I own 4 Open Reel decks now, all are broought up to, or better than factory specs. but have owned several others in the past as well. Right now I have a 2 track Tandberg TD20A-SE, with all new Tandberg Heads installed...A Tandberg TD20A all heads replaced 1/4 track...an AKAI GX-747 DBX, fully restored, and a TEAC X-2000R DBX fully restored as well. All of my machines are Black as main color, and all in perfect working order. I enjoy making Tapes from my Vinyl Front end, to any of the machines Im in the mood to use at the time. The sound is phenominal, I love Open Reel decks, and always have. I also have a Nakamichi RX-505 cassette deck, completely restored, I have owned since new. Ray |
Jeff,
I dont go the Tapeproject route, and I have 4 decks, and been into these machines for years. Its easiest to just buy what you like from ebay, or craigslist, etc...Also, if you have a nice turntable, you can make your own tapes, and listen to those. Another thing I had some fun doing was, a few other members in Audio Asylum and myself, each made a full 10 inch new metal reel of tape, with various kinds of music we liked, and mailed them to one-another. This way, each guy got to see how his deck sounded playing tapes well made from the other persons deck, and also got to hear different music than you might hear everyday on your own system. Everyone had a real nice machine, or machines, and we all used virgin tapes, and kept them completely analog, using turntables as our source of music. Some Mobile Fidelity LP's, other imported pressings, etc...we recorded at 7.5 ips, and used 1/4 track decks for the exchange. Ray |
Hello,
What is Spotify?? I know Open Reels are great for recording much music on a tape, with great recording quality. Do you mean from Radio? I do that myself here, with use of audio timer, for late night recording on my TEAC X2000R or AKAI GX-747 DBX. Great machines, but my Tandbergs are still my favorites overall. Ray |
Hello,
I myself, and many friends I have made on Audio Asylum, Audio Karma, Tapeheads.net etc....all have fully calibrated up to spec units, that we use regularly, and make tapes for oneanother and mail to eachother, to listen to eachothers tapes. I also buy prerecorded tapes from years ago, that sound fantastic. I dont buy the overpriced Tapetrail tapes, but instead make my own, from my very high end turntable, thus keeping all of my recordings fully analog, and they sound as good as the source. A great way to back up your existing vinyl collection, and get hours of listening time. I highly recommend. I also know several Tape Technicians that specialize in restoring Reel to Reels, and have lots of NOS parts for the units, like Tandberg, TEAC, Pioneer, Revox, etc....Ray |
Mike,
Im not going to get any further into a contest of what I cannot hear, which is a difference between my sources and my recordings, or that of those that I frequently talk with, of the same opinion. But I will say, Im not running any crud machines from the 1970's. Im using 2 deskc from the latter 1990's, and 2 decks from the middle 1980's, and of them, all 4 decks have been completely brought up to better than factory spec, by an expert in this field, of repair and restoration. A guy who I referred many people, and all have had nothing but the most positive to say about his work. I switch between source and tape, I also have DBX type 1, which on occasion I use, and I cannot hear a difference, which is all that is important to me. And to all others that are impressed when I allow them to hear these tapes. I like to agree with you on the fact that we both love reel to reel tapes, and Id rather not argue. My ears are my guide, and they hear just what Im telling you. Ray |
Hi Mike,
I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean the source as being the master tape. I meant the source as being my vinyl front end, or any other source I am recording. Not only me, but just about all the fellow tapeheads I associate with, cannot tell the difference from tape and source when listening. All of our tape decks have been fully spec'd or better. I use a guy that was Tandberg USA Factory Service Tech. in NYC, and he does many Open Reel machines for very wealthy people like doctors and lawyers, all very wealthy audiophiles. Maybe with measuring equipment you could tell a difference, but with our own hearing, we cannot, our decks are just that good. Maybe your hearing is better than all of ours, thats very possible, but I can speak for many of us, all with same results. None of us are using decks that we just bought in working condition, all have been completely gone through with a fine tooth comb, to the best that they can perform, and biased to todays higher biased tapes. Thats what im referring to when I made my statement. Ray |
Im not really arguing with Mike. He is right. From a technical standpoint, the absolute original source, or master tape, will always be better than any generation copy of it. But if that is what your paying $300.00 a reel for, than you should expect that. What Im saying is, the copy that I make on any one of my machines, sounds just as good as the source Im using to my ears, and the ears of many of my fellow reelers. And thats all that is important to me. I am not measuring the results with sensitive test equipment, Im listening to it via my stereo, which is pretty top notch, luckily, since I put alot of it together before children were born. I could never do it now. So, I enjoy my perfect to my ears sound, and enjoy the expressions of fellow audiophiles when I play things for them, or make them recordings. None of us are using test equipment to evaluate any difference between my source material, and the tape of it that I made. Ray |
Thanks,
Thata exactly what I was saying Jsman. Ray |
