[Ardour-Users] Experience? Rework an external 44.1 KHz 16 bit recording

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 2010-08-19 at 11:21 -0400, Paul Winkler wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 08:28:30AM -0400, Joe Hartley wrote:
> > On Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:13:37 +0200
> > Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> > > 1. Did somebody note serious differences for a ripped WAV compared to
> > > S/PDIF FOC?
> > 
> > A "ripped" WAV is simply a copy of the binary digits on the CD.  Unless there's
> > a change in format (to MP3, for example), your file will be identical.  Any
> > other method will introduce extra digital->analog and analog->digital 
> > conversions, which can only degrade the signal.
> 
> S/PDIF transfer is digital, no analog involved.
> 
> I guess any difference between S/PDIF and ripping a CD would come down
> to any difference in error correction between the CD player and the
> ripping program.  I don't know anything about that.
> 

A million years ago I copied using coaxial S/PDIF, but it wasn't a 75
ohm cable, from my AIWA HD-S1 DAT to my Sony DTC-670 DAT and there was
loss, not dramatic, but audible. I don't have coaxial usable for my
sound cards, hence I would need to use a 2 m or 6 m optical waveguide.
S/PDIF indeed seems to have loss.