OK, I will assume this was a huge flop, the audio equivalent of the Edsel? Did any of you actually own a decoder? I never even saw one. I have two original LP copies of "Pet Rock" by The Sinceros, a great pop album from 1981. The US copy is CX and sounds flat with zero dynamics and a bit shrill. It sounds like a Dolby encoded tape with the Dolby switched off. The Canadian copy sounds like a Dolby B tape with Dolby mistracking and "pumping". I can only assume they mastered the Canadian version from a decoded CX version. Ugh. So I have two copies of a great record that both sound awful on a very decent analog front end. Does anyone know if there were any non-CX versions pressed?
I have one LP, "Current" by Heatwave on Epic Records (CBS). The thing sounds like it's encoded with DBX undecoded. Luckily, I found a German pressing that does not have CX. I also recently discovered a Japanese CD version of this album. I believe this album could have been much bigger in the US than it was if it hadn't been for the CX encoding.
I have a number of CX encoded LP's and I built my own CX deoder. I even have the CX calibration disk! Played back through the CX decoder they sound superb, dynamic and quiet. Without the decoder they are a bit compressed. When I could not find many disks I called Columbia Records and spoke to the VP in charge. He told me Columbia was pulling the plug and that he was looking for a job. He sent me a box full of pop and classical CX encoded albums. The CD and producers reportedly not liking the compressed sound killed of non-decoded disks off the CX disk. I6 was modified and used for the first stereo version of the Laser Disk.
Thank you. The CX thing obviously never happened in Canada. As I mentioned, the only CX LP I saw was the US copy and I've pretty much seen every LP released in this country. I guess that was the reason I never saw a decoder here. I found a four page article in The Absolute Sound from early 80's that lambasts (to put it very mildly) the whole concept and sound of CX (including very negative comments from mastering engineers Lee Hulko, Robert Ludwig and Doug Sax, using words like "disaster" "travesty" and "pure unadulterated junk"). Seemed that if your cartridge output was not ruler flat, forget it, the sound was a washout, just like miscalibrated Dolby on a cassette deck. There were just too many variables for it to work well on a consistent basis. The ironic thing is that the article really brings out how passionate and dedicated commercial record producers and recording/mastering engineers were towards their craft and good sound back then. If something (like CX) came along and was going to compromise the sound, they rejected it en masse. Nowadays, they make or are handed a totally squashed compressed piece of junk and we all have to live with it.
Yet there were NO protests at all when CX (in a slightly milder form) was adopted for all Laser Disks prior to the introduction of Dolby Digital. Go figure. Again, my handbuilt CX decoder, properly calibrated, and played with a Shure V15 cartridge, sounds very very very good. Willie Nelson's Stardust Memories is in my collection, if I cop the SACD I'll hook up the decoder and report which sounds better.
