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RH1 doesn't do lossless legacy transfers... better sound with legacy digi-out.

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taper420

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So I saw this discussion going on over at taperssection. Someone did a frequency analysis of files transferred over a Rh1 USB connection into sonicstage, and files transferred using a legacy deck with digital out transferred in real time.

The single report states that the USB transfer had drastic frequency cutoffs above 15k, the waveform appeared significantly different, and the audio quality difference was readily apparent. Supposedly a proper ATRAC component doesn't exist for the PC, so Sonicstage converts the original ATRAC to ATRAC+ 3 before converting to PCM, and this is where the quality loss comes in.

I briefly scanned the threads here and couldn't find any mention of this issue or if it has been or is being addressed, or if it even can be. I'd like to see some discussion on this and if anyone else has noticed it.

Edited by taper420
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I'm running a frequency analysis comparison of the same SP track imported twice (once as PCM, then as Hi-SP), I'll post the results shortly. Unfortunately I no longer have a deck with digital-out, so I can't compare that. However, if what is stated is true, there should be no difference between the SP track imported as PCM vs Hi-SP/

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Frequency Analysis Results:

SP Imported as PCM

SP Imported as Hi-SP

post-1817-1187473449_thumb.jpg

As we can see, there is a clear difference between the PCM upload and the Hi-SP upload. I can state based on this that in my opinion the PCM upload is not converted to Hi-SP prior to PCM.

Regardless, whether anyone could hear this difference is subjective. Also I would like to see a comparison between these and optical-out as well. So if anyone has the means, please post!

FYI, there is actually a setting in SonicStage that delegates whether the SP track is imported as PCM or Hi-SP...

I suspect that whomever posted on Taperssection may have either not known about this setting (the default is Hi-SP), or imported the same track both ways without deleting the Hi-SP upload prior to converting to WAV, in which case SonicStage may have defaulted to the Hi-SP track and converted that one to WAV instead of the PCM upload.

Edited by raintheory
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A link to the thread on taperssection would have been sensible. I did a quick serach but I can't find anything. Theres been lots of analysis of HiMD imports to SonicStage over the years. I would be surprised is there was a problem like this.

sorry bout that... I pretty much summed up everything that was said....

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,7...html#msg1025181

found through this thread:

....http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,8.../topicseen.html

Edited by taper420
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Blue - original CD

Green - PCM

Red - Hi-SP

Yellow - Hi-LP

Interesting to see that PCM is not completely equal to the original CD in the highest frequency range, and that high-frequency harmonics in Hi-SP and Hi-LP differ between channels, but not between modes.

post-33150-1187620762_thumb.jpg

Edited by Avrin
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Sounds like we may have found the culprit of the 15kHz cutoff!

Hi guys,

I really appreciate the hard work you put into investigating this issue.

Please take a look at the frequency analysis that was just posted on ts.com:

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,7...html#msg1197858

OK, the curves are not drastically different, but obviously still enough for an audible difference to be heard.

What do you make out of it? User error, harware/software problem or...?

Thanks,

Jan

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Very unfortunately, the graphs at the taperssection forum do not load - all I see is four red X'es at the places the graphs should be. But folowing the discussion, I should point out that, according to my graphs above, LP2 actually does have a 16 kHz cutoff when recorded by the RH1, and a 15 kHz cutoff when encoded by SonicStage. This is by design. Thus, any file recorded initially in LP2 may be deemed as MP3-sourced because of these cutoffs and encoding artifacts.

Edited by Avrin
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