(concerning non-stereo sound of IIvx sound-chip but stereo sound on CD)
Perhaps Apple wanted to make sure that they would not be named in any
copyright suits, (E.g. someone lifting digital music right off of some
artist's CD, and then doing whatever to it with no theoretical loss in
sound quality), sort of like the hassles with DAT decks. Making the
stereo from the CDROM drive "pass through" to the sound output, but not
give you the ability to digitize it (or output it? through the Mac
internals) would ensure enough crippling of the sound to fail the
transparency test while still providing high-quality sound directly
from the CDROM.
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Richard, you are partly right. If Apple were to make equipment that
were capable of high-quality digital recording they would be sued, but
not by the record company, but by the former members of the Beatles and
their lawyers. Apparently, Apple Computer Inc., in order to have the right to use the name, made an agreement with the Beatles' lawyers (as you recall, the
Beatles founded a company (primarily a record company) called Apple Corps in the lates sixties) that they would not in any way produce a product that could in
any way be considered as a musical impliment or instrument (by this I mean a
product that, in itself was capable of creating or recording broadcast or
distribution quality audio performances). This, apparently is one of the
reasons why Apple never produced a CD-quality soundchip, and this, perhaps,
is the reason why the system is set up in such a way as one would not be able
to sample CD-Quality sound or to create such sound.
