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

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 2010-08-19 at 11:54 -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 11:38 AM, Ralf Mardorf
> <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> digital signal transmission isn't "lossy". it either works or it
> fails. that's the whole point.

Okay.

Is 'lossy' just the wrong word? I 'guess' I did hear loss when doing a
copy from DAT to DAT, using an audio cable, but a 75 ohm cable. I read
about this as a common issue for optical waveguide in the audiophile
mags at my dentist :D, but they do write a lot of nonsense. I always
wondered why there seems to be loss when doing the S/PDIF copy from DAT
to DAT, but at the same time DAT also is used to backup computer data. I
guess for the computer it's not called DAT, but they use the same tapes
and mechanics.

Anyway, you explained why ripping the CD might be more safe, than using
S/PDIF. Let's they at least for CD the fail would cause loss ;).

Btw. thank you for the CD explanation,
Ralf