Quote:
Originally Posted by MattiMattMatt 
To be extreme about it, say you wanted to make an mp3. If you had a great mp3 recorder, would that not be the best option? If you first recorded to a DSD deck, and then transfered to mp3, you discard the DSD advantage and have added an extra step that at best, does nothing, and at worst, adds distortion.
Am I missing something obvious?
|
True enough, practically speaking... That is if you only need an MP3... If, however, you expect to need a higher quality version in the future, then you are out of luck if you don't go the extra step. If you'll never need a higher quality version then i think you are right. You don't gain much...
...unless you use a very hi-end method to get from the DSD to the MP3. And then it is probably more just one extra step to get to MP3.
And the reason there might be a difference here, is that, after the DSD recording, you could use a very computer intensive process to decimate to PCM... A process that would be cost prohibitive to be in a commecial A to D converter.
When we make SACD's we frequently do this to generate the redbook layer. And then taking that redbook layer down to MP3 produces some pretty amazing results...