Pre records - 16 or 18 bit?

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Here’s a question. Were any of the DCC pre records remastered and or recorded at 18 bits?

These days old analogue tape masters tend to be copied at 24bits which is I guess a kind of future proofing, but unless the DCC release was a new high bit digital recording, I wonder how the old source material was treated.

My guess is most DCC tapes would have been produced from whatever digital copy the record company made available and that these would have been CD ready but not necessarily DCC ready.

I’d be interested if anyone knows for sure.

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Recording equipment, mastering equipment and the Philips DCC duplication machines were most likely 16 bits only. But I don’t have a reliable source for that information.

===Jac

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Hi,
Yes, there are 18 bit recordings. Mostly classical by Decca.
The confusing part is that they did not mention this anywhere on the outside casing.

Examples:

Rachmaninov, Skrjabin, Prokofjev: pianosonates.
Peter Jablonksi (piano).
40281-5 (dcc).

Beethoven/Schubert: Italiaanse liederen.
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo-sopraan), Andras Schiff (piano).
440297-5 (dcc).

Brahms: Symfonie nr. 3 in F, op. 90.
Schoenberg: Kammersinfonie nr. 1, op. 9.
Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest o.l.v. Riccardo Chailly
436466-5 (dcc).

4

Re: lack of source material info. Nothing changes does it! I’ll try and track one of those recordings down. (I take it the information was written on the booklet inside? )Thanks

5

No info on the inside either. We have the info from Philips and a review done when releasing the dcc951.

1 Like
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Easier said than done though sourcing these. Nothing on Discogs…:frowning: :cry:

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