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RE: Jonathan Valin on Digital vs. Analog in new TAS

Posted by John Elison (A) on March 11, 2017 at 00:59:54

In Reply to: Jonathan Valin on Digital vs. Analog in new TAS posted by ecl876 on March 10, 2017 at 19:15:47:

It's a shame that most analog and digital discussions always have to be a debate about which sounds better. As an audio hobbyist, I need to have both formats in my system. In fact, when I was growing up, all the audio hobbyists I knew had multiple formats in their systems. Vinyl was usually considered the standard by which other formats were judged, but all the audio hobbyists I knew wanted to have analog tape in their systems as well as vinyl. I don't remember there being a constant war among the formats. I guess it was really more about the music back in the good old days.

In addition to a high-end turntable or two, I always had a high-end reel-to-reel tape recorder in my system. I also wanted a good cassette recorder to make tapes for my car. Some people got into eight-track tape for their cars, but I never went there. I guess by the time I began upgrading my car stereos to play tape, the cassette had taken center stage as an audio format.

For some odd reason one of the things I always liked to do was copy vinyl to analog tape. When digital audio tape (DAT) came along, it just seemed natural to add a DAT recorder to my system. When I heard my first DAT recording of vinyl I was swept off my feet. There was no question in my mind that DAT was the most accurate format to come along for transparently copying vinyl. Therefore, I gradually moved away from analog tape in favor of DAT. I had no doubt that vinyl sounded better than commercial Compact Discs, but for making transparent copies of vinyl, DAT was the winner hands down over analog tape.

Nowadays, there's no question in my mind that hi-res digital and DSD are the digital formats I require in my audio system. I still have at least one exceptionally high-end turntable, but for copying vinyl, hi-res digital is the only format I will ever need. As far as I can tell, DSD 5.6M makes the most accurate copies of vinyl I've ever heard. With respect to DACs, the TASCAM DA-3000 DSD recorder has the best sounding DAC I've ever heard. Furthermore, at $1000, I don't think it's all that expensive either. Of course, I also own a $15,000 turntable with a $4200 phono stage but my thousand dollar digital recorder makes perfectly transparent copies of vinyl.

Best regards,
John Elison

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