Why 1/2" tape for home use? It will sound awesome when recording your own material, but not practical if you want to buy prerecorded. Tapes are 1/4", some are 4-track, meaning recordings are on both sides, and some are recorded at 3.75 ips.
Reel to reel , is it real the hype!
I am thinking of venturing into the realm of reel to reel.
I have access to purchase an otari mtr10, with enhanced 1/2 “ head block, refurbished and recapped for 9k.
my system is in brief is ayre kxr and mxr twenties playing through magico M3 with Jl audio Gotham subs. Front end digital is souped up wolf streamer pure digital capable of playing 512 and 1024 dsd files , t+a sd 3100hv dac( capable of playing 1024 dsd native . Front end analogue is sme 30/2 with Lyra Etna lamda sl catridge playing through vandenhul grail Se+ phono stage.( please see my system page for details )
my question is will the otari give me better performance than my digital and vinyl front end . Thank you in advance .
I have access to purchase an otari mtr10, with enhanced 1/2 “ head block, refurbished and recapped for 9k.
my system is in brief is ayre kxr and mxr twenties playing through magico M3 with Jl audio Gotham subs. Front end digital is souped up wolf streamer pure digital capable of playing 512 and 1024 dsd files , t+a sd 3100hv dac( capable of playing 1024 dsd native . Front end analogue is sme 30/2 with Lyra Etna lamda sl catridge playing through vandenhul grail Se+ phono stage.( please see my system page for details )
my question is will the otari give me better performance than my digital and vinyl front end . Thank you in advance .
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- 43 posts total
Professional recording studios used 2" 24-track tape at 15-30 ips in the day on Ampex, Studer, Tascam, or Otari as I understand it, but that may be slightly incorrect. A fellow local shop owner recorded many live concerts using a Stellavox and played around a lot with mic placement (https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/peter-mcgrath-recording-engineer). As for your home, any machine that is good working order and has the heads clean and aligned will probably do. Back then, r-t-r decks were expensive, so there were not many "lousy" ones out there. As I remember, and it was a while ago, REVOX had an outstanding home deck in the day, but there were many others as well--Tandberg, Sony, TEAC, and I think even Ampex had a home deck at one time. Cheers! |
If you're going to get into reel to reel and you pursue buying old tapes from EBay, do make sure to clean the entire tape path after EACH tape is played!!! Some old tapes have held up well after 50 plus years. Many others, not so much. I had a prerecorded tape I listened to around 1986. I failed to examine the tape heads after that one time. I put a studio grade second generation master tape on the machine a week later. I ruined the tape in one play! The previous cheapo tape was so oxidized, the entire tape path on the machine was loaded with it. The studio tape was trashed. I wouldn't even trust recording tape that was made yesterday. Back in the late eighties, one manufacturer put a back coating on the tape as it was said to increase the life of the tape (I would have to go through my tapes to remember which company this was, maybe AGFA). The coating on the tape started breaking down after ten years! What a headache. Be prepared to babysit your machine. Scotch 111 is one of my favorite tapes. In my opinion, it was the best ever made. Good luck to you OP. Joe |
- 43 posts total