DVD-Audiobahn

Posted by racerguy (A) on September 07, 2005 at 09:19:57

In Reply to: Re: It's nice to see posted by Martin419 on September 7, 2005 at 08:32:09:

>>But, Racer, I really don't know what point you are trying to make. There was no questionmark about that issue. As we know from reading Ainlay's interview, everything was analog prior to the Nuendo import anyway.<<

There was no question mark after I brought Ainlay's interview statements to your attention. Prior to that, it sure looked like you were attempting to advance the idea that BIA was somehow "pure" PCM, which, in your mind, meant that PCM-based DualDisc was a more "pure" representation of the original. That idea, nonsensical to begin with, was shown to be moot.

>>Sure, I did question to Michi whether she thought that a 44.1kHz/16bit upsample to 176.4/32bit rez would have been viable alternative audiophile process. I was interested in her thoughts on the matter. And I valued her intelligent, informed response.<<

It's a nice idea in theory, but the reality is that the more sample rate conversions you do, the worse things can sound. Isn't that your basic theoretical beef with PCM-sourced SACDs? If so, I can't imagine why you would think multiple sample rate conversions would be of benefit in this case.

BTW, we could have had an "intelligent, informed" discussion about this, but you decided several months ago to throw that out the window. You reap what you sow.

>>In addition, a pure digital PCM capture from the DASH tapes would have been problematic, since the original PCM had "pre-emphasis" on, but which was easily 'removed' by using the DASH’s own analog outs.<<

It's not necessarily that big of a problem, depending on how you look at it. There are some DSPs available that can remove digital pre-emphasis in the digital domain. Some are better than others (some DSPs just remove the pre-emphasis but leave the flag on, others do a better job. No matter what, it's still adding yet another device that manipulates the data, introducing yet another source of possible errors, and it can add to the complexity of the project.

So, oftentimes, it's simply easier to dump to analog and redigitize, just like we used to do in the "old days." In addition, there are quite a few professionals, including Ainlay (and Torrey and Botrill and a whole bunch more) who think that having an analog step instead of "pure" digital sounds a whole lot better.