The "great" sound of reel to reel explained

Yes, who in their right mind would prefer cold to warm?

And neutral is average or boring depending on how you look at it.

I want speakers that swing all three ways. That's why I run 6 or more pair at a time in different rooms.

Thanks, Carlos. It was this line that struck me a bit.

The truth of the matter is that the only way to make digital sound like analogue is to add distortion.

I don't disagree. If I was to be anal about it I would say "the only way to make digital colorations sound like analog colorations", etc.

"I want speakers that swing all three ways. That's why I run 6 or more pair at a time in different rooms."

Mapman - can you repeat it in front of my wife? (otherwise she won't believe me)

People don't want neutral sound - just look at Audiogon posts how many people seek warm sounding gear or ask how to make sound warmer. One person started thread asking how to make sound warmer and less detailed (I advised blanket over speakers)

Kijanki, I think you are quite right about people wanting colorations. The question for me is, what is colored, what is not? Before I got into the business, that was a question that I felt needed answering. One thing I can tell you from the process that I went through is that you will not know the answer if you don't involve yourself in the recording process. Its very useful to hear live music, and then hear what the microphones hear, and finally the finished recording.

One thing I can say is this: our transducers, like mics and headphones, as well as electronics are a hellava lot better than any medium, analog or digital! They can fool jaundiced audiphiles at the drop of a hat, where neither tape, LP nor digital master file has that same ability.

Anyway, when you have a master tape from a session that you were present for, you have a valuable tool for sorting things out. Having used a variety of machines over the years, the reel to reel tapes remain, despite a great number of weaknesses, the best thing out there. A lot of the industry went digital simply because of the cost of the media; reel to reel tape can be quite expensive, especially in larger formats.

BTW I don't go for excessive warmth either- I regard it as a coloration, euphonic yes, but still a coloration (brought on by lower ordered harmonics). I just want neutral, my goal is to make it sound real, failing that as true to the original recording as possible. So far, reel to reel is a lot better at that than digital, though digital has made great inroads in the last 10 years.

Atmasphere - I wish I knew more about recording process. What you say about superiority of recording hardware over media must be right since I've heard some older recordings as good as modern ones. Problem started only when they started digitizing poorly, with a lot of A/D jitter, at the beginning of CD craze.