Is There Any Reason To Buy A Reel-To-Reel Machine Nowadays??


I bought my first reel-to-reel machine in 1977 as a convenience in order to record and play back multiple albums in high fidelity.without having to fool around with my manual turntable.  I was surprised to find out that I preferred the sound of the reel to the turntable.  Along came cd and I could play both sides of an album with the fuss of having to flip it over every 15 minutes.  Now with high a high quality DAC and a computer, you can have uninterrupted high fidelity music for days on end.

No one is making new recordings on reel-to-reel.  The cost of blank tape is exorbitant.  The cost of a good open-reel deck is stratospheric.  So pretty much you're left with recording an LP or a cd to your reel for playback.....what's that??

Please chime in for reasons to buy an open-reel deck today.
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Showing 1 response by jmkrajnik

Don't let any of the "digital" folk take you off what you are hearing.  Digital was originally designed for cost optimization, not high fidelity.  That is what Sony and Philips were looking for when they invented the CD player.  .MP3's are just the next step to lower cost.  Digital has improved markedly over the decades, with the highest quality digital sounding pleasant, though not up to a good reel to reel setup or turntable.

It is interesting: the biggest digital success story in the last 20 years, perhaps ever, was Steve Jobs.  But when he went home, this is what he listened to

https://www.speakerscornerrecords.com/news/details/18/steve-jobs-and-vinyl

Digital could probably be fixed (as mentioned in the article), but then it will be less cheap and convenient.

The big secret with reel to reel is the idler arm drive used in system.  There are other reasons, but the idler arm drive is probably the most important piece.

The problem is getting tapes and keeping reel to reels running.

Though you do now have an option that gets you 98% of the way there w/o the cost, inconvenience of tapes, and problems with getting the decks serviced.  Here, take a look at this:

http://www.idler-wheel-drive.com/science-art/drive-system/

I have one of these, and all the claims made are true.  My table is the best sounding source I've ever heard except for older pro Ampex reel to reels.  It even sounds better than the Tandberg I used to record live concerts in school.  Nantais does a very good job of explaining the advantages of idler arm technology.

It is definitely easier to deal with records over reel to reels, and recordings are generally cheaper on vinyl.