Klarinet Archive - Posting 001101.txt from 2000/07

From: "Benjamin Maas" <benmaas@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: [Re: [kl] Record yourself (Ben)]
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 16:08:03 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> Ben wrote:
> > That is basically what I do. Except that I use DAT as my master tape or
> sometimes I'll just go straight to CD.
>
> If you use MiniDisc use the digital output to dub to the CD.
> MiniDisc isn't really a digital input or output format (what you
> put in isn't exactly what you get back) but the digital output
> eliminates the last conversion to analog. in my Sony 55 there's
> an audible difference between using line and using digital - and
> the digital's better. I don't know if it's the Sony or the
> soundcard, though.
>
> mark C.

The Analog to Digital and Digital to Analog converters in the consumer MD
machines are nutoriously bad. (Then again for a couple hundred bucks, what
do you expect?) By going in digitally, you are bypassing a very weak link.
If you would compare (on a good listening system) digital in off of a set of
converters and what makes it to the disc, you'd hear a difference as well.
The reason for this is to get 74 minutes of stereo sound on a MD, you must
compress the data. The compression scheme for MD is not unlike MP3, in that
it is a lossy compression scheme. This means that the compressed and
uncompressed waveforms will *not* be the same. Dolby Digital and DTS that
you see in the movie theaters and on DVDs today are like this as well, but
to a somewhat lesser degree (esp. DTS)

This may change in the future, though. The DVD audio standard uses a
compression scheme as well. The difference is, though, that DVD audio is a
Lossles Compression scheme (called Meridian Lossless Packaging). They
compress the data, but it restores to exactly what it was before. This is
needed because of the extreme amounts of data that will be on these discs
when the finally hit the street.

--Ben

Benjamin Maas
Fifth Circle Audio
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.fifthcircle.com
benmaas@-----.com

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