Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.

@uberwalts

you really need to check out Ebay for reel-to-reel tapes there’s more than you think out there @uberwalts you really need to check out Ebay for reel-to-reel tapes there’s more than you think out there

There are no reel to reel tapes with music i can buy on vintage vinyl, but i am not listening to the mainstream, any reel to reel tape with rare stuff will cost more than my turntable. With all my respect to reel-to-reel format this is a problematic to find music i’m after.

@orpheus10

Now that I’ve down-loaded my records to digital I no longer use the record player. The expensive NOS Telefunken tubes in the phono pre went belly up, and I’m not going to replace them soon. I replaced them with some run of the mill tubes, but you know how that is; you can go up the ladder, but not back down, I’ll have to live without the TT until I replace those tubes with the NOS Telefunkens.

This is definitely not my scenario, i love to play records and i don’t like digital. But i have working telefunken tubes, probably the rarest of them (a quad of E84L and pair of ecc801s, both military versions from the 60s...). Honestly i prefer my solid state and no longer use tube amps or anything with tubes since i discovered First Watt, Pass Labs (by Nenson Pass). I am far more impressed by the sound of his gear than by those rare and overpriced telefunken in my ex triode push-pull arm after direct comparison in my system.

I have been using reel to reel since this last december and have only managed to destroy one $8 tape (which I cannot find a duplicate of...ugh). But other than that i prefer it to handling vinyl. Everything seems to affect vinyl playback--everything.

To do it right, you have to manage static, dust, rumble, people walking, keep the needle clean, don’t bump anything, be careful how you slide the vinyl in and out of its selves, carefully drop the stylus, properly apply the RIAA curve (via one of a million different ways to do a phono preamp), dampen platter resonance, maintain tracking height, tracking weight, tracking angle, anti-skate, choose what type of stylus you want, how do you know if you have damaged your stylus or if it’s gotten old, deep clean your vinyl....

Tape has pretty much none of this. All you’ve got to do is get it calibrated once a year by a pro (or learn to do it yourself), degauss the metal parts occasionally, clean the tape path with lint free swaps and alcohol, clean the pinch roller with some distilled water every week or so and adjust tape position in or out if you happen upon a warped reel.

Nothing is near invisible with a tape player. Much is near invisible with vinyl.

Plus vinyl has an additional mastering phase and by the time it gets to your turntable it’s already like 3 more generations away from the master tape than commercially released tape is.

Tape path to your home:
Master tape>dupe master>tape you listen to at home

Vinyl path to your home:
Master tape>RIAA EQ applied and bass phase aligned and summed to center remix for cutting and then cut lacquer>mother>stamper(s)>record you listen to at home

One problem: You can’t buy a good music on reel to reel tapes that you can always buy on original vintage vinyl today in one click on discogs. So the choise of music on reel to reel tapes is extremely limited, if you’re not listening to some pop or some other well known garbage you will never find anything on reel to reel tapes (with very few exceptions). This is the reason why vinyl is still in demand. It will be simply impossible to find even 1% of my record collection on reel to reel tapes.

@sleepwalker65

Chakster you probably can’t find your rap on R2R, but sound quality was never a requirement for rap anyhow.

Oh, it’s you again with your favorite topic.

Sound Quality is a requirement for any genre of music even for a "grandpa country records" you may listening to.

The worst ever "music" often comes from people with the best systems, especially from digital officionados (imo). When i watch those reports from Audio Shows (USA or EU) on youtube i’m getting sick of the selection of music, it’s awful and they have no taste at all (as much as their designers who’s working on all those ugly looking modern "high-end" equipment).

90% of my record collection is properly recorded original pressings of rare 70’s Jazz-Funk, Soul, Soundtracks, Latin Jazz ...some of those obscure old records cost more than your audio components. And none of them available on Reel2Reel tapes, except for the impossible to find studio mastertapes.

The choice of music or R2R tapes is very limited, let’s face it.
The choice of music on vintage vinyl is much wider, fact.

If i could buy what i like on R2R tapes for the price of original vinyl i would love to use tapes, but i think with so small choice of music it’s pointless. I don’t listen to everything just for the sake of quality and my heart belongs to the music from the 70’s (mainly played by black musicians).

P.S. You’d better discuss rap and hip-hop with your kids, each generation has their own music, when older generation blame new generation’s music it sounds like blabling of old f**ts and this is what you’re doing.

@sleepwalker65 my 3 kids, ages 18, 20 and 23 despise rap as much as I do. They like many formats, but genuinely love Rock.

I would rather listen to good music on crappy system than some crap on high-end system. I don’t care about Rock. This is not my cup of tea.

@brettmcee And only old square white people call it ‘rap.’

haha, exactly
We call it hip hop

The genre was born because they start playing breaks from an old jazz-funk records and rhyming over it in the late 70’s and it was oldschool, then they start sampling an old records to make their own beats (included a rock records too).

There are some nice instrumental hip hop and many top jazz musicians performed and recorded with hip hop artists in the 90’s when the scene was completely different compared to modern hip hop. This is Donald Byrd (from Blue Note) on trumpet with Guru on Jazzmatazz LP and i still like this stuff.

I wasn’t into Rap or Rhyme too much, but i like the original jazz-funk records that early hip hop producers used to make their beats. Those original 70’s LPs are perfectly recorded and sounds amazing on High-End system. Here is the most famous example: Bob James "Nautilus" (on CTI Records).

But i think our sleepwalker65 is not into jazz, it’s s typical rocker’s attitude, no wonder. So keep on playin’ your country stuff, lol. Just don't tell us what is crap or not when it comes to music.

Moonwalker99, keep listening your rock and roll, i want to repeat that i am not a hip hop or rap aficianado, but let’s make it clear - i don’t like rock and roll (most of it), country and stuff like that, but you like it and always talk sh*t about music you don’t understand (you don’t even know a history of this music).

1: rappers that sample recordings that are the artistic property of others are not manufacturing anything that they can legally call their own artistic property.

In the beginning (late 70s) they used to sample beats (before a sample was even invented) using two copies of the same records and a mixer in real time on two turntables, in the 70’s it was DISCO records or JAZZ-FUNK record or even ROCK RECORDS if there was a drum break in the song. An MC was on the MIC at the discoteque and it was pretty much like Soul Train. That was the beggining of a new culture for youth people as the opposite to the rock and rock or anything else considered their parents music. Young folks created something new for themselfs to have fun, they don’t care about copyrights (it is true), it was in the black ghetto and they were poor. Graffiti appeared at the same time, break dance appeared at the same time. This is hip hop at it was born pretty much parallel to the disco music.  This music changed a lot in time and you probably referring to Gangsta Rap and other aggressive form of this culture, i am refering to the positive side of this culture only, stuff like this.  

Today all samples cleared for superstars, but people are still sampling unknown records, rare records. Sampling records is a part of hip hop culture, crate digging etc.

2: Rock and Roll is not the same thing as country or folk music. Your suggestion that it is, is as absurd as saying that rap/hiphop is the same thing as disco.

Oh, thank for letting me know. Rock and Roll or Country is something i will never even listen to. Rap is not Disco, but seems like you have no idea what is a Disco Rap ? I’m sure you know this.

3: Jazz artists that involve themselves with rappers are only reducing themselves to the same level as rappers. They are no more artists than the rest of the filthy degenerates that produce rap/hiphop.

Thanks, this is all we need to know about you and your personality.
Remember It was you who bring the Rap to this forum, not me.

As i told you many times i’m into 70’s jazz, funk, soul ... music.

4: rap/hiphop doesn’t require sound quality. It is a colossal waste of hundreds of thousands of SL-1200mk2 turntables every year, and doesn’t even remotely require the capability of a child’s toy record player let alone a reel to reel tape deck.

If you don’t know yet the rappers also performing live and recording in the best studios with full live bands. There are many different forms of hip hop music including intelligent forms or it, not just commercial rubbish. In many cases this is a new form of Jazz and Funk with syncopated rhythms and rhyme. Again it is all depends on the artist and his/her musical background. In general mainstream music degrade so fast, this is one of the reason i prefer an old records from the 70’s (that was the best time for music).