C-Wave. Non-switching Continuum Processing. Ironless motors. From Daniel Hertz to Aavik and Børresen, the need to be different can mint buzzwords which hifi detectives can't help but try to translate. In Mark Levinson the man's case, his enthusiastic early embrace of SACD/DSD coupled to knowing that C-Wave abbreviates Continuous Wave has your hifi sleuth wonder whether his C-Wave processor in the Daniel Hertz electronics isn't simply on-the-fly resampling to DSD. If so, APL Hifi, Cen.Grand, iFi, Koch, Meitner, Nagra and PS Audio have done it for years already. With Aavik's just announced non-switching continuum processing for their new streaming DAC with switching power supply, we have a published 22MHz upsampling frequency. That again suggests DSD resampling, specifically to DSD512. If so, why not just say so? Ironless is Børresen speak for N52 neodymium motors which consist of mostly iron plus rare-earth materials. Many drivers use neodymium motors yet none of their users call out "iron distortion" then "ironless" drivers. Adding to such inaccuracies is Børresen's and Raidho's insistence to call what clearly is a planarmagnetic tweeter a ribbon without explaining how theirs can eschew a transformer whilst using aluminium voice-coil traces bonded to non-conductive foils. T+A too have such drivers but don't see the need to call them ribbons. It's likely why ribbon manufacturer Raal refer to theirs as true ribbons. It distinguishes their classic aluminium-foil ribbons from faux ribbons.
Of course far more brands in the hifi trade are also in the buzzword biz. It's nothing new. When something is truly novel like Manger's bending-wave driver, Linæum's tweeter or Oskar Heil's original AMT, it's easy to appreciate why the inventor might coin a new word or trademark. But if it's old wine in new bottles, the same tactic can potentially misfire by appearing to intentionally mislead or oversell. Now we have companies refer to their AMT as folded ribbons. Once again it's a misnomer which unchecked even seeps into news releases and reviews. Unless we simply love gobbling down gobbledygook, we could prefer a spade as spade? Then we'd all be on the same page. For now, can you explain Schiit's Nexus and Continuity circuits, QRT's quantum resonance tunneling, Synergistic's atmosphere acoustic field generator, Shunyata's QR/BB™ technology or CCI™ noise reduction, iFi's ANC II® and other such doozies?
I didn't think so. For such stuff, most our back-to-normal translators are plain broken. That seems to be the whole point. I'm so confused. Is it gobbledygook or gibberish, poppycock or balderdash, blather or tripe? How about bullshit? Choices. They're good to have if we know what they mean…
