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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
 
tgraber2 - i dont want to sound like a "format fetishist" proclaiming the value of the recorder at its top capability  - good sound depends on a lot more than the format, like your write.

I have been wondering, should I use the DA3000 only as a recorder, and get another / better DAC. Not as simple as it seems, however. The DA3000 plays DSD raw / native, while external DACs are less reliable, may introduce noise, not to speak of down conversion (DoP) etc. Although the use of the DA3000 in dual roles - switching between playback DAC and recorder - is  inconvenient - and the playback user interface is restricted, no remote control, etc.

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o_holter OP
977 posts
 
My mistake - the DA3000 does have a remote, it is just not very convenient when using the recorder as a player, selecting from a music library. You have to select files from the front panel.
Get a better DAC? If I want to pass the signal "unharmed" from the hard disk through the recorder, to a DAC, I will need to use SDIF3 connectors to the DAC, as far as I can see from the DA3000 manual. The other digital outputs are more dubious - these are made for DSD transmission. Has anyone tried it, and what was the result, compared to using the internal DAC?


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o_holter OP
977 posts
 
Regarding upgrading the DA3000, especially the input / recording part, Chris as Busman Audio writes:

"The mods bring the recorder into another realm of quality with a much more smooth response that is clean and clear but not harsh at all. I felt the original sound was very harsh on these so I worked through capacitors and ICs to find the sound that I was looking for.I have had some very happy feedback from customers that have had this done."


He will do this for a reasonable price.

"The mods replace every op amp in the signal path up to the A>D. I also upgrade the capacitors in the signal path as well. It is done for both the RCA and XLR inputs. "

Has anyone tried it?



dgarretson
2,599 posts
 
Hope you have better luck than I did with Busman.  He never replied to email queries that I sent to him about DA-3000 modifications.
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o_holter OP
977 posts
 
I am doing a new work batch recording from vinyl. Using the DA3000 without any mods.

Some notes:
- the advice i’ve read is "dont push it", keep to defaults. That way, poor op-amps and similar will have the lowest detrimental effect. So I use the default values, reference level -16, input volume adjustment 0. This is a bit low, for my vinyl rip source (phono and preamp), but I turn the volumes in my source chain up. Rather than pushing up the incoming signal sensitivity on the recorder. This gives the best sound.

- recording from vinyl is a lot of work and one wonders, why bother. Testing is needed to get the best sound. The recorder sounds best with its best recording format, double DSD - no doubt about it.

- these files are very big - typically 1.7 to 2 gb per LP side. Transfers of the files takes a long time. Everything - file handling, listening, testing - gets slow and takes time.

- however, a curve appears that I recognize from former recording - it is repeated now also. At the beginning, there are many frowns, while later, there are more smiles. Meaning that, at the beginning, it is much work to adjust the recording "just so", so that it sounds optimal. But when this is done, the rest is mainly downhill, "smiles" all the way.  
 
- The DA3000 may not be the ultimate solution - what is - but it does an excellent job, recording music from vinyl LPs, in my situation. This is based on a top tier analog source (turntable, cartridge, etc).

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