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Audiophile recording and playback - Tascam DA-3000


Hi, some months ago I bought the Tascam DA-3000 recorder, having used a small Korg MR-1 for some years. I mainly record from my vinyl rig (Lyra Atlas – SME V – Hanss T30 – Aesthetix Io Eclipse – Einstein The Tube mk2).

I have found that even with the hassle of very big files (one LP = almost 3 GB), the dual speed DSD sound is superior to anything digital I have heard so far.

In my rig, analog blows digital out of the water, but this is the best candidate.

In a former thread, someone asked, is the Da-3000 ‘audiophile’ level. The answer is a clear yes.

This is the first digital recorder I have owned (after some DATs and others) that does not make me ashamed that my old analog and much-modded Revox A77 stands in my loft. Also, for some, the Tascam may be a good investment since its DAC may outperform the DAC you already have. I had a Stello DAC that went out the door.

However, some aspects of the Tascam are problematic, and others can probably be improved.

A first issue is connectivity and ease of use. It would be great if the Tascam could record to a hard disk, or at least play back from it. The manual says a hard disk can be connected through the USB port. I bought a Seagate Wireless Plus 1 TB hard disk to try. However, the Tascam won’t recognize it, even when I reformatted to Exfat (instead of NFTS). Perhaps it would be recognized if I reformatted to FAT32, but then I would not have any use of a big hard disk, the limit is 32 GB I think. So I am back to recording to my 32 GB Sandisk SD card, eight LPs or so, with hand written notes, what track is what title, and then carrying the card and paper to my main PC, naming folders and transferring the files. BTW this was very slow, 19 mbps, since my card reader was not USB 3 compliant, I changed, and now it is much better, 84 or so mbps.

The ideal would be to have the Tascam drive as a unit on my home network, this is why I bought the Seagate wireless, but as stated - no success so far.

Experiences with the Tascam (or similar), in this and other respects, are welcome.

Note that, the problems so far are minor, for me, compared to the benefits. The sound is usually much better than what I get from CDs or the web (excepting some SACDs). I can bring my analog rig around, so to speak, playing back on the Korg Mr-1 (or the Tascam itself, which is light weight and semi-movable). I think that DSD playback will become more easily available in the future. If Pono had included DSD, I would have bought one.
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o_holter OP
977 posts
 
Hi - an update from my side.

No, I cannot record directly to my external hard disc. But it mostly plays OK, used as a file library.

I have about 600GB of DSD files on my 2TB Seagate wireless plus external hard drive, cable-connected to the Tascam USB port. I am not sure, how much the disk can take, before the Tascam gets into trouble (too many files, out of filename space, or whatever) - but so far so good. I have had some problems though. Once, doing a huge 100 or so gigabyte copy from my pc to the Seagate, something went wrong, and Tascam would no longer recognize the disc, I had to reformat it.

But it mainly works fine and the only problem with this solution - as long as the disc and recorder cooperate - is a long starting time. The Tascam tape recorder icon starts to spin and keeps on spinning for 2-3 minutes for the Seagate disk.

On the other hand, the Tascam is then transformed into a formidable media player with a 300 album library at hand, so for me, this has been a great solution.

tlachiquero
1 posts
 
FWIW, I use a FAT32 formatted external 250GB SSD plugged into my DA-3000 USB port and it works fine.
rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
O_holter, I was reading with interest your posts on connecting a Tascam DA-3000 to your Aesthetix Io. I am considering exactly the same configuration to start digitizing some of my vinyl.

As I recall, you have the Io with volume controls, correct? This is what I have in my system (but not the Eclipse, for which I envy you!).

Are you connecting the Tascam to the RCA or the BLR outputs? Are you experiencing any frequency balance problems due to impedance loading with both parallel outputs in use?

Glenn at Aesthetix told me he thought this would work as long as I’m willing to deal with managing the volume control setting. It looks like you’re actually doing it and it’s working for you. Are you still happy with the results you’re getting?
jwm
918 posts
 
rushton, I have the Io also. I bought the a/d converter by Benchmark. I connect the Io into the Benchmark with rca interconnects and then use a digital coax cable to connect to the Tascam 3000. Its set up as a slave so it lets the Benchmark do the converting and then its passed through to the Tascam and puts it on the flash card. This does a better job than the Tascam alone. I record in 24/176 where both machines are set. I use the meters on the Tascam which are a lot better than the meters on the Benchmark for the recording level. I don't leave both outputs connected to the io at the same time when I'm recording. I think it sounds better this way. I attach a B & W portable speaker monitor connected to the output of the Tascam as my monitor instead of headphones.
rushton's avatar
rushton
2,445 posts
 
Jwm, thank you for sharing how you're doing this! Since you're recording to PCM, I understand your preference for the Benchmark. I'm strongly considering going with double DSD for my recordings, so the DA-3000 makes sense for that based on what I'm reading.

I'm hoping to record while I'm listening and to have a recorder always connected for that purpose. So, I'm not surprised, but a bit disappointed, that you're hearing an improvement in sound quality by disconnecting the parallel cable to you amp when you're attaching the Benchmark. I see that Benchmark's analog input impedance (through it's XLR inputs) is 200k ohms. The DA-3000 is only 22k for the RCA inputs and 10k for the XLR inputs. This suggests that the Benchmark would be better isolated from the second parallel output on the Io, but it still is an audible degradation to have both connected. Too bad. :-(

Another question about the Benchmark... The specs show it as having only XLR analog inputs but you say you are connecting with RCA interconnects. Are you using an RCA-XLR adapter going into the Benchmark from the Io?
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