CD to DAC to DAT to DAC?

What are you trying to achieve ? Do you want to sample the turntable and put it through the DAC ? Is the turntable directly connected to the DAT, or do you mean the output of the phono preamp ? Why route the CD player through the DAT ?

Does the DAT digital input auto detect the sample rate ? CD is 44.1khz and DAT is 48khz, so sample conversion would have to occur somewhere, and if not in the DAT then this could be the problem.

Also why would the DAT player output the data stream from its digital input unless you were recording that input and monitoring (like an analog tape deck .... it doesn't automatically route the input to the output unless you're recording).

Well, I think I may have wasted tread space here and I apologize.

The deal is that I would like to have the DAT available for any source, like the old days with my Nakamichi, but why on earth would I do this with a CD (thinking of mix tape days) when I could just rip the whole darn thing in nothing flat at 320Mbps and then burn it back to a CD (entire CD, assorted tracks, etc.).

So, I'll just stick to archiving my ancient 78s and 33s, and maybe recording a radio show or two ;)

Sorry again for the space-waster.

Cheers,
Mark

The answer to your question is in the back of the SV3800 (I have an SV3700, but I assume the answer is the same). There are a series of DIP switches in the back. One of them (I believe it's the one that's farthest to the left) selects either the analog input or the digital input.

Of course, in either case, the only way you can pass the incoming signal on to your analog preamp or amplifier is to put the DAT into record mode.