When going thru the ''manuals-pages'' i found out that Dolby has made a Cat. No. 222 SR/A card, which is a economically way to get SR playback ( you do not need to buy 2 Cat. 350 cards right? ) so the big question is how good does SR sound with the 222 card compaired with the 350 SR cards?

The Cat. 350 has a performance advantage in terms of headroom, but as i understand this extra headroom may only be necessary in the case of playback of an SR magnetic print master from a dubber?

If both card types are plugged in, logic circuits on the backplane will automatically choose the Cat. 350 over Cat. 222.

Again is it worth spending the extra money that the Cat. 350 cards cost?

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The Cat. 350s are much better than the Cat. 222SR/A (sounding and otherwise) even for optical sound....now the other easy point is cost...

List prices:

Cat. 222SR/A $1995.00
Cat. 350 $900.00

In short, two Cat. 350s are cheaper than one Cat. 222SR/A.

Obviously, you wouldn't be paying list price but for price comparison is makes the point...

It is Cheaper AND better to use the Cat. 350s! for upgrades to the CP-65. The only time there is a cost savings on the Cat. 222SR/A for the CP-65 is on a new purchase.

Steve

I can honestly, with all my heart, say that I cannot "hear" any difference between the 280T and the 222-SRA. I have been told by everyone (including Dolby), that the 280T is better, but I seriously doubt that you will ever have a customer accuse you of using the 222 if your a-chain is properly alligned.

Pick your battles. Good speakers, sufficient power, and Dolby signal processing will take care of you.

Someone mentioned "icing on the cake" earlier here. They were right. Make sure that what you have is sufficient (and in good working order).

Of course, I am not exposed to magnetic prints. The only time I use SR is in the event that the digital system fails. I was however, a big SR fan before digital took hold. Remember "Rain Man"? We did a premiere for it. We installed SR for the occasion.

Damn!! I'm OLD!!!!!!!

I just got the idear that the 222 SR-A was much cheaper compaired with the 350's as it is only one card, and has a limited amount of headroom, but again for optical SR soundtracks no differents when listning.

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Actually...it WAS a customer complaint that caused me to get to the bottom of it! I brought over a pair of Cat. 350s and we played the same film off of each and the difference was amazing! The Cat. 222SR/A was quite shrill and had other mistracking artifacts whereas the Cat. 350 was smooth.

Another point I noticed was that the Cat. 222SR/A is more susecptible to light scratches in the soundtrack area (from say the inner flange on some pad rollers). The 222SR/A turned these into bacon frying where as the Cat. 350 tried to kill it. The noise actually increased with the 222SR/A in the SR mode vs the "A" mode.

For your reference...the A-chain was checked and was as good as could be...The particulars of the sound head were:

Component Engineering STR-20C (IR LED reverse-scan) mounted to a Century MTR-4 with the CE dashpot and improved film guidance.

The bottom line with an upgrade is that, on average, it is $150.00 CHEAPER to use the Cat. 350s and they sound as good or BETTER than the alternative.

Steve

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The Cat. 280 (or 280T for theatre use) are most certainly still made and priced identical to the Cat. 350. The 300 series work with different buss levels and have a different edge connector from the Cat. 280 or Cat. 22 series. The Cat. 280 is a plug in replacement to the Cat. 22 where as the Cat 350 is a plug in replacement to the Cat. 450 (A-type). The Cat. 300 has both SR and A noise reductions.

It is a matter of getting the proper card for one's particular application. In your case it is the Cat. 350.

Time to call my dealer!

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