Perhaps the earlier PCM-70xx series had a better transport than the later
versions. They were certainly different.
The PCM-7050 could only be purchased from Sony directly when we got ours;
the PCM-2500 never got much use here because the audio was so bad at 44.1kHz
sample rate.
The PCM-2000 had a tracking control, a somewhat curious gesture on Sony's
part.
My experience with DAT was mainly for delivery of CD production masters to a
pressing plant, and in that regard we ***never*** had a failure with several
hundred projects.
This was a special arrangement that we worked out with a major US plant,
using a DAT with striped with 30Hz NDF time code, together with documented,
frame accurate start of track marks. The PCM-7050 supplied clock and would
chase lock to a Sonic Solutions workstation. Worked like a charm and saved
almost $100,000 over purchase of a 1630 system.
Most of the stories about DAT media playing on one machine and not another
are about poor alignment, specifically the use of poor quality machines to
begin with. The Sony consumer portable DAT machines are notorious in the
latter regard, and I don't know why people even tried to repair them. Drop
them once and forget about them.
--
Parker Dinkins
Mastering + Restoration
http://masterdigital.com
on 1/21/10 3:18 AM US/Central, Paul G Turney wrote:
> Further to this, you will find that some mechanisms perform better than
> others, the PCM 2500 for example will play tapes that the 7000 series won't.
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