I am limited to 7" reels as only have my Pioneer rt707 and really trying hard not to purchase another deck that would handle 10.5" reels.
I do try to clean heads and demag once a week though.
On my Pioneer I do have a pitch speed control which I have used on some home recorded tapes I purchased which sounded just a tad off.
I actually record mostly from Qobuz hires onto tape at 7.5 ips and results are stellar.
Still working my way through a pile of Sony tapes I bought locally that were basically brand new and sealed. They can really handle deep record saturation right up high in the red.
It's an expensive hobby for sure compounded by my serious addiction to all types of media and replay equipment for same. |
@orpheus10
Which tape did you get from ATR?
And thanks for that link, great article that I really enjoyed.
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I agree.
I record everything at 7.5ips including streamed hires music.
Tape costs too high to use up at higher speed. |
Sleepwalker.
It was just an el cheapo Chinese job bought of ebay, does not even have any brand name on it!
Works just fine for what I wanted though.
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Got it Benjie!
Probably not something I am too interested in pursuing right now Tbh.
I am actually quite happy with this little tube buffer, it is doing exactly what i hoped for.
As a bonus ( in my eyes at least) it has tone controls which is very useful to roll off the bass a little on some early recordings.
For my needs I am probably set for now.
Time to shop for some more decent tape though, nearly used all my Ampex up.
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May have to consider a dedicated tube tape pre after all.
As a cheap experiment I purchased a simple tube buffer with 15db of gain max.
I put this inline between Revox and Ayre and besides a healthy boost to signal level ( now pretty much level with CD input level) it have a nice " tube" type of warmth and space feel to the music.
Well worth $28 as an experiment.
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@luvrockin .
And all of this started as a simple question.
I have to ask.... Are you any wiser now and has your question truly been answered? |
Actually Orpheus, you really do NOT need to have considerable experience to be aware of that at all.
As long as you have knowledge of the some of the workings of analog tape recording and mastering this is something you will be well aware of.
Not the same as having to had experienced it yourself for sure.
As to the WHY, that I really have no idea of and that I believe is the crux of your questioning yes.
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@tomic601 .
Interesting perspective......
If I win the lottery $800 may become trivial but until then I think 15ips will remain an experiment.
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My new to me Revox B77 high speed arrived today.
Played a couple of pre recorded 7.5ips tapes through it and very impressed.
Next up is trying recording at 15ips from Qobuz hires stream.
As you say it may then be hard to go back to a lower level. |
Tomic.
When the b77 arrives will have to see what I think of the sq as is.
Still doubt I am going to spring $800 for a Bottlehead though at this stage. |
Opened up the Sony today and the output pots were set at approx 2/3 of available span. Did not bother to hook up a meter to check if it was actually 0.78v as still low even if spot on.
Cranked them both to max then backed off both a hair and then retried playback.
A fair increase in volume relative to volume setting on my amp without any distortion or artifacts I could hear so a win I would say.
Thank you Ralph and Al. |
Definitely hope I can tweak the output pots as $800 for a Bottlehead is not going to work for a $100 deck ... Lol.
Looks nice but...... |
Tomic.
I will check Bottlehead out as well.
But will be opening up the Sony today to see if possible to crank up the output on the board pots. |
Glad to say the Revox has found itself a new home already.
Thank you
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The more things change the more they stay the same!
Sometimes wish I could just stop and settle at one project at a time but alas no!
What am I babbling about?
I was the member who Ralph shipped the Revox b77 too for just the cost of shipping. I had every intention of placing it into a home worthy case and getting it running correctly and to this end I was communicating with an eBay member in Switzerland who had a stock case. Well one thing led to another and he offered me a mint B77 high speed unit for what I considered a very fair price considering he was shipping it from Switzerland to the USA!
So with that being said I feel it is only fair to pass Ralphs B77 onto someone here if they are still interested. Obviously not looking to make any money on it but not looking to lose any either and I did pay $85 to have it shipped so I think that plus actual shipping to you is reasonable?
I did manage to check a few things out on it, ff and play seem to work well, one meter does not work, rw is very slow and I had headphone output in both channels so as Ralph said it likely will not take a lot of work.
It is in a flight case right now and that is how it will ship inside another cardboard box just for a bit of extra padding.
Message me direct if interested and my apologies for possibly taking it from other members in the first place, it was not my intention to have it end up like this.
Ok thanks!
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Al
Yes I did find Ralph's suggested method to be a good place to start and with the info you have provided it should indeed be possible to see if there is any more voltage to go.
As far as headphones go I did think of that as well but as with my easy to drive cans even at full output the volume was still low I discarded it for same reason.
This is a project I will undertake tomorrow morning and hopefully the pots are not maxed out. I doubt it as it looks like this deck has seen very little use or even been opened up.
Thank you! |
Orpheus.
Nice tutorial.
But the new Thorens deck?
Pretty impressive somebody is actually making a new one in today's age.
But $13500?
Hope the regular run after the first 100 are a LOT less!
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The Sony TC377 does has an output level control ( set on max right now).
So there maybe a internal pot that can increase the level controlled by the output level control.
Will have to see if can find a circuit diagram for it.
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Orpheus
That thought had crossed my mind but was thinking that at 1.0v the input into the phono might be too hot?
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Silly question possibly but.....
Is there any way to increase the output voltage at the deck or to increase it going into the amp.
Obviously without having any deleterious sonic effect. |
About what I though Ralph.
My Akai cassette has approx same.
However my Nakamichi 582 seems like it has a lot more output and this was just a consumer deck.
Maybe Nakamichi did things a little differently?
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Orpheus.
No idea if it is a good deck but atm it’s good enough.
I really like the simplicity of it and it has similar controls to my old Akai cassette deck. Hard switches not soft touch controls.
Very solid feeling.
If I had one criticism it would be its relatively low output to my amp, but I think that is likely fairly common issue in most vintage tape decks.
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Funny how nobody seems to talk about the lower end of r2r or admit to owning a lesser deck.
While my Sony TC-377 is far from state of the art, it’s inherent simplicity and build quality will likely mean it will still be working into the next century.
Nope it will not give that state of the art replay some are experiencing here but I can say that Qobuz hires streaming recorded at 7.5ips on Ampex 641 sounds pretty darn good to myself.
I also really like the retro look of this deck. |
Gusser.
That is one sweet looking deck!
Thank you for the link and information.
Enjoy it. |
Inna
I think you missed Ralph's point entirely on the usage of the Technics....... |
Pre-recorded cassette tapes also were terrible, but if you recorded the cassettes at home off of the LPs, they sounded just fine I am afraid that I just cannot agree with a blanket statement like that. I have a LOT of pre recorded cassettes and find them to be just about as variable as vinyl, there are definitely clunkers but there are some really well done examples as well. I have two different playback decks, a Nak and an Akai and both show the differences in quality of tapes fed through them. Just my opinions and findings,nothing more. |
Thanks Benjie.
I see it at $35.
Sworn by it for my stylus, not sure why I never even thought about it for tape!
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Where can you buy the LAST tape head preservative?
When I wanted to buy LAST stylus preservative I ended up buying it from England.
Any USA resellers? |
I think right there we now have at least 3 posters in agreement as to what is actually being said and claimed on r2r tape playback. |
Cleeds
If I am reading and interpreting this correctly, I do not believe anybody is claiming that it contains more information than the original.
Rather that the information has always been there but a 15ips tape record on high quality gear reveals some of the hidden or masked details and information that was not audible on the source .
At least that is my take from this so far......
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Off topic but as Chris mentioned it.
Glad to see we are not the only exotic cat nuts here.
2 Savannah, 2 Bengal and 2 rescue moggie.
It can be " interesting" in our house at times! |
Cleeds
Last time I checked my bank account did not run to hiring Avenged Sevenfold to perform in my garage unfortunately...…...
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Tbh of late I have never tried to tape any vinyl but I have taped hires streaming.
On 2 cassette decks and one r2r.
In all instances the taped replay of the hires stream sounds more alive,warmer, fuller and just more musical.
Now you can say it is distortion and that’s fine,I really do not know or care.
As to tape hiss, on my older Akai cassette I can hear slight hiss inbetween tracks at elevated levels but even in quiet passages I really cannot say as I hear any.
That is not to say it’s not there of course,just that it is not obtrusive to myself.
But even on my cheapo Sony r2r it is near impossible for me to detect any tape hiss recorded from hires streams onto Ampex tape ( all I have right now). |
As I have said I am very happy with the results from my humble Sony TC-645 recording streamed hires music from Quboz at 7.5ips.
A very budget deck for sure but it somehow gives the music a little warmth and life that appears to be missing on the stream.
Call this distortion and an unfaithfull reproduction if you will I truly do not care, it is my ears and my equipment.
Been using some Ampex Professional 641 tape that I bought a job lot of on the Bay, new and sealed.
Do not really know whether this is good or bad tape but it records well enough for my needs.
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Orpheus.
Thank you.
Never played a pre recorded tape yet, and unless I find some cheaper ones Never likely too ... Lol
Very happy with my results from recording streaming.
Good to know 7.5ips is considered good enough for the vast majority of the time.
Not tried to record vinyl yet in all honesty
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Now you have me drooling over machines with 15 ips capability.
Still my old Sony tc645 was/ is a great cheap entry level r2r.
Built well, tough, relatively simple and fairly compact.
Sounds darn good to me recording 24/96 and 192 streams from Quboz at 7.5 ips. |
