SH Spotlight CD & Digital flaws: Our technique for finding A/D & D/A converters for DCC Golds in 1992

Compact Discs don't have to disappear. Vinyl never did. I was told vinyl was over 25 years ago and it hasn't gone away yet. CDs will continue if there is a market for them... even if a smaller than current one.

 

BIG thanks (as always) for sharing that digital historical tidbit, Steve.

 

Very interesting steve...Thats pretty much what I hear...a minor difference with low level resolution and space...but I guess to me its minor enough to make CDs convenience win me over.

 

Steve, what A/D converters do you like now?

I agree, Wadia makes fantastic stuff. And some of the converters in the Sony 1600/1630 days were really terrible. I used to hear a kind of "ripping paper" distortion in low-level stuff all the time with those D/A's.

 

I can imagine...You and your colleagues get to hear the "Real thing" first hand, we are just imagining the difference or in our ongoing debate over VINYL>CD arguing over who can and cant or who has good enough equipment or over the astoundingly huge ( hyperbole users in the forum) difference. In the end its kinda sad, I still at most hear a Minor difference in Air, low level resolution or detail or something. Too bad it cant all be the same, then we could just argue ( discuss ) masterings and music

 

Steve, I have an ancient recording thats DIRECT TO DIGITAL ..from dmp (digital music products) recorded by Tom Jung in 1985 on a Mitsubishi x-80 digital recorder, according to the notes. Its titled "Flim and the BBs" "Big notes", a modern jazz trio from the 80s. It has Very good sound and Some great dynamics, really loud bass and so forth on some of the songs, kind of a showoffy sound similar to how Telarc does with classical. What do you know of this ancient digital recorder? Or is it another dustbin classic?

 

Great info, Steve!

Problem is, with improved converters, we still don't get the benefit of then when the mastering guys have to tweak the sound to death for modern CDs.

 

Steve,
when doing transfers do you always do A/D at final output spec (eg: when planning a CD, you make the conversion directly at 16/44.1) or do you start as high as possible and then deal with it later? If the answer is the former, is it because there is no audible difference or is it that its easier than to do the down sampling later?

 

have you attempted it in the other manner though? Experimented with it?

 

interesting- thank you!

 

interesting thread... thanks Steve

Do you have more infos (what kind of DACs) about the Concert Fidelity DAC-040 tube digital to analog converter?

 

THANKS! somehow I missed this before

 

Gads, I remember back in 1990 doing a mix to a Sony DAT deck(forget which one). It was a nice, gentle ballad, with lots of detail played very well on a Martin D-28. Bass, drums, and a male/female vocal duet. Somehow, these are the hardest songs to mix! Anyway, did about a 2 hour final mix, then played it back and the result was appalling; it sounded nothing like the mix we had labored over. Weeks later, enter the Apogee A/D and D/A. Giant step forward. Hard to remember exactly which qualities were missing, but I remember thinking something like "our mix just got a bad chest cold".

Later in the 90's, I used a SONY 8mm deck to record stuff on. I knew it was low-res PCM, but the song I recorded had heavy reverb on it. I played the song back, and it had less reverb! I thought the clarity was better, but the song now lacked punch.

I think some of these experiences were why I took a long time to warm back up to the idea of "digital". Now I like it again. For a while there, I thought it had all the soul of a GPS system.



Dan

 

Fine inside info ! Very useful, so i learn something new every other day....

The best phrase so far was " I never downsample.."

After hearing some Reel To Reels over the Radio from Classical Live Recordings at grand opera houses all over the country from the big State Broadcasting Stations , sometimes from the 50ies and 6oies, sometimes LIVE i learned to appreciate the sound of a Master Tape. Can you call a Live Recording a Master Tape technically ?
Anyway at least the sound is superb.
What is the better sounding medium - Mastertape or Stamper (Direct To Disk) ? Vinyl or Reel ?
Some questions I'd really like to know...

 

so true, I last used one in 1999

if you made a mistake you had to start from scratch