Which AD converters are better: RME multiface or Tascam DAT?

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Here is my situation...

I am stuck with my RME multiface that I do not like. Soundcard is awesome and drivers are great but AD-DA converters are not to my taste.

I will upgrade my converters and I decided to go with top quality 8ch ADDA. The problem is that I have to wait for some more $$$ for new converters so I am stuck with multiface for a couple of months more.

Recently I listened to some of my earlier recordings that I recorded with Tascam DA-20 mk2 DAT recorder several years ago. I played it back at my friends studio thru Benchmark DAC-1 and we both agreed that it sounded great.

Do you think that there is any chance that Tascam AD 16bit converters sound superior to multiface 24bit?

I can not do A-B test because I do not have decent DA converters in my studio. RME DA is not good enough to notice any difference, and Tascam DA converters are known to be bad, but AD is supposed to sound good.

One more question...
If I decide to record with Tascam AD converters, I will have to connect it digitaly via spdif to RME multiface.

What happens when 24bit soundcard gets 16bit digital signal? Does it perform dithering to convert is to 16bit or the signal is the same 16bit as recorded in DAT?

For example, if I setup my DAW to record 16bit. Is there dithering involved or the original tascam 16bit signal it directly transvered to DAW?

I remeber doing A-B test with multiface in 16bit and 24bit. 24bit was far superior but maybe RME is really bad in 16bit mode (bad dithering)?

Thanks

[Ahellam]

dont know about tascam but im a very happy RME user

[Reptil]

I used both, now I have a fireface and the tascam
the tascam is slightly different, than the multiface, has a more 2 dimensional sound, less detail, but for a machine from that era sound quite ok. they are both not the state of the art, sonically the RME has more IMO, but for things like a backup when doing a recording of a live performance the tascam is fine. I keep it around to save my ass when things (computers) decide to go pear-shaped.. I enjoy music recorded on the tascam, sortof sweet in a twentieth century way... (my opinion)
eum and for dithering, I use that when going from 24 to 16.. not the other way around. 16 bits will fit into 24. the RME will eat anything, I feed my fireface 16 bits from the emu, when doing 24 bit production at the same time, synced over midi, solid as a rock, all lights green, no problem.

this being gearslutz there will be replies to ditch both

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Reptil,

can you explain a little bit further about "sweet sound of tascam"? Do you actually prefer that sound to RME multiface/fireface?

Regarding dithering...

I am speaking about the dithering which is probably involved in the converter itself. Not dithering in DAW.

I think that if converter is 24bit, it has to dither its output to 16bit if DAW requires 16bit data.

What I do not want to happen is...If I send 16bit signal via spdif to RME. RME will probably fill the signal to 24bit and then dither it again to 16bit and send it to DAW...Or not?

Thanks

[Reptil]

that would be overkill, one conversion from analogue to digital is bad enough, and a final dither to 16 bit inside the computer, with a relatively "nice enough" algorithm, is for me better than to record everything on 16 bit.
a-d tascam16bit44.1-record to tape or go straight out via the spdif output-into the spdif input of the fireface/multiface-into the computer, record to disc & d-a inside the multiface (to avoid latency) into amp and monitors. it doesn't matter if the computer and corresponding connected interface/card is running 24 or 16 bit. samplerate has to be the same, otherwise it doesn't "fit"- the digital signal is "recorded to the harddisk" in a 24bit file, with of course the content of the 16 signal. You need to amplify the signal further to match the headroom of the 24 bit tracks in the same song. I prefer at mixdown an analogue amp before the "normalising" ITB option. But plenty people mix ITB. (inside the box) so there is a choice. (taste)

no the fireface is not comparable to the tascam. it is from a different era. you will notice clearly the improvement with good (honest, not beautiful) monitorspeakers. the multiface is less good than the fireface. You figure out what you like best. Read up on the manual of the multiface, RME manuals are not that bad. you can download it from their webpage. Also look at the options of routing, inside the interface/computer, before you go with your signal to the sequencer.

I'd say the added functionality of the modern converter, is perferable. Also it has been mentioned (somewhere), that the RME converters are better at 24 bit, than 16. (compared to another 24 bit and another 16bit converter)
You could speculate that a modern converter is specially made for 24 bit, but this is no rule of thumb, and maybe not even true at all. see for more on this subject: gearslutz. I don't really care, as I leave it at 24 bit mostly, burn a cd, and check this on a standalone cd player. In the fireface the difference between 24 and 16 bit recordings, is, of course, noticable.

IMHO the tascam is not bad for an older design, in this pricerange.
hope this is of some use.