The LFI-10 was a necessary tool in the early days of digital audio. It
allowed you to look at the subcode data in the digital stream and modify
it. Most of the DAT machines did not conform to the standards and to get
things to work correctly you needed to modify the status bits. The manual
is required reading for anybody that wants to know about digital
interfacing.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/mbrs/recording_preservation/
manuals/Lexicon%20LFI-10%20Digital%20Audio%20Format%20Interface.pdf

RME HDSP AES 32 cards were the most stable digital IO cards of the day. THe
HDSPe is a current product.

https://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/hdspe_aes.php

-mark

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 4:15 PM, Eli Bildirici <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> That looks like pro-equipment that I can't justify for myself, but I'm
> curious if you could elaborate about the RME and Lexicon devices. Also what
> is a 'format converter' in this context? A sample rate converter?
>
> June 5 2017 4:08 PM, "Mark Donahue" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > I did a bunch of these transfers years ago and found that the AES output
> of
> > the PCM 2700 fed my RME AES 32 card directly.
> > WRT the emphasis, none of these devices does the de-emphasis in the
> digital
> > domain. The PCM601 sends out whatever flag is encoded on the tape. We
> found
> > that a lot of people bypassed the Emphasis on the F1 record, but many did
> > not change the flag setting so the ape had the wrong flag. I still have a
> > couple of Lexicon LFI-10 format converters to deal with these oddball
> > tapes.
> > All the best,
> > -mark
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 3:21 PM, Richard L. Hess <
> [log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Hi, Ellis,
> >>
> >> My guess is that the DAT machine re-linearizes the audio before sending
> it
> >> out the SPDIF spigot. I think DAT machines also throw in the
> de-emphasis,
> >> but the ES-601 F1 system does not do that on its digital output but
> does on
> >> its analog output (I think), but that is an earlier design.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> Richard
> >>
> >> On 2017-06-05 3:02 PM, Ellis Burman wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi Eli. Thanks for the update!
> >>>
> >>> So, just to clarify, you used the built-in S/PDIF optical input on the
> G5?
> >>> And the data was already re-linearized (there was some conjecture that
> the
> >>> data might need to be processed using a lookup table to remove the
> >>> non-linear encoding). If the audio was re-linearized, then I assume it
> >>> was
> >>> 16 bit and you captured at 16 bit and not 12 bit?
> >>>
> >>> Did you find a method for 16 bit recordings that works reliably using a
> >>> DDS
> >>> drive?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>>
> >>> Ellis Burman
> >>> www.audiomechanics.com
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>
> >> Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask]
> >> Aurora, Ontario, Canada 647 479 2800
> >> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> >> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
> Eli Bildirici
> (347) 837-8337
>