PCM photos on Flickr

The S-Series are a family of compact cars from the Saturn automobile company. This was the first series of Saturn vehicles. The automobile platform, the Z-body, was developed entirely in-house at Saturn and shared very little with the rest of the General Motors model line. It implemented a spaceframe design, also seen on some Pontiacs, which meant that the side panels did not carry load and could use plastic pieces instead of metal. These polymer panels were dent-resistant—something that remained a selling point for Saturn until the brand's demise. The S-series was sold from the fall of 1991 through the end of the 2002 model year, with partial redesigns in 1996 & 2000 (sedans) and 1997 & 2001 (coupes).

The S-series debuted with SL (“sedan level”) models in 1991 for the 1992 model year, a 2-door sports coupe designated SC joined for the 1992 model year and the SW (“sedan wagon”) joined the lineup for 1993.

Taiwan and Japan were the only two Asian countries to import Saturns. From 1992 to 1996, the first- and second-generation sedans plus the first-generation coupes were sold in Taiwan. From 1996 to 2003, the second-generation versions were sold in right-hand drive in Japan, and some Toyota Netz dealerships, and former Isuzu dealerships did offer Saturn products until 2001. The first generation vehicles were not in compliance with Japanese Government regulations concerning exterior dimensions and maximum engine displacement requirements, while the second and third generation sedan and wagon were, however, the coupe was not for all generations.

Canada imported all available Saturn models from 1992 onwards.

A change partway through the 1999 model year gave the SC a small suicide door on the driver's side. This type of door had previously been used in extended cab pickup trucks, but was an innovation in coupe design.

The S-series was replaced by the larger Saturn Ion in 2003, which was unable to match the S-series' sales numbers before the end of its own production at the end of 2007.

Coupes and sedans equipped with the base single overhead cam engine and a manual transmission were among the most fuel-efficient cars available in the United States when they were produced, reaching 40 miles per US gallon (5.9 L/100 km; 48 mpg-imp) in EPA highway tests at the time (this would likely translate to 36 miles per US gallon (6.5 L/100 km; 43 mpg-imp) under current methodologies)

S-Series 2nd Generation

The second generation SL and SW were made from model year 1996 to 1999. The redesign resulted in a more curvaceous look for the SL/SW, which gave a slight increase in interior room and doorway size as well as an updated appearance. Mechanically, very little was changed from the previous model. The biggest changes for 1996 were the OBDII PCM, an all new sequential fuel injection setup that utilized a first ever "compress sense" cam sensor setup (cam sensor input was achieved by the ignition module sensing the amount of amperage it took to fire cylinder number 4. More amperage meant TDC compression, less meant TDC exhaust) in lieu of a conventional camshaft position sensor. Also full spark control (timing and firing of the ignition coils) was achieved solely in the engine control module as opposed to the ignition module.

A few minor changes were made in the mid-1998 model year. Due to multiple complaints of noise from the trip odometer on the 1995-early '98 gauge cluster, a new cluster with a digital odometer was introduced, rear disc brakes were deleted as an option due to high cost and very little improvement in braking performance over the conventional rear drum setup, the performance/normal mode switch was deleted from the transmission in lieu of new ECU software that learned the driving patterns of the operator and adjusted shift patterns accordingly, and a new larger muffler was introduced to reduce engine exhaust NVH levels.

Models made late in the 1999 model year (sometimes referred to as "1999.5" models) received improvements to both SOHC and DOHC engines that did not affect power output, but did smooth out some of the harshness and tendencies toward oil consumption associated with them. These changes included revised pistons (SOHC engines now used the same (flat top) pistons as the DOHC engines instead of the old dished pistons), connecting rods, crankshaft counterweights and the now narrower twin cam cylinder head featured a new roller rocker setup with hydraulic tappets and roller cams replacing the conventional bucket lifter setup of the previous engine. Fuel economy of these refined models also saw a measurable improvement. Also introduced in 1999 for vehicles equipped with California emissions, was a different exhaust manifold that housed an upstream catalytic converter (this converter heated up much faster than the conventional unit and decreased exhaust emissions faster) and provisions for an air injection reaction system (this injected fresh air into the exhaust to reduce hydrocarbons at start up, and help the oxygen sensors and catalytic converters reach operating temperatures faster). These vehicles were made to meet the all new CARB ULEV standards for the 1999 model year. These changes, among others, were subtly introducing the differences of the third generation S-series.

[Text from Wikipedia]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_S-Series

This miniland-scale Lego Asturn S-Series (SL2 - 1996 2nd Generation) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 92nd Build Challenge, - "Stuck in the 90's", - all about vehicles from the decade of the 1990s.

Like a number of builds this month, this is a car owned by a member of my family - in this case my mother-in-law, who had this model Saturn in this colour. I was expecting the car to be 'crap', but modest though it was, the car performed quite well for its type, and was more than acceptable (that cannot be said of the Saturn L-Series wagon that she bought to replace it). This was also the first car with cruise control that I was able to drive extensively - this feature was certainly a boon during the longer of my US road trips from Charlotte, NC to St Louis, MO, via Indianapolis, IN.

PCM-M10 by I Shinji

PCM-M10左面。

MP3 versus CD quality (PCM) by Roberto Zingales

3

A jpg file I made quite 10 years ago to show the difference in quality between a PCM 44 kh 16bit audio file ( typical CD sound quality) and the same file converted in MP3 (even at the highest quality ).

The black stripe on top of the right image shows clearly there are no sounds at higher frequencies in the mp3.

Mp3 file format is a very poor compression method, and nobody who loves music would listen mp3s instead of a non compressed ( or losslessly compressed audio file).

mp3 are just good for they travel fast over the internet and thus let artists show their music easily.

mp3 It's a good way to promote music giving away low quality samples.

high fidelity audio is a concept absolutely incompatible with mp3!!

Sony PCM-D50 by picturesofthingsilike

4

Sony PCM-D50 Portable Digital Recorder with 96KHz / 24 Bit resolution (2007).

PCM-M10 by I Shinji