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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
950 posts
 
I have moved some steps further. I found a utility, fat32format.exe, that did the job – the usb-connected Seagate disk was now recognized by the Tascam. To be sure, I also did a Quick format on the Tascam. I am glad to report that disk size remained 930 GB, I was afraid the Tascam would take it down to 32. And the disk was still recognized when I plugged it back into my PC. Good news!

However, I could not quite make it work, in wireless mode – the disk insisted on coming up as a media unit, treated by the Windows media player, which does not recognize .dsf files or the like (as if DSD never happened).

Nevertheless, I now have a portable library of analog-sounding music, 250 albums or so with a 1 TB disk, that can be brought along with the Tascam or any other DSD-capable player that accepts an external USB-connected drive. Great. I don’t have to bring a little box of SD-cards, but can have it all in one place. Also, the disk works fine in USB 3 mode, files transfer at 105 mb/s - very good. Perhaps it is the battery inside - I don't need an external mains adaptor (which I hate, anywhere near my analog system), the disk works just fine connected just from the Tascam USB port.

However, I met a brick wall regarding recording to the hard disk. Whatever I tried, a message came up: “Format limit – cannot record”. As in George Harrison: It don’t come easy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5yzdCa2GE
cosslett
1 posts
 
Very interested in your progress on this. Want to record my vinyl to 2x DSD and was at first excited about this unit and just assumed since it has a USB port that it would also act as a DSD/PCM USB DAC and record directly to an external hard drive as well.

But... I wondered about the SD card and so I called them and they confirmed that it isn't a USB DAC at all. Bummer!!! Why not??? Maybe so as not to monopolize sales of their UD-501?

Well, they lost my patronage on that point and I decided to fence sit until something with better connectivity comes along.

But... It sounds like you do in fact have it working as a USB DAC directly from your hard drive?... How do you catalog 250 albums with the User Interface on the Tascam alone?... I was hoping to hook it up to a music server running J-River. Am I asking too much?... I've waited 30 years for digital to finally come of age and don't mind waiting a few more if this isn't ready to record and play DSD files directly to and from my computer based music server.

Thanks!

Mark
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o_holter OP
950 posts
 
Hi Mark

>It sounds like you do in fact have it working as a USB DAC directly from your hard drive?

Yes. You can use it for playback from a large external drive formatted by Fat32format.exe. Although I have not (yet) managed to record to the drive, I can record to a SD (or CF) card, and then transfer to a PC.

>How do you catalog 250 albums with the User Interface on the Tascam alone?

I don’t. I just take note of what LP sides go to which dsf file. Then, when the SD card is full, I put it in my PC and transfer the files wherever I want them. I do all the folder naming and file tasks on the PC since the Tascam like all similar devices I have used is inferior in this regard.

I can use the Tascam is several modes:
1 Recording vinyl (or live music), just described.
2 As a standard DAC for playback of digital sources. I set Monitor on, and select between AES/EBU from my CD player and Spdif from my Logitech Touch.
3 As a semi-portable vinyl playback unit – bringing the drive along, I can playback ca 250 albums in 2x DSD format. Or live recordings, etc. This includes playback of LPs I borrowed and recorded.

So for me, the DA-3000 is a very good value, even if the DAC in the UD-501 is probably a bit better (and the Astell & Kern 240 more portable).

I have never used J-River. Since it seems to recognize .dsf files, it should work? I saw this debate:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/jriver-media-center-and-direct-stream-digital-12469/

Best of luck. Fully agree regarding digital coming of age. Should have happened long ago.
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
I looked at the Tascam and decided not to get it partially because of the small disk issue. I got a Korg MR-2000 instead. Unfortunately, they are only available used. I write to the internal drive on the Korg and then connect the Korg to a PC via usb to transfer the files to the PC. Like you, I find the digital version very close to the vinyl. I am waiting until I get a DSD DAC before doing all the conversions. I want to decide if I should do it in PCM or DSD. The advantage of PCM is the ease of declicking. As far as I know there is no inexpensive option to declick DSD. I originally was looking at a unit that connected directly to the PC through usb, but decided it was better to go directly to disk and avoid any timing issues with usb and the PC.

It sounds like you might be storing the whole side of a record as one file. If you want to turn that into tracks, you might want to look at Vinyl Studio. It works with DSD files and allows you to pretty easily separate individual tracks. It connects to an online database (can't remember which one) and offers your options to identify the recording and then imports the track titles. You can then separate into tracks, which is a manual process. But you do not have to type in all the track names. It takes a little getting used to, but I can now separate into tracks in 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the album. It also will declick your file, but requires you convert to PCM first. If declicking is of interest, you might try converting to 24/192 and declicking and then compare that to your 2x DSD. There is a free trial version of Vinyl Studio that has all the features, it just does not allow a declicked file to be output. The full version is only $29.

And, yes, J River does handle DSD files. It can also convert DSD to PCM and vice versa.
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