Chapter 262 CD Prototype
When we returned to Chiyoda Ward from Chuo Ward, it was already getting dark.
As expected, the lights upstairs were on, so I changed my shoes and took off my coat.
The nanny, also named Kimiyo, took his briefcase and then told him that dinner was ready.
Baichuan Feng nodded to indicate that he already knew, but he had no interest in eating for the time being.
The appearance of the nanny reminded him of the girl he met in the teahouse today and what happened in the villa.
He went upstairs and opened the bedroom door. Tanaka Yuko was kneeling on the wooden floor, arranging his clothes.
"Hey, Shirakawa-kun." She put down the clothes in her hands and stood up to greet him.
In fact, these tasks can obviously be handed over to the nanny, but she never lets anyone else do it.
"Yuko, please give me a massage." Shirakawa Feng untied the watch on his hand and threw it on the bed.
Tanaka Yuko was stunned for a moment, then nodded happily. "Shirakawa-kun, please lie down."
She tidied up the large and somewhat exaggerated double bed, then knelt down on it again, and patted her legs to indicate that everything was in place.
Baichuan Feng smiled, then lay on his back and put his head between her soft legs.
As soon as his eyes closed, gentle hands began to slowly massage both sides of his temples.
A soothing warmth slowly spread out, and Baichuan Feng subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yuko's legs are as comfortable as ever."
"Eh." Yuko Tanaka didn't know whether he was really praising her legs for being comfortable or if he was praising her for being comfortable on another level, so her face couldn't help but blush.
“I never get tired of playing it.”
"Hey, stop it, this is really rude."
Hearing her scolding voice, Baichuan Feng couldn't help but laugh.
"It's the truth," said this, and Baichuan Feng's hands began to get naughty, carefully feeling her softness while rustling.
After moving slightly twice but failing to escape his clutches, Tanaka Yuko just let him go.
She always felt that Baichuan Feng was a little abnormal today. Was he too busy at work or was he under too much pressure recently?
But no matter which one it is, what Yuko Tanaka can do is to provide him with a warm harbor.
As a Japanese woman, she also has some traditional ideas in her heart. At this moment, serving Shirakawa Kaede is what she wants to do most.
Baichuan Feng was indeed greatly shocked in his cognition today. The exposure of the academic and financial cliques finally made him realize the tip of the iceberg of this society.
However, this revealed corner also gave him tremendous pressure.
Where will Shirakawa Electric go in the future, how should I deal with them, and how will everything in Shirakawa continue to exist in the long run?
All these things are really annoying.
Baichuan Feng turned over and buried his head in her softness.
"Yuko, let me take a closer look at your legs. They seem to be getting stronger lately. Have you been secretly working out?"
The shameless Shirakawa Kaede decided to put aside the annoying questions and enjoy the beauty in front of him.
"Shirakawa-kun~" Tanaka Yuko's voice was filled with a hint of helplessness.
This guy has become more and more domineering recently, making it increasingly difficult for her to resist in bed.
Hmm~, but it seems that the effect of maintaining a good figure is very immediate. I will have to keep working hard in the future.
…
Ota-ku, Shirakawa Electric Engineering Center.
Shirakawa Kaede was leading Nakajima Heitaro and others, surrounding a strange-looking machine.
"Is it working stably? How is the effect of use?" He frowned and looked at the black box in front of him.
Yes, this is a real cubic black box, stupid and crude.
It is also Shirakawa Electric's first CD player prototype, and its true appearance was finally revealed today.
“It’s working fine now. Although there are some issues with disc skipping, it’s barely acceptable.
The 16-bit sampling rate brings you unparalleled auditory enjoyment.
The bit rate of 1411Kb restores the most essential effects of sound to the maximum extent.
And the laser head reads the disk information without contact, which is really incredible."
Yasuda became more and more excited as he spoke. The performance of the CD prototype was beyond his imagination.
He was amazed at the absolute silence of the CD player, because there was no friction between the laser and the disc, so the signal-to-noise ratio was increased.
This means that when the disc is working, there is no rustling sound like that made by tape and record players, and the sound is clear and transparent.
This was definitely a first for Yasuda and others who were using a CD player for the first time.
However, Baichuan Feng occasionally frowned as he listened to the music coming from the CD player.
The bit rate of 1411Kb really improves the listening experience by more than one level. The bit rate of later MP3 is only 320Kb.
So you can imagine that CDs are absolutely far superior to MP3s in terms of sound quality.
Later, in the HIFI enthusiast circle, the 1411Kb bit rate became the real dividing line between lossy and lossless.
As for the claim of some platforms that as long as the bit rate exceeds 320Kb of MP3, the sound quality is lossless, it is completely a manifestation of bad money driving out good money.
After the laser head of today's CD player reads the information, it is directly transmitted to the DAC decoding chip.
Because there are no middlemen to make a profit from the price difference, the sound quality is restored completely.
It was the first time for Yasuda and the others to see this kind of CD player, but it was not the first time for Shirakawa Kaede.
Just a short while later, he felt the CD player in front of him had a slight skipping phenomenon.
You may not feel it if you are not careful, but as a trendy product of the next generation, it must be the first to fire the shot.
In terms of sound and experience, there must be no flaws audible to human ears.
“The vibrations caused by the rotation of the optical disc may occasionally affect the optical head’s reading of information, so we should try to improve it.
In addition," Baichuan Feng patted the prototype in front of him, and suddenly there was a "click" and the prototype under his command went on strike.
This made Baichuan Feng's words stuck in his throat. After two seconds, the CD player slowly resumed working.
Yasuda looked at this scene with embarrassment, and the other researchers in the studio also blushed.
Baichuan Feng shook his head and said, "There is still a lot of room for improvement, keep working hard.
Nakajima-san, can you tell us about the progress at Sony and how they are solving this problem?
If we talk about the real expert on CD, it is of course Heitaro Nakajima in front of us.
He is one of the real participants and developers of CD technology. The entire Shirakawa Electric team may not be as strong as him alone.
When Nakajima Heitaro heard Shirakawa Kaede's call, he stepped forward without hesitation.
Now that he is away from Sony and no longer restricted by his identity, he dares to speak freely.
Thinking back to a few months when I was drinking with Shirakawa Kaede, the latter jokingly asked him to give some advice on the development of Shirakawa Electric's CD player.
At that time, he was still struggling with his identity issue, but he didn't expect that he had joined the other camp in the blink of an eye.
What was promised as a joke turned out to be a prophecy.
Fate is wonderful beyond words.
Retracting his thoughts, Nakajima Heitaro touched the prototype in front of him and instantly found the problem.
"It's too light." He knocked on the prototype's casing, making a crisp sound.
"Hmm?" Yasuda seemed to understand what the other party meant.
"The fastest and most effective way to solve the earthquake resistance problem is to increase the weight of the fuselage."
Nakajima Heitaro opened the door of the CD player and knocked on the casing again.
Everyone could see with their own eyes that the disc inside the CD player was shaking slightly, and this time everyone understood the reason.
Because the plastic case is light, occasional collisions will cause the disc to vibrate.
When the CD player is working, the internal disc rotates at high speed. Any vibration will be amplified by the laser head and cause information reading failure.
"Sony's solution, in addition to optimizing the mechanical design, is to switch to an all-metal body.
As the weight increases, the vibration of the CD player will be greatly weakened due to the existence of inertia, thus reducing the occurrence of disc skipping. "
There were also some non-competition restrictions between Nakajima Heitaro and Sony, but they had been settled by Shirakawa Kaede.
He only participated in the development of CD technology, and he was not responsible for the development of CD players. At that time, he had already become the president of Aiwa.
Because of this, and with Shirakawa Kaede stepping forward, Sony did not insist on this point.
Besides, the CD camp needs more players to join, because vinyl and tapes are the biggest enemies of CDs.
Although Heitaro Nakajima did not participate in the development of Sony's CD player, this information could not be hidden from him.
Besides, CD technology is closely related to CD players, and no one knows its working principles better than him.
"But there is also an obvious disadvantage to doing this, which is that the cost will rise sharply."
"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, Shirakawa Feng immediately grasped the key point, "According to Mr. Nakajima's estimate, how much will Sony's cost be?"
"The all-metal body weighs dozens of kilograms, plus various materials and components. Conservative estimates put the cost at more than 100,000 yen, or even more."
"100,000 yen?" Shirakawa Kaede was surprised by Nakajima Heitaro's answer. "If you want to make a profit, the selling price must be at least 150,000 yen."
"That's right," Nakajima Heitaro nodded, "I heard some rumors that Sony's first CD player will probably cost close to 170,000 yen."
"It's too expensive!" Bai Chuanfeng shook his head. "As a consumer electronics product, this price is too high."
Price is the most direct factor affecting whether consumer electronics products can be widely accepted by the public.
The reason why Shirakawa Electric's Walkman has become one of the mainstream products is that it is cheap enough and most people can afford it.
But the price of 150,000 yen basically discourages a large number of people.
Perhaps only those audiophiles who pursue sound quality are willing to spend money on it.
But if the CD player is simply positioned as a niche high-end product, it would not be in line with Shirakawa Kaede's original intention, nor would it be in line with Shirakawa Electric's strategy.
Baichuan Feng looked at the desktop CD player in front of him, suddenly raised his eyebrows, and had an idea in his mind.
“We don’t make desktop CD players anymore!”
"Huh?!" Both Nakajima Heitaro and Yasuda were shocked.
No longer making CD players? What does that mean? You can't just give up all your current jobs halfway, right?
"Put aside the desktop CD player for now, let's make a portable CD player first!"
Baichuan Feng suddenly remembered that in the future people could carry CD players with them like a Walkman.
Lightweight, flexible, cheap and compact, this is what consumer electronics should be like.
Only by meeting these two characteristics can the product be accepted by the majority of consumers.
"Portable CD player?!" Nakajima Heitaro and Yasuda looked at each other in confusion.
They had never thought of a portable CD player and the concept was completely out of their minds.
"That's right." Baichuan Feng nodded, confirming their guess again.
He was even ready to tell them what a portable CD player would look like.
