Mixdown To G5 Or Dat?, which is better: mixdown to G5 or Dat? Options

[mfro]

I have a pretty basic question. I record to analog tape (4-track open reel at the moment) and have always mixed down to a tascam DA20MKII DAT machine. I just bought a new 1.6 G5. I'm wondering if its better to continue mixing down to the DAT and then transfer digitally to the G5 for editing/cd burning, or if it would be better to mix directly to the G5. Is the Dat obsolete? It's only 16bit and I believe the G5 can record at 24bit but I wonder if the DAT has better converters. How are the a/d converters if I record directly into the sound input jack of the G5? Would I need to buy an expensive interface like the MBox to make it an improvement from the DAT?

thanks for your advice,
mark

[dougk]

In your current situation, I would definitely continue mixing down to DAT and then transferring dgitally to the G5. Built-in A/D conversion on the macs has never been the greatest. Ideally you'd want to have some sort of nice A/D conversion going into your G5. I wouldn't get the Mbox for what you're doing. There are others out there, such as the M-Audio Flying Cow.