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From: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Beta Hi-Fi
Message-ID: <5426@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Feb-84 08:44:53 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.5426
Posted: Sat Feb  4 08:44:53 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 07:23:52 EST
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Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA
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From: akov68::boyajian


	To Dave Barrett:

	Buying a Beta Hi-Fi and color monitor might be a good idea. I currently
have a(n inherited) Beta Hi-Fi, and I've been giving thought to getting a good
color monitor. Right now, the only advice I can give as regards a monitor is that,
through the kind graces of a friend, we had a Zenith monitor at home for a weekend,
and it displayed a better picture than I have seen on any standard tv screen (one
advantage it had was that it was a 13", rather than a 19"). I'd like to take a
look at some Sony monitors before I bite for one, though. I have little idea what
the cost of a color monitor is, though I suspect that it would be in the neighbor-
hood of $500.

	I can tell you some things about the Beta Hi-Fi. Here are some of the
audio specs from the operations manual:

	Frequency response:	20-20,000 Hz (on either BII or BIII speed!)
	Wow and flutter:	<0.005% WRMS
	Dynamic range:		>80 dB (I seem to recall from an article in a magazine
				        that it was about 85 dB)
	Signal/noise ratio:	(Isn't given, but I think that it was given in the
				 same article. I don't recall what it was, but it was
				 an impressive figure)

	From a subjective viewpoint, it puts out incredible audio! When normally viewing
cable programming, I feed the audio through amp & speakers, a quantum jump from the tv
speaker. I recently bought a hi-fi tape of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to play on the machine,
and the sound is yet another quantum jump. I was truly astounded at the difference it
makes. The video signal also is better than any other I've seen, even the previous two
Betamax (7200 & 5800) models I've had.

	When you consider the audio specs it has -- as good as most cassette decks on the
market -- you realize that for the cost of, oh about $8 a cassette (if you buy in quantity),
you can record 4-1/2 hours of just audio on the Beta (and I'm talking about good Beta
tape brands, too; I've found Sony and Maxell to be the best), and get terrific sound. The
drawbacks to this are that one 4-1/2 hour Beta tape (L-750) is larger than 3 C-90 cassettes,
and, of course, they can't be played in the car stereo.

	The cost of a Beta Hi-Fi is roughly $12-1300 (this is for the SL-2700 model -- the
SL-5200 model, which has less features (mostly, if not completely, video features) is prob-
ably about $200 cheaper). As far as finding one goes, they aren't just hard to find in
Northern Colorado; they're about as common as hen's teeth anywhere in the country. When my
father was shopping around for this one, he found out that Sony wasn't manufacturing a
very high volume of them and that what ones were built were going only to "authorized"
Sony dealers, so that the random video store, even if they carried other Sony products,
wouldn't necessarily be carrying these.

	I can't help but recommend the Beta Hi-Fi; it's worth the price (that's easy for
me to say, since I didn't have to pay for mine, but I had been planning to get one of my
own anyway). And as someone else in this newsgroup said, with Sony, you be sure of getting
a good solid product. On the other hand, I can also see waiting a bit and seeing what
happens with the VHS Hi-Fi. I haven't read anything on them, though a friend passed on
the information that Jensen was working with, I think Magnavox, on a VHS Hi-Fi. That
could be worth investigating. Personally, I think that Sony's Hi-Fi recording method
seems better than the VHS method, but who knows. I'll be interested to see what VIDEO
REVIEW has to say about them.

	Well, good luck.		---jayembee
					   (Jerry Boyajian @ DEC Maynard)
					   (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian)