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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 3 responses by jbhiller

jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,361 posts
 

@danmar123 ,  New blanks are easy to find. These guys ship out and deliver in 2-3 days to me. 

 

jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,361 posts
 

Go to the drop down menu, "Analog Tape"

 

 

 

jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller OP
1,361 posts
 

Dare I try to offer an explanation of why some perceive R2R to sound better than the source when a vinyl or CD is put to tape.

I think it's about the lens at which we listen to music.  R2R, like vinyl, takes a tiny signal and blows it up onto a big canvas (or at least it does with good machines/preamp circuits). It makes everything lifesize.  

The fact that the lion's share of recorded music before say 1990 was originally committed to tape in the first place might mean that getting the music back on the original "canvas" type can put everything closer in place to the original recording. 

The perspective of tape and vinyl, I think, is what makes some people perceive it to be more pleasing than digital. That can happen despite noise. 

With regard to the sub master reel tapes made from the original masters or safety masters (e.g. Chad Kassem's work, Tape Project, etc.), it does seem that most listeners find them to be very present, clear, and musical.  

Currently, I'm rolling Oscar Petersen's "We Get Requests" in 15ips.  My EQ is set at NAB, which is incorrect for this recording.  I haven't had the opportunity to address changing the resistors on the playback board for CCIR/IEC2 equalization yet.  Guess what? It's stupendous.  

While I certainly agree there's tiny amount of 15ips reel-to-reel recordings out there that we can easily access, those that are out there give me hope that we will see more and more added.  If I could get 15 recordings in each of the big genres (say jazz, rock, folk, country, etc.) and those recordings were classics (think Waltz for Debby, Dark Side of the Moon, Willie Nelson/Waylon Jennings, and so on) I'd say this is a worthwhile exercise. 

Tape sounds present, large, dynamic, powerful, clean and lovely.  If done right it takes you there.  I have no issue committing time and resources to it. Frankly, I think high quality tape has shown me (subjectively) I'm better off playing in tape than buying "better components" over and over. 

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