The dangerous world of Reel-to-Reel Tape


It feels like I re-entered the world of tape knowing full well of all the downsides, yet I  did it anyway.  I spent much of my youth glued to my dad's decks, making recordings.  As cassette and digital came of age, I always appreciated the sound of tape. 

Whether this adventure is worth it is a subjective exercise.  For folks who plop down $500-$1k on cables or those who swap gear often, tape is really not that expensive, relatively speaking.  Titles are limited though. 

The sound quality and experience is quite something.  Before jumping back into R2R, I had 4 versions of Muddy Waters' Folksinger.  Hearing Chad Kasem's firm's work on it in 15ips it's just something else.  Body, size, and presence are just different than very good vinyl and digital.  And this is with the stock reproduce board from a Revox PR99 MKIII. I can only imagine what's going to happen when I rebuild that card, put in a modern one, or run directly from the head out to a preamp. 

Maybe I'll see some of you in R2R Rehab, where I'll try to get sober from tape. 

128x128jbhiller

Showing 1 response by elliottbnewcombjr

My friend has an Otari, 15 ips, 2 track, played me Led Zeppelin, holy crap, now I know what they were doing!!!! Best sound I ever heard. Still remember it, probably will never forget it. He's got lots more now for me to hear.

If you have funds and room, go for it.

I have Teac X2000R (their last prosumer deck) 7-1/2" IPS, 4 track pre-recorded tapes, not like 15 ips 2 track, but still that source beats anything here.

i.e. if limited resources, no need to go 15ips, big expensive tapes to move into 'better than what you have'.

however, as noted, pre-recorded content is limited by their era and end of production.

those pre-recorded tapes, 50, some 60 years old surprisingly still sound amazing, no bleed thru, no stretching, the ends can be brittle, I add new leader tape to both ends, to transfer the startup force to the new leader. 

I bought over 500 of them years back, sold 100 of them, only 1 return because it appeared USPS drove a truck over it intentionally.