Why Not Bring Back Analog, Reel to Reel Tape


I know, The Tape Project is doing so but in a very expensive way, mostly limited to oldies. Since there are many current issues on LP, why not reel. Reel, done properly can beat LP any day. This is borne out by comparison of the Barclay-Crocker tapes to the LP equilvent in there day. Two track, quarter inch at 7.5 ips can blow LP's away if properly mastered. I've heard the Tape Project stuff at the CES and it is hard to beat, especially if you are using tubes all the way.
buconero117

Showing 3 responses by myles_b_astor

As one who has heard studio machines and have spent the time and money to set up both reference quality analog playback (VPI Ref. SS/Titan i/Air tight PC-1/CJ TEA 1/GAT) and r2r (highly modded Technics 1500US and Bottlehead Repro with NOS tubes), do disagree on one thing. 71/2 inch playback does not currently surpass the best in analog playback in my system. 15 ips/2 track is the only way to go.
Problem is that many tapes have deteriorated due to different reasons (see KOJ's interview with JGH many years ago in SP). And have to say that have 8 of the tape project tapes and they are all amazing-as well as some other 15ips tapes that have had entre to.
I understand what you're saying :) BTW, you should hear the 15 ips of Kind of Blue. It's a knockout!

Funny thing happens on the 15 ips tapes too. One finds that some albums are well mastered and faithful to the original recording; others were murdered in the mastering process.

Take the Weavers. Vanguard eliminated the low end becaause there's a lot of stomping going on that would drive some woofers crazy. Or take the Mercury Carousel Waltzes. Found a 15 ips 2 track safety and compated it to the LP. The tape murdered the LP. The tape, a late Mercury recording, actually sounded better than the best Mercury LPs; in fact, that Mercury "string" sound was barely recognizable on the tape. After hearing this tape, one can only imagine just how good the other Mercury tapes/recordings sound. The LPs just dno't do Bob and Wilma justice. Or take the Columbia jazz recordings. Brubeck's Time Out and Davis' KOB are simply stunning on 15 ips tape; the van Gelder Basie and the KC7 on Impulse is a knockout (can't wait to hear Chad's reissue on 45 rpm of this winner!)

Others such as RCA and Decca did a remarkable and faithful job in mastering-but some there are some such as Bartoks Music for Strings, Celeste and Percusion with Reiner where the low end is so much better on the tape. Also on the Bartok, one can really hear how they spotlighted but OTOH also recognize that in the mastering of the LP, RCA played around with the recording and gave it more depth than the tape actually possessed.

Cheers!
Sorry to disagree but the Jacqui Naylor is not that bad. The better the system, the better the sound of all the tapes including the Naylor. It's a very nice studio recording with all that this statement brings. A new preamplifier in the system has brought this tape to be far better than ever imagined.