TASCAM DV-RA1000HD - An Analog Lover's Perspective

[WOStantonCS100]

You can get what's called an IDE to SATA bridge, which I've used successfully in my PVR to connect an SATA drive to an IDE slot. No problems whatsoever.

You could experiment with SSD's then as well!

Spot on. I've been looking at those. This machine is silent (no fans); but, depending on manufacturer and model, the HDD has the potential to ruin that. I'm thinking of some of the longer lasting but noisy Hitachi's I've come across. A stable SSD with great read/write specs would be great (Vertex 4?).

I'm a bit concerned about the controller, though. From the factory it's setup just like you'd expect to see it in a PC with the hard drive as the master and the optical drive jumpered as a slave. Until I test it out in the actual machine I'll reserve cautious optimism.

[WOStantonCS100]

Illusions of Conclusions and things they won't tell...

Far too much flipping with the source selector has confirmed (to me) that 24bit/192kHz PCM (the highest possible recording resolution on this machine) is indeed scarily close to the analog input signal; but... still lacks that last little bit of naturalness, in comparison to an analog source. A 9 out of 10 is what I would say. And, I am shocked to be saying that. Given what I've heard of 2.8MHz DSD compared to 24bit/96kHz PCM and preferring the more "natural" sound of DSD, I simply MUST make a point of hearing double-rate DSD. I'm guessing it would garner a 9.5 out of 10, which IMHO is excellent, bordering on super-fantastic, for digital audio recording. I first dipped into digital audio home recording (seriously) back in '98 ?? Things have come a long, long way and I applaud all those who never settled for status quo and continue to pursue digital audio for music loving audiophiles. At some point, I fully expect digital audio to get to the point where I cannot hear a difference between source and digital recording. 24bit/384kHz PCM, 6.1MHz or higher DSD is probably that point. I still won't ged rid of my vinyl and tape; but, my expendable/travel copies will finally make the grade.

Now then, what of the actual unit? And, what are they not telling you?

As mentioned in previous posts, when I peered into the top vents of this machine, I was happily surprised to see: a standard PC optical burner and a standard 2.5" IDE/PATA drive connected up with a ribbon (data) cable and 2 and 4 pin moles (power) connectors. (I'll work on posting pics.) This would probably be a dividing line for some. However, I keep in mind that the Meridian Reference optical players use standard optical drives. The optical drive in the DV-RA1000HD is a Teac DV-W5000E DVD writer. The hard drive (as supplied in my unit) is a Western Digital WD800BEVE 80GB. When I started to have issues with read errors, I contacted Tascam service. After I finally got to a human being, I was told the hard drive was standard. However, I wasn't told how to reformat the hard drive; the recommendation being to pack it up and send it off for service. After googling it, I found that simply holding the "HDD" button in while powering the unit on will bring up a menu with the option to reformat the hard drive. If data becomes corrupt on the hard drive this is about all you can do; but, at least it's an option. I don't recall reading that in the manual. I was also told that the optical drive was "not" standard and it would also need to be sent in for service if something went awry. I wasn't having any issues with it.

I've made the lion's share of my income in the computer field; so, of course, I took everything I was being told with a grain of salt. A friend of mine has the same unit, purchased quite some time earlier. Warranty is not an issue with his machine; so, he let me at it. Equipped with a screwdriver, a spare Seagate 60GB hard drive, a Lite-On 22x DVD burner and my hunches and experiences, I swapped in the hard drive and optical drive. It only took minutes. I immediately formatted the hard drive on power on. No issues. No modifying. Again, these are standard drives. I didn't even have to remove the facia of the DVD burner. We spent the next several hours testing feature after feature. [EDIT: It's been running with the swapped out drives for a week now without a hitch.] The only thing we haven't done is attempt to record hi-rez PCM or DSD straight to the optical drive. (Then again, I would never do this anyway. That's the whole point of the internal hard drive. The DV-RA1000-- did not have an internal hard drive. It was generally applauded when this was included in the DV-RA1000HD.) Burning (backing up) projects from internal hard drive to DVD+/-R presented no issues. It plays back the most data intensive 24bit/192kHz .wav files without hestitation. Using the machine as a run-of-the-mill standalone cd burner, with any media we threw at it, also presented no issues.

So, what do we/I have? For me, I could conceivably have the last optical disc player I will ever purchase, certainly CD player/standalone CD burner (though it would be a crime to use it just to burn/play CD's). If the optical rom drive dies (as they all do) replacements can be had for a song. As pointed out by Nick, there are adapters available that theoretically should allow one to use SATA drives in place of PATA drives. We haven't tried that out yet, soon though, hopefully.

There must be downsides, right? Well, yes... Although this machine has outstanding A/D/Ac's, it does not upsample (if that's your thing as it is mine). This can be gotten around. It's a pro machine; so, the I/O's are numerous. For high res material, I would let the machine do it's thing and use either the balanced or unbalanced outputs. For lower res material, one of the digital outputs can be sent to a favorite upsampling DAC. I'm hoping to use a simple A/B box; thus, still only using one preamp input.

The other consideration is the sticker on the back on the unit. You know the one, "Made in China". I sincerely hope that doesn't become an issue. I'll be watching mine like a hawk!!

To be continued...

[Reid Malenfant]

This is all sounding very interesting indeed. Cheers for going out on a limb & doing the donkey work on the HDD & optical drive, very handy to know

I think I'm going to have to get me a read of the operating manual of one of these machines..

[WOStantonCS100]

Top overview sans cover



Rear shot of swapped in Lite-On 22x IDE DVD Burner



Close up of swapped in Seagate drive nestled underneath optical drive



Ribbon cable termination at system board

[WOStantonCS100]

Obviously, lightscribe functions are not supported



Working flawlessly (2 shots)






Ribbon cable and 2-pin molex terminate on a board where the HDD plugs in



***DISCLAIMER: If you mod your unit Tascam will most likely void your warrantly and turn their back on you, like most manufacturers. If you mess up your unit, I am not responsible.

[Reid Malenfant]

Excellent, cheers for the pics Biff Definately looks like standard IDE connections from what I remember of them

[WOStantonCS100]

Excellent, cheers for the pics Biff Definately looks like standard IDE connections from what I remember of them

Glad to oblige.

[drrd]

Hi Biff, just checking back on this thread to see how you got on.

Just a word about format. It sounds like you're keeping your recordings on the Tascam HD whereas I send mine over to my PC. If I record in DSD I can either play them with Foobar, though the plugin isnt the best sounding, or convert them to PCM with Korg Audiogate. What I've found is when I've recorded in PCM it sounds excellent if it's left completely 'as is' but if I wanted to normalise the files (as I stay well away from 0db when recording) then something happens. It's subtle but even using software with 32 or even 64bit precision there's a change in the sound quality, it sounds more 'digital'.

If I use Audiogate to do a one step conversion with normalisation from DSD to PCM then that doesnt happen, the PCM file still has a natural vinyl-like sound. Basically I think processing PCM seems to be a bad idea, chopping the data up a certain way is fine unless you decide you'd actually like to put it back together and chop it a different way as you must if you change either the bits or the sample rate. If you keep your files on the Tascam unit and play them without any further processing then this won't be an issue at all but worth considering that DSD may be a better archive method.

Interestingly the Foobar plugin for DSD playback does a two-step conversion, first to 352K then downsampled again to the output sample rate, might explain why it doesnt sound quite as good as Audiogate.

[WOStantonCS100]

Hey Russell,

Very interesting indeed.

I believe you are quite right about the pitfalls of doing too much post record processing. I've installed both Foobar w/DSDIFF and Audiogate. I haven't spent enough time with either one to have a preference, as I do almost all my listening on the rig. I only use them as players. If I get a hankering to squelch a pop or click, I'd probably go back to "studio mode": Sonar and the laborious practice of manually microscopically isolating and attenuating only the most egregious of anomalies. Oh, joy.

Essentially, I'm using it just as I would my reel to reels. I actually don't do post processing of any kind. If it doesn't sound right, I reconsider cartridge choice, input level and/or balance and try again. After recording an LP, my peaks are generally no higher than -4db. Depending on the cartridge, a 3db to 6db input level setting gives a slight volume boost equivalent to recording to 1/4" tape and seems to work well with the phono pre going directly in. I'm actually using 24/192 exclusively now, as it really does sound the closest to the input, to my ears. The noise floor of my vinyl rig doesn't budge the meters and I haven't found an LP yet that will peg the meters at those settings. Dynamic range is excellent, and more importantly, resolution is the best I've heard from digital to date. (Considering, I still haven't heard native double-rate DSD or 24/384 yet.) Last step for me is to dump the project to an external hard drive via the laptop and also burn the project to DVD. These days I consider the original (whatever format that is) to be the archive. I can then play the heck out the tape, DVD or 24/192 files, in this case, while being able to repeat the process at a later time if I wear the tape out or drop the DVD in the loo (how that would happen, I don't know).

Too be honest, I think DSD probably is the better archive medium; but, not a "single-rate". Double-rate DSD or better, pushing the high frequency noise further out, would be the ticket for me as I think the sound would be equal to or better than 24/192. The optical drive option was the clincher for me. Now, if Tascam gets around to adding double-rate DSD or Korg gets around to adding an optical drive... ...I'll be whipping out my checkbook.

EDIT: I'd like to find out if the Oppo BDP-95 can read the project discs the Tascam creates and playback the .wav files. It would nice to have another player option.

[Reid Malenfant]

EDIT: I'd like to find out if the Oppo BDP-95 can read the project discs the Tascam creates and playback the .wav files. It would nice to have another player option.

Send me a disc & I'll let you know