24 to 16 bit conversion to DAT

[johnnyv]

I'm wondering what would happen if you use the SPDIF connections? Does the Tascam reject the word clock?
It is not clear that the Tascam uses any kind of input dithering at all.
You are never going to really "hear" a difference between 16 and 24 bit recordings.
I have many old masters on DAT tape and to me they sound better than a lot of stuff I've done in the box at 24 bit. I had Sony DATS. I should have keep them.
I remember I dumped them all into my computer via a SPDIF input on a Sound Blaster Audigy card directly to Wave Lab.
Unless this is something super important I would not worry about it.

[Adam Dempsey]

I'd set the Lucid to output 16 bit dithered, then run the signal via SPDIF to the DAT.

DAT recorders that applied dither on input (eg, the later Sony PCM R series with Super Bit Mapping) did so on the A-D side, not via digital input.

Originally Posted by johnnyv

You are never going to really "hear" a difference between 16 and 24 bit recordings.

While the difference may not be audible as-is, the distortion from truncating without dither can easily accumulate, and at levels higher than dither (and of course being uncorrelated with the signal). Nothing to lose from dithering, and it does preserve low level detail in the 24 bit source.

[PJWeitzner]

Thanks, JohnnyV and Adam. I am connecting through coaxial SPDIF directly to the DAT machine. I think I will abide by the 48/16 so the dithering is done in the AD converter.