The Japanese company Memory-Tech has announced a new CD that should improve sound quality. The UHQCD (Ultimate High Quality CD) follows the CD standard and is therefore playable on existing CD players but should nevertheless improve the sound quality.
Memory-Tech claims the sound quality is improved by a new production process. Where regular CDs are made from polycarbonate, the UHQCDs are made from photopolymers. According to company this material allows for more precise pits in the CD.
CDs encode digital music in pits (1) and lands (0). The pits are created using a stamper in a factory which normally stamps tiny pits in polycarbonate. In the new process the polycarbonate is replaced by photopolymers. According to Memory-Tech the polycarbonate takes more time to harden than the photopolymers. The latter harden pretty much immediately when exposed to a specific light source. Memory-Tech claims that because the photopolymer discs harden faster they are closer to the master and therefore sound better.
It's not sure if UHQCDs will make it to the rest of the world, in Japan the famous Pony Canyon label has announced it will release the firstUHQCDs.
