Why Not Bring Back Analog, Reel to Reel Tape

Reel to reel tape machines are as good as gets, no one can get any better sound than a 2" 30 IPS properly calibrated 2 track reel to reel mastering machine, period.

Not even the best digital audio a/d converters can match a top of the line mastering reel to reel machine set up through the best preamps.

Most of the best LP records ever mastered come from the original reel to reel masters anyways, some newer records are made from digital masters or cut direct to a record master.

However mastering from reel to reel to any other format will always sound slightly or highly different. Depending on your playback electronics, phono cartridge, D/A converters, preamp, amplifiers and speakers etc. But nothing will sound as good as the best reel to reel master.

So as far as I am concerned, the best recordings ever made in history were done on a reel to reel machine, period.

And who cares if people don't like the format because they have to actually work at threading the reel tape and or calibrating their reel machine, and or they are afraid the reel tape will not last and will deteriorate over time.

The truth is, most reel tape masters have lasted through fifty years or so, except some reel tapes made in the late 1970's to 1995 due to a bad decision to change the chemical process they had sticky shed syndrome, but unlike records, most reel tapes still sound as good as the day they were recorded without pops, excessive background hiss and audible distortion.

I will not include here the prerecorded reel tapes, most of those were duplicated at high speed and have tape hiss and way too much treble and most sound like crap and are distorted, and in this case the LP records do sound better.

However real time recordings on to the reel tape format, such as studio masters, can not be beat for sound quality, period.

Even in a digitally sampled world, the analog reel tape picks up more audio analog information and translates it to our ears better, especially on the low, mid and high frequencies, which digital can not handle as accurate. This is especially the case with 44khz 16 bit CD's, that is why they sound harsh.

Open reel is a small nitch market even in the pro audio world. On the consumer side, the only demand would come from high end audio interests, which make up a really small percentage of the common audio market. At $4- $8K for a new deck, a company would have to ask themselves how many are they really going to sell?? Not enough to warrant the expense of carrying inventory, handling repairs etc.

In an age when MP3 sonics is quite fine for most folks, who pay 99 cents for a download tune, this would make even less sense.

Even in the pro-sumer audio market, garage bands, and home bands are all doing digital if nothing else due to cost. Once one has invested in the hardware, laying down another track requires some additional drive space, not another reel of 50+ dollar analog tape.

In the pro studio market, you will almost always find a Studer or an Otari MTR tucked in a corner. They know that some clients will pay for the analog sound, but not all. Even here its a small market.

I have a number of analog 15 and 30 ips master dubs, as well as record live to two track without any compression, or Effects boxes in the signal path on the weekends. All the weekend recording is done to hi res digital. Every once in a while I will lug along an analog half track machine. No question, the analog machine does sound better by far.
At the end of the day though all the tracks will eventually get mixed down for CD, so unless I want an analog copy for myself, there is no reason to take the analog deck along, even though it smokes the digital gear.

Have any of you guys with working R2R decks tried A/B comparing to the audio performance of a good HiFi VHS deck? I've dubbed a few cd's and some 24/96 PCM stereo tracks from concert DVD's to VHS just for fun and the sound quality is pretty awesome exp. on SP speed. Anyone happen to know the specs of the relative ips/width of tape allocated to audio in VHS compared to R2R? Might be a good alternative to R2R if you really want to record to analog tape.. and good-quality VHS blanks are still easy to find and pretty inexpensive. You can't play 'em in your car but neither can you with R2R.. Thoughts? -jz

United Home Audio has been working toward the process of remanufacturing Reel to Reel machines for the last two years, and we have found some interesting things.

BTW you can see the machines we have produced at,

http://www.unitedhomeaudio.com/reel_to_reel_hq_tape_decks.htm

Allow me to preface what I am going to say about Reel to Reel tape with the fact that we at UHA have one of the finest vinyl rigs available as follows.
Clearaudio Goldfinger Cartridge $10,000
Clearaudio Master TQI tonearm $9500
Clearaudio Master Reference TT $27,000
UHA High Mass Feet $1000
Aesthetix Eclipse phono preamp with 2 power supplies $22,000
Tara Labs Zero XLR interconnects $15,000 1m pr.
Total $84,500

Here are our observations:
1.) The Tape Project tapes do sound quite amazing, depending on the recording that is. It appears not to be an age issue with the recordings or some degrading of the master tape but rather the initial recording quality. However with that said all the recordings except one are fantastic and some are simply the best sound available to a consumer, period.

2.) The Tape Project tapes require a superior playback machine to realize their full potential. Yes they will sound great with a stock machine but some machines are not the best in stock form, as you would imagine. We have used a professional deck and worked for two years perfecting the systems and parts to develop a killer sounding package.
Is all this custom work cheap, no.
Is it worth it, yes.
Fact is a Tape Project master tape playing on our top of the line $10,000 tape deck sounds better than the $84,500 vinyl rig. For that matter the level 1 deck at only $3998 is awesome and would give any vinyl rig costing 5 times as much a run for it! This is no dig on the vinyl components at all they are fantastic, beautiful, wonderful in fact. Here is the point, the magic is in the tape, it's a different format and it is superior to vinyl, period. This conclusion does not come from some desire for "tape" just a desire for the best sound, and frankly I wish digital could do it! It would be so much easier, but after listening to R2R Master tapes and high end vinyl I cannot listen to digital at all.

3.) Will R2R catch on like vinyl did?
Will the sound quality bring the Audiophile back to it?
I think it depends on two things.
Will anyone else beyond The Tape Project put out tapes of this quality, and at what price?
Maybe more importantly will people want to record their own tapes and save their phono cartridge and LP's like they used to do back in the day?
I also think that recording your own tapes will catch on if you try it! The recorded tapes sound better than the source! If you think that sounds stupid I tell you It is true, don't believe me, come by the store and I will prove it!
Find us at www.unitedhomeaudio.com
Robert Harley told me once at dinner, "if someone hasn't heard it, they don't have a valid comment", or something pretty darn close to that, words of wisdom.

jackie naylor's new recording is on reel to reel...and cheap tricks new recording is on 8tk