CX Records - Better, Worse & the Same
Here's a forgotten format that was supposed to become ubiquitous, the CX Record. This is the strange tale of a format that was killed by the people who were supposed to get behind it. I hope you enjoy it.
I intend to shoot a 'comedy' outro for this video tomorrow and if that goes well, I'll add it onto the finished version that gets released later in the week. So if you have a fondness for unfunny puppets, you may want to watch this again (or at least the end section) when it goes public.
As usual if you spot anything that's amiss in the video, please let me know and I'll try to fix it.
...and of course thank you for your continued support.
UPDATE: Thank you for all the input and advice. Because of the feedback received I’ve made a number of changes to the video, and these have improved it quite a bit from the earlier version. The video embedded above is now the updated version, which is just over four minutes longer than the original.
CX Records : Better, The Same & Worse - A Forgotten Format (YouTube)
Comments (51)
A Subaru Legacy Joke? Tweaking actors roles for foreign audiences? I've found just the video that combines the two! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOS1v9al0KU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOS1v9al0KU</a>
You've done well. I never get what's up with Bruce, he always seems to be cheesed off with doing whatever he's doing....although on this occasion I'd understand.
It's another soundsystem banger! I also laughed rather too much at the 'Legacy' joke, a punchline which even Brian Connolly would probably have sacked his writers over ;) And I haven't heard 'spelunking' on a UK programme since Louis Theroux's short tribute to Alan Whicker. Just one complaint, I would have loved to have seen the difference in the PCBs between the non-CX and CX 200 series (DD) Telefunkens! (It looks as if you ended up with both in the end?)
This video was top notch. Thank you for making this video.
Another fascinating, but failed technology. When are you opening that museum? And well done for the use of the word "spelunking" -a word that just doesn't get enough use these days!
interesting... "CX decoders made for LP's could not be used with LD's because the CX companding specifications for LaserDisc were changed, from 20 dB of noise reduction to 14 dB, along with moving the 'threshold' where compression/expansion changes from 2:1 to 1:1 from -40 dB to -28 dB - other minor changes to the decoding time constants were made as well." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CX_(audio)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CX_(audio)</a>
<a href="https://www.google.com/patents/US4376916" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/patents/US4376916</a>
Thanks for that link...I’ll add it into the video description for people looking for more technical info.
The new (final I hope) version have been uploaded and substituted for the original. There are a few changes that I think make it quite a bit better.
Very informative video -- thank you! I too had seen that CX logo on laserdisks but never researched what it meant. Sounds ike CX vinyl played withOUT a CX decoder mimics AM radio compression. No wonder pop music buyers did not notice a difference....
Thanks for keeping up with all that product hunting and bullcrap to entertain us. I think you hear that far too rarely. Keep it up! :)
Thanks for that...also since you posted this comment a few things on the video have been changed.
Epic work and fascinating story. Having got the first turntable I think I would have tried putting the cartridge on another turntable and patching the output though the original amp and processor. Your solution turned out to be more entertaining though!
Not exactly related to vinyl, but I experienced a "quality upgrade" with my CD collection in 1997 when I bought my first decent stereo speakers with a NAD amp. I sat in the shop listening to my favourite discs and being amazed at hearing instruments that I didn't know were there. I still have those speakers, they are getting new cones this week. Not bad mileage for 20 year old speakers. And then I'll have to listen to Cowboy Junkies again. It's been an ever-evolving journey with music equipment over the years, and I'm glad I was part of it.
You could make a video about a toaster and I'd watch it (oops, you did that already) :-). Seriously, I enjoy each and every video, especially the retro-tech ones. I have something coming up soon you may like. I'll let you know when it goes live, but it's right up your alley... (teaser, by the company formerly known as Cambridge Soundworks)
I’m intrigued.
Have you ever done a "turntables for dabblers" video? I have a small cache of obscure LPs that have never made it to CD. I'd like to capture them to my digital library and I'm also just kind of keen to try one out.
Wow, awesome to see the great Mr. Ihnatko here! Great idea also!
And I was always a little curious about the CX encoding on my CEDs and LaserDiscs but never knew it extended to any other formats, so thanks for that entertaining story and exposition. I imagine that RCA wanted it on their CEDs since they had so much background noise to begin with. Too bad there wasn't noise reduction for their video signal as well. :-)
Now that I think about it, I suppose the comb filter counts as video noise reduction.
I'm curious now how Dolby B ever made it as standard issue on prerecorded cassettes, since it operates similarly to the way CX seems to and also more than subtly distorts the audio on playback equipment that doesn't have a Dolby B decoder present and enabled, which included nearly all inexpensive equipment where the manufacturer couldn't justify the hefty licensing fee. Why didn't Dolby Laboratories fall victim to the same mutiny from recording engineers?
Probably because cassette tape was never considered the top-of-the-line sound format, so it was more acceptable to “play around” with the format to get more quality out of it. Technically, Dolby used frequency equalization (rather than CX, which seems more compression-based), so reducing treble slightly had a similar impact for non-Dolby-equipped decks.
if it's wrong perhaps you can just edit the "B" out of the audio
Fortunately it was noticed before the video goes live. You really don’t know how hard it is to construct sentences containing CBS, CX and DBX without falling over the words. Parts of this video were like a tongue twister. I’ve already made the fix...and it’s pretty much invisible (but then again that’s what CBS said about CX and look where that got them).
at same at 8:55. Isn't it just "CX" version?
at 8:30+ you say "the cbx one" -- ?
I just happen to own 4 copies of 52nd Street (I know that's odd) and not one of them are a CX LP. They certainly are rare. Very interesting... Another top notch presentation Sir! Cheers!
More. Puppets. I enjoy them, and if that makes me unfunny, so be it! #unfunnypuppettshirtsFTW :)
If you "Shazam" it, you get a really bad rap-over version called "It's all because of you" by "King God Bod". A very out of tune attempt at singing too! Once heard, cannot be unheard! I wonder if King God Bod is a Techmoan fan :)
Wow - that is truly dreadful....but it made me laugh, so thanks for that.
Very informative. I'll need to check all my dad's records now! One of-topic question, the music that plays over the Patreon supporters, is that composed just for that purpose or is it released?
Thats just a tune from the youtube audio library called Over Time - there's a link to it in the video description text box over on youtube.
Can’t you get the CX decoder out of that first record player, so you can use it with any turn table?
It all seems to be integrated. In one of the articles they mentioned getting it down to a $5 chip from Hitachi.
Superbly researched and produced as always, Mat. You must have a loft/garage/spare room just packed floor-to-ceiling with "stuff"! :-)
It's more than a bit out of control. I wish there was an easy way to anonymously pass some things on to people who would appreciate them...without dealing with the post.
the puppets deserve a channel of their own for those of us who can't enough - eventually they could make a film like Wallace and Gromit did
I'm new here. Have you made a video or written a piece about the gear you are using to shoot these excellent videos (camera, lights and mikes?) Liked the CX system video - I remember visiting the CBS pressing plant in Haarlem where the disks were being pressed for many parts of the European market. That pressing plant is still there. <a href="https://www.recordindustry.com/about-us/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.recordindustry.com/about-us/</a> I see the records you got were pressed in Haarlem.
Back in August there is a long behind the scenes video that might cover some of the information you need. <a href="https://youtu.be/WihHOwczW2A" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/WihHOwczW2A</a> I use a Sony RX10ii camera, edit in iMovie, the voiceover mic is a Samson CO3U, the lapel mic is from Boya, and the lights are just some generic jobbies.
Funny that it was the engineers of all people were so vehemently against the CX system back then, since boosting levels and compressing dynamic range is all but the norm for music engineers nowadays.
...and I'd imagine many of those disc cutting engineers found themselves out of work when CD took over.
at 2.44 in the video are you saying that cx came out before dbx or vice versa? Slightly confused.
Good spot - I should have said it came out a couple of years before the CX disc. I'll get it fixed. Thanks.
Please don't be concerned about me needing to buy three decks to make this video - these things happen, I was just glad to get it finished. I've had a string of failures recently - for instance the video that should be out this week, now won't be happening because the thing I was shooting broke irreparably at a vital moment.....just after I'd finished restoring it. I'm just happy this one worked out in the end....even if I do now have way too many unimpressive record players in the house.
I hope the thing that broke wasn’t the 3 row keyboard thing that the right-hand puppet uses? I’ve been waiting for that! 😬
Techmoan, what will you do with all three turntables now? :)
Probably dispose of number one because it's awful in every way, I may try to use number two for a future project (e.g. quad)...so I don't ruin my main deck, but I may also may never use any of them again. It's hard to say until the situation arises.
I gotta know - did you get any refund for the wrong turntable that you got?
It was too much hassle for me to send back deck two ...after P&P expenses, I’d probably only recoup £40 as it was a far cheaper machine than the one I ordered. I got a good discount off deck three. So now I have two decks, one of which is worth £40, the other about £100.
I subscribe BECAUSE OF the unfunny puppets.
Great vid. Too bad you had to go through so much trouble to source the decoders. Will be back for the puppets. :)