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Re: MD v. DAT

Subject: Re: MD v. DAT
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 21:33:04 -0400
Jeremy Minns wrote:
> I 've just started recording with my new Portadisc and am very pleased with 
> it. I had been loath to move from DAT because in spite of all the postings 
> in favour of MD I still had a niggling fear that the quality might not be 
> as good as DAT.

Keep recording and keep listening, I bet you like the Portadisc and it's 
recordings.

> Walter posted a detailed blind comparison of MD v. CD a year or two ago, 
> which showed no audible difference, but since then a few people have again 
> raised doubts as to a possible loss of audio quality due to MD's ATRAC 
> 'compression' . On their web site Cornell write 'recent claims that Sony's 
> ATRAC 3.5 & 4.5 coding versions are considered by some professionals to be 
> indistinguishable from, or even better than a CD remains to be proven.' I 
> thought that as I have both types of recorder I would make a 
> small  contribution towards resolving the question.

Just to set the record clear, the blind test I provided was of ATRAC 4.0 
(Sony MXD-D3, also same as a MZ-R30, a version that's now over 7 years 
old). The group did no better than chance at listening to tell which was 
ATRAC. And only slightly better than chance even if allowed to analyze 
the sound. I also provided a few samples of the same material recorded 
with the Portadisc, though no blind test.

This was well over two years ago, October 2000 or thereabouts.

On with the nitpicking...

Walt




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