thomas (07/16/82)
One hopes that the (Sony) Digital Disk player is better built than their digital tape recorder is. I used to work for a company called Soundstream whose business is digital recording (they've got a digital player in the works, too). We had a Sony digital tape recorder down there once and ran some tests on it. The D-to-A converters were so badly adjusted that the crossover distortion was terrible. As I recall, the S/N ration was about 70db (against a theoretical maximum of 96db). But, enough flaming. I think that digital audio is wonderful, the wave of the future, and definitely THE WAY TO GO! If you've never heard a true digital recording, you don't know what you've missed. It sounds like a PERFECT (assuming it's been properly editted) live performance, with you sitting front-row-center (pick your favorite location). The usual mode of operation in digital playback is to immediately convert the digital signal to analog and use standard audio components from there out. Since good amps have a S/N and distortion level still better than that of the digital recording medium, there is no need for keeping the signal in digital form through that chain. The ONLY new piece of equipment you will need is the digital playback unit. =Spencer