The "great" sound of reel to reel explained

Just as all turntables are not created equal, neither are all reel to reel tape-decks. A modified 2 track is much different than a 1/4 track.

Power cords: a 2V drop across a power cord can rob a tube amplifier of as much as 40% of its output power!

Ralph, could you provide a technical explanation of why that would be so? I don't doubt your statement, but I'm interested in understanding why that would occur.

Re your other points, all of which strike me as excellent, I think that it should be stated that none of those points NECESSARILY mean, to cite an example, that a $2,000 power cord will outperform a $200 power cord in any given system.

Best regards,
-- Al

I just wish A-gon had a "like button". Great thread people.

Ralph,
I think that you simplify the matter to suit your needs. Let's review:

Reel-to-Reel(tape playback), tubes and transformers (to a lesser extend) all create distortion in the form of phase shifts and alter the harmonic structure often to increase clarity and enhance low-level details as a psychoacoustic effect that is pleasing in an aural way to our brain.

Second, while professional and industrial line regulation and power conditioning devices do offer benefits, supported through data, they are also priced and marketed in a fashion where the claims can be supported; that is not the case for most of the high-end audio's products.

I do not want to lose sight of the main discussion topic here with a sideband discussion so I strongly encourage you to educate yourself with the following article:

Analogue Warmth The Sound Of Tubes, Tape & Transformers

After you read it, we can go on but I think that you'll get the point!

Colouration and distortion are spoken by some talking heads a as a bad thing. But hold on partner. When we listen to even a LIVE event even if the direct sounds are accurate based on the tuning of the instruments and the vocalist we get a preponderance of sound via multiple reflections and each reflection we pick up on is coloured by the surface texture and the shape of it as the reflection bounces to our ears. We live in a world of coloured sound be it live or recorded.

Recorded sound will reflect the design of the recording room or venue. The sound of our listening rooms will colour and distort the sound we hear. And yes the equipment we use from the playback of the source through to the speakers will all add subtle colourations and distortions.

This nonsense that we can engineer a colourless and accurate audio sound track should stop.

Heck, even our ears, the Pinna ??? Outer ear and canal will colour the sound for each of us.

In the end only when sound is gravely coloured, distorted or muted will we find it objectionable. Before that point is reached it is all subjective to our personal preferences.

Better analogue sources can make great sound be they vinyl or tape. Better digital sources can make great sound too. Poor sound is result of poor engineering of both the recording and the equipment made to replay it all.