SB Extigy vs. MD units

[bilbobaggins]

Hi everyone interested in this topic. I'm MD fan and trying to get some useful information of the older soundcard Soundblaster Extigy features and its cooperation to MDS-JB940 I own. I am looking for the recording ways leading to the finest sound of my md records. I am testing different analogue cables (van den Hull), optical or coaxial links, my cd player CDP-XB930 (main sound source with CD-Text) common with CONTROL A1IISystem, PC source - different software (eac, foobar2000 as grand soft player, Soundforge) and still haven't found what I'm looking for. I am hesitate of Extigy clear ability to play or record sounds in higher resolution 24-bit. Has somebody got any experience about it? David Boulet's review on http://www.minidisc.org/sony_jb930_review.html it's quite interesting stuff. Thanks in advance for your response.

[boojum]

I have just read the review you have quoted. This interesting bit of hoo-hah is in there: "I've got an Audio Alchemy DTI Pro32 which takes the (cheezy) 16-bit PCM from CD's and enhances the resolution to 18,20,22,or 24 bits." You can enhance the resolution as high as you want but all you will have is a high resolution copy of 16 bit data. Photographing a picture of a rough stone in high resoltuon digital does not make it any smoother. It is still a rough stone. 16 bit re-coded as 96 bit is just a 96 bit copy of 16 bit data. It is impossible for the copy to be better than the original.

This quote, "The results? My MD's digitally dubbed from CD sound *BETTER* than the CD originals!" is an indication the reviewer is either a fool or a liar. They may sound different but they cannot sound better. Unless, of course, he has a different definition of "better" than most of the English-speaking world.

Please note the reviewer has submitted no data to support this fanciful verbiage. I guess we all have to 1) assume he knows what he is talking about and 2) believe, therefore, whatever he says, without any proof. Maybe you can do that but I cannot. When the reviewer is able to submit proof, usually done with double-blind tests, he is just blowing smoke. Probably is a good deck, but miracles went out of fashion a long time ago.

[greenmachine]

"Better" is a highly subjective word. In some cases you may be able to make a sound or image more pleasant or appealing while losing accuracy of the original. Sometimes it's just the placebo effect (I record at a higher resolution, therefor I imagine it to sound better).

I would say re-recording a digital file the analog route is somewhat comparable to re-encoding a lossy audio file to the same format (like a 128kbps mp3 to mp3 again). You will have a quality/accuracy loss, no matter what. While you have some loss re-encoding to the same bitrate and the loss usually is less the higher bitrate you encode to, it's usually just not worth the increase in filesize. The accuracy of the copy can never be higher than the original. It can sound more pleasant to the ear though, or in other words "better" if the sound is getting colored in a more appealing way.

Take audio editing as another example. While you lose the accuracy of the original file with every editing step* (EQ'ing for example), you may be able to make it sound better or more pleasant to the ear.

*I am aware that editing can be a way to compensate for the weaknesses of the recording gear, which is another story.

Edited March 21, 2007 by greenmachine

[KrazyIvan]

I own the Extigy. It is good for what it does. Its not the best but is better than internal sound cards. It has clean sounding inputs and outputs. I bought mine used on eBay and have not had problems with it hardware wise. The drivers are a little buggy though. Sometimes I have to reboot my machine to get the sound to work if I had the extigy off before I originally booted my computer. In other words, make sure the extigy is on before your computer is. It has happened maybe about 5-6 times since I have had it. It's going on two years I think.

I have used my Extigy to record the PC optical output to my JE330 MD deck. Can't say that I hear a difference in the recording or the original. I would not go as far as saying that the recording is better than the original. As already pointed out, that is just silly.