Title: Re: Korg MR-2000S 1-bit DSD recorder
Post by: BSD2000 on December 20, 2012, 12:06:08 AM
I found some internal photos of the Korg - it looks like it uses 2.5" IDE/PATA hard drives and it does work with SATA->IDE adapters. The original firmware limited the capacity to 132GB but version 1.6.1 and higher supports larger drives. I have a couple 320GB, 500GB and 750GB 2.5" drives I could use to upgrade it. 8)
Title: Re: Korg MR-2000S 1-bit DSD recorder
Post by: BSD2000 on December 21, 2012, 06:06:11 AM
Title: Re: Korg MR-2000S 1-bit DSD recorder or Tascam DV-RA1000HD?
Post by: BSD2000 on December 23, 2012, 06:04:52 AM
Well, I decided to get the Korg MR-2000S. I put in a best offer on an eBay auction and the seller accepted. He listed it as a new unit, with the original box, manual and software. It's the silver model, which is functionally identical to the black model (MR-2000S-BK) but has an 80GB HD vs. 160GB in the black. It doesn't matter much, since I plan on upgrading it to a 250GB drive anyway.
One of the biggest selling points for me was the Audiogate software. Korg allows you to download and use the software for free (as long as you allow the software to tweet your usage of it), or use it 'tweet free' if you connect a supported Korg DSD recorder to your PC. After reading reviews of the unit from professional studio engineers and the fact that they also use the Audiogate software themselves for format conversion, plus having tried the software as both a high resolution music player and for converting a few DSD files myself, I was sold. The quality of the conversion from DSD to PCM is outstanding.
As an example, I have a SACD DSD rip of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' album which sounds amazing. All of the audio players I've used to play it - including Foobar 2000 (with the DSD plugin), sound great, but when I played it through the Audiogate software set for 192k (and the realtime, highest quality setting turned on) the audio quality jumped up to a level that was jaw dropping. :o
My PC's sound card tops out at 192k and as of right now, there's no way to play native DSD files on a PC without converting them to PCM first (although Fostex, Mytec and a few others are starting to roll out DSD DAC's). Some Sony DVD/Bluray players - including older PS3's and some Vaio laptops will play DSD encoded .dff files burned on a DVD. There's even a hack available for older PS3's with SACD playback to use them as a SACD ripper. As far as I know, there's no other way to rip a SACD except by recording the analog audio output from a SACD - which is where the Korg will come in handy.
As good as the Apogee Rosetta analog to digital converters are, they never sounded exactly like listening to the live record playing - even at 96k/24bit. The Korg should be able to get one step closer to capturing all of that vinyl record goodness. 8)
I can't wait to record some vinyl at 5.8Mhz. ;D The place I bought it from is less than 100 miles away, so it should only take a day to get here and when it does - I'll post some sample audio tracks. :)
Title: Re: Korg MR-2000S 1-bit DSD recorder or Tascam DV-RA1000HD?
Post by: BSD2000 on December 27, 2012, 09:32:28 AM
The Korg MR-2000S is on the UPS truck and 'out for delivery' - it should be here in 4-5 hours. 8)
Yesterday, the mailman dropped off the 44pin IDE to SATA adapter:
[attachimg=1]
And I found a spare 2.5" 250GB SATA drive to drop in once it gets here. I can't wait to try this thing out. ;D
Title: Re: Korg MR-2000S 1-bit DSD recorder or Tascam DV-RA1000HD?
Post by: BSD2000 on September 20, 2014, 10:26:53 AM