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RE: It seems to me that you might hear more of a difference if you reversed the test

"i.e., take the output of a digital recorder, record it onto an analogue tape machine, and see if you notice a difference. I'd lay odds that you might notice MORE of a difference with his kind of a test! ;-)"

I've yet to own or use a tape recorder that was audibly transparent as to its input. At the very least, recording at low levels will produce obvious amounts of tape hiss, while recording at high levels will produce audible dynamic compression and audible harmonic and IM distortion. However, I've not used anything better than 1/4" 15 IPS two track recorders with standard tape and low bias frequencies. My understanding is that there are recorders that get much better performance, among other things by burning lots of expensive new-technology tape under their heads.

As to whether a differences is larger or smaller, this assumes that differences can be ordered, i.e. they are one dimensional. Different media have different potential and actual distortions and these come in a great variety, making it impossible to linearly rank distortions. Some listeners tolerate certain types of distortion much better than others. Thus, for example, when I was recording to magnetic tape I liked to keep the levels low to avoid compression and distortion. Other people hated tape hiss and didn't want their work to have an obvious defect that even untrained listeners could hear. They recorded at higher levels. Thus started the loudness wars...

Taking your statement as an argument (and ignoring the smiley) your argument is at best an argument from mediocrity. My mother taught me, "Every everyone else jumps off the bridge, does that mean it's safe?". More likely, your argument relates to the phrase, "Two wrongs don't make a right." Poor quality sources are not an excuse for poor quality equipment downstream in the record playback chain that starts at the microphones and recording venue and ends at the speakers and listening room.

It matters not what the source is, an LP, a live microphone feed, a master tape, or an off the air FM broadcast, if the digital record - playback process can not achieve transparency there is a fault. The fault is in one or more of the three places: the ADC, the mathematical limitations of the format, the DAC. People interested in perfection struggle to make each piece of the chain under their control as high quality as they possibly can within the limitations of their resources.

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar


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  • RE: It seems to me that you might hear more of a difference if you reversed the test - Tony Lauck 10/10/1509:12:43 10/10/15 (1)

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