Recording Audio onto E80H and record modes...

[Scootershaka]

I've recently started recording audio only onto my Panasonic DMR E80H hard drive. I have a radio show in the late evening so I set the timer recording and record off the radio. Here's my question: Do you lose audio quality if you record in say LP or EP mode? I've been recording in XP mode for the best audio quality and then dubbing (track increment, editing, etc.) onto CD through a stand alone CD burner. By recording in the long play mode I can keep shows archived on the hard drive with more room till I can burn to CD. Does the Extra long play modes just affect the video quality? Or does it affect the audio too? Just wondering if I should stick to the higher modes such as XP and SP for audio? I did do a test in the long play the other night and didn't notice much difference but I'd like to have a little more scientific proof. Of course when recording video (with audio) I record in the XP or SP mode.
Thanks for anyones thoughts.

[Coolb69]

Although i cant point out specifics, as the manual is crap and doesnt give any, i do believe i've read somewhere that even at the slowest recording rate, The audio is still at least 16 or 18 bit, surpassing cd audio. Because of it's incredible bandwidth needed, video is the 'sufferer' of the mpeg algorhythm, not the audio, which is peanuts compared to the amount of data needed to reproduce video. If i am wrong i'm open to all educational tools!! Gerry

[webeye]

On a side note....VHS tapes at the slowest speed re audio give excellent CD quality sound.