewhere that it was Sony that argued it to be used in the CD standard to allow cheaper player designs to make higher profits in its Japanese (home) market, which would explain why mostly Japanese releases featured it and not many in the other markets where Philips and other brands offered more competition.

[anthos314]

Hi everyone! I've already encountered 80s CDs with pre-emphasis, as I have a few Black Sabbath CDs from that time. Fortunately I have a de-emphasis setting on my DAC. I thank you very much for all the information on pre-emphasis! Could anybody provide me with a link to an original, untouched rip of the black triangle CD I could download please?

I thank you all very much, all the info contained in this thread is fascinating.