DAT - High Sampling vs 24 bit

[mfdgame]

Sorry if this has been discussed here before but I have a couple of DAT decks made by Pioneer that can sample at 96khz. I saw there are also 24bit recorders from Tascam. I have never heard those players from Tascam. What is the better method of the 2? Ive used the high sampling for recording records before which sounds pretty nice.

[Lance Lawson]

96/24 sampling rate is actually very, very good. However 44/24 is pretty nearly as good as 96/24. Seems once the sampling rate exceeds 44/16 the entire digital soundscape improves in a lot of ways. IMO 96/24 is virtually as good as good analog tape except it still does not have the magic that only tape can give a recording. I think if you record digitally @96/24 then run it through good analog tape you can have the best of both worlds.

[mfdgame]

96/24 sampling rate is actually very, very good. However 44/24 is pretty nearly as good as 96/24. Seems once the sampling rate exceeds 44/16 the entire digital soundscape improves in a lot of ways. IMO 96/24 is virtually as good as good analog tape except it still does not have the magic that only tape can give a recording. I think if you record digitally @96/24 then run it through good analog tape you can have the best of both worlds.

Ok so my deck samples 16bit at 96khz. I think the Tascam samples 24bit at 48. what would be the better method?

[Lance Lawson]

Ok so my deck samples 16bit at 96khz. I think the Tascam samples 24bit at 48. what would be the better method?

I suspect 48/24 would be the better. Bit depth is perhaps more important than sampling rate. I know 44/24 sounds decidedly better than 44/16 and I'm hard pressed to hear a difference between 44/24 and 96/24. The best way of course is to let your ears decide. Actually 88/24 just may be the best of them all since stepping it down to 44/16 for CD is a simple dividing by 2 of the master sampling rate.