Reel2Reel is a waste of time. I've used it since1964 and unless you are playing back $500 master copies it is a degrading format. You can make much better recordings cheaper with DSD now if that's your goal. I only use mine for playing 4 channel masters. I could not live without 2 tape monitor channels and a dBx 400 switchbox. |
It is dependent if the RtR has an onboard preamp or NOT. It is just like a turntable you have to have a tape preamp.. MOST modern Reel to Reels had EQs on board. THE Great ones had onboard bypass too. You could play directly from the head through a tweaked tape/phono stage... Not much better in the way of playback... RtR is cool to mess with... I'm actually waiting on just such a device.. Direct head playback Tape/phono (valve) preamp.. 5 months 3 weeks now.. TWO months to go... Decware ZP3... Remember, HiFi, you may not be able to appreciate RtR without a few mods... An AV(HT) may work, but it might not be a good starting point... Tinker point maybe... Fun for sure.... Enjoy... |
RTR was and is the gold standard. Anyone knocking it as waste of time is hopelessly lost. Only thing worse would be to knock it as a waste of time while pretending the AVR isn’t. That would be an offense of such monumental ignorance no o,... wait- what? He did? Wow. Well, there you go. You can use any line level input. Guy ways RTR is a waste, doesn’t even know it is line level. Geez Louise! You are looking for Line Out and ideally a Tape Monitor loop. AVR will not have this. You can still record. Simply connect your source directly into the tape deck. Do your recording using the monitor feature on the deck. This will let you flip between Line (the signal coming into the deck that you are recording) and Monitor which is the recorded signal being played back from the deck. Not as convenient but actually better in terms of quality since a direct source to deck connection is better than through any preamp, and especially an AVR. |
I am a new adopter of RtR technology. My first pre-recorded tape is a second generation copy Lyn Stanley Live at Bernies, recorded at 15ips, 2T. I can honestly say, after being a HiFi enthusiast for over 50 years, hands down the best recording I have ever heard. It really does sound like live music. Ever wonder why most high end equipment vendors now use RtR decks to demonstrate their equipment? See this post for more information on RtR recordings: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anyone-buys-master-tape-dubs |
