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Topic: DAT: What to buy? Lossless transfer? (Read 3203 times) previous topic - next topic
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DAT: What to buy? Lossless transfer?

Hi folks : )

To cut a long story short, my English professor wants to buy a DAT recorder. He would very much prefer it if it had a way of transfering its data losslessly (or if that's not possible then at least without resampling) to a PC. He's been asking about looking for one, but he says the sales people he's met or talked with don't really know much about it.

His main field of study is speech recognition software, but he's interested in speech synthesis too. I guess he wants a DAT recorder in order to record live speech, but I don't really know yet why he demands high precision. (I'm a little hazy on the details because we didn't have much time to talk.)

Well, with the cat out of the bag, what should be considered when purchasing a DAT recorder? Any particular brand I want to avoid? Any model that's definitely worth buying? Is there a way I can transfer the recorded data losslessly, or digitaly to a computer? He uses Windows 2000 and an RPM based Linux distro.

Or if a DAT recorder is overkill (edit: or outdated), what would be the alternatives for high quality recording?

Thanks in advance, I hope this kind of question isn't off-topic. : )

edit2: Silly me. Typos.

DAT: What to buy? Lossless transfer?

Reply #1
The DAT must have an SPDIF output.  Common PC soundcards with SPDIF input will resample and even level the data (tested on an SB live, from 48 to 48 kHz : beat effect due to asynchronous resampling).
If the soundcard supports SCMS (copy management), it will only accept to record DATs recorded by himself, or from SCMS free sources. It won't record a DAT copied from a CD.
I think that Terratec 6Fire, M-Audio audiophile, Echo Mia, and Hoontech DSP2496 will record lossless.
I know that the Marian Marc 2 records lossless, and bypasses SCMS.
I'm not sure about the Terratec Aureon, I don't know it.

Beware to get the same connector (optical or coaxial) on the DAT and the PC, opt/coax converters are expensive (~80 €)

DAT: What to buy? Lossless transfer?

Reply #2
JIm Bamford's binaural recordings page includes details of his equipment, including a Creative Labs HD portable player/recorder (Nomad or equivalent?) which he uses at 48 kHz to record uncompressed sound in stereo. You can look into it on the Creative website. I think it might have used USB for data transfer. This is an alternative to DAT, with random access (no tape winding!) and huge maximum record time (20 GB disc is over 10 hours @ 48 kHz stereo).

 

DAT: What to buy? Lossless transfer?

Reply #3
I recommend by own experience following:

Soundcard:

Terratec EWX 24/96

(has optical dig in and out, SCMS is no issue, the bundle software or the hardware ignores copybit )



DAT-Player:

Sony DTC 670 and followers are really well, or DTC 55 etc.