DAT vs. DVCAM

Hello, Anyone know what the trade offs are for using Audio from DVCAM Downconverts vs. going back to the original DATs? Obviously it's an automatic generation loss if it's an analog transfer. But assuming it is digital and the audio is the same bit depth and sample rate etc. Will there be an "audible" difference? If there is an audible difference, what is it and is it worth the painful process of digitizing the DATs and re-syncing manually (this is a feature length film) ... I know that mini DV can sound really crunchy and I believe the bit depth isn't even true 16bit. However, I believe the tape stock that was used for this project was DVCAM. Thanks for any advice on this Brett

Thanks for clearing that up Joe. Yes I was refering to audio transfered during telecine from DAT to a deck. The last project I did I just used the audio from the downconverts and I couldn't hear anything different. The waveforms looked a tad bit smaller but sounded exactly the same. Thanks go out to RobMaki and Noiz2 too... Actually I may be taking on a DV project next month and will keep your words of wisdom in mind when I start editing the production sound. Cheers, Brett

Glad to help, good luck with your show Great facility, BTW, congratulations!