Reel-to-reel tape is the new vinyl

Crown electronics sound awful; the transports are so-so. They are very durable. Essentially no pre-recorded tapes available with Dolby C encoding, which also has a whole range of sonic problems (thus Dolby SR for pro and studio use). BASF and Maxell have been out of the blank reel tape business for years now; it's pretty much a Quantegy monopoly today.

Let's be clear; the audio advantages of R2R come from playback of 1st gen dubs of studio masters, not from home recording, which is at best a dalliance. Few of the current crop of high performance reel decks can record worth a darn, neither the heads nor the electronics are up to snuff.

 

Yet, reel-to-reel was promoted as an audiophile format back in the day.

 

Haha well so are any number of things so promoted. However I never criticized the format, only cautioned concerning the commercial implementation. Tape is also more sensitive to storage conditions which is another problem with 30 or 40 year old tapes.

 

Did you really meani 15 ips?

 

So what happened to the magnetic tape business of Maxell and TDK? The majority of my tapes are either Maxell or TDK, though I have a number of Ampex RTR tapes as well ...

 

If it was commercially available.

 

@McLover uses Otari's to this day for reel to reel

 

No, "back in the day" (to which he was referring) most home decks did 7.5 and 3.75. A few "semi-pro" decks for home use did 15 and 7.5. Then in the late '70's into early '80's, Technics and Revox made some decks that did all three.

 

When the consumer market dropped out, so did they. Maxell and TDK were strictly consumer grade stuff. Both did have 10.5" metal reel offerings for the higher end home market but again, loaded with consumer grade tape that was just not used in professional recording studios. Their reels were blingy and arguably sturdier than the pro grade stuff. I use an empty Maxell as a 10.5" takeup.

 

I'm not talking about decks that are not "up to snuff" or tape that is no longer available or pre recorded tapes. Maxell and BASF is out there one only has to look. A well calibrated deck in good running order will make a beautiful home recording.

 

Excellently worded, regarding the commercial implementation. I will say that tape is for the most part extremely stable and long lasting. A good majority of my collection is 55-65 years old and I have no worries about how they'll perform for years to come. But the keyword here is proper storage and handling. Among my collection are even older tapes from the 1940's, multiple formulations of varying paper bases, these are among the first magnetic tapes ever made, not counting the stuff being used in Germany during wwII. These are notorious for going beyond gone and even these examples are still perfectly playable and show no signs of degradation (although some are recorded in long-obsolete track formats!)

 

I am totally insane when it comes to stereo equipment, but R2R will never happen here, simply because there is not enough software available. I think this is why vinyl has been so successful in it's come back. People new to vinyl can by used records and turntables for not too much money. Plus, there is much new vinyl being made as we speak.

 

I still occasionally use an Otari MTR-15 for mixing to. It's nice to have a finished mix that's resolution-independent, if you know what I mean.

I'm mostly using ATR Magnetics tape, which is pretty close to Ampex formulations. The Otari also has Dolby HX Pro circuitry, so it can get some pretty extreme headroom, which helps to keep the noise floor low. Recording at 30 IPS, that thing can get pretty close to digital quality IMO.

 

Yes for recording, it's a different story than strickly playback.

 

Sincerely, I officially rest my case right here.
Tullman, self-admitted audiophilliac nutcase, says R2R is insane and he is correct.
Case closed.

Just wait a few years, vinylites and tubegroovers will rediscover solidstate and digital playback.
You read it here first.

 

Nostalgia and a great toy to play with are the only reasonable reasons for owning a R2R deck and paying the costs of both blank and pre-recorded tape. Just like vinyl there's nothing it can do that can't be done much cheaper and at a much higher quality in digital.. But in any case it will never replace the vinyl fad, its just WAY too expensive for all but the most deep of pocket.
Back in the day I owned a Pioneer 707 and belonged to a tape of the month club. The high speed dubbed tapes sucked for quality but I made some great sounding live recordings with it. It was fun and looked very KOOL in the system but sold it all 20+ years ago, just an antique today.

 

My Revox A700 provides all three tape speeds ...

 

The Crown RTR deck certianly looks impressive, though I have not had any experience with it. I do have a Crown DC-300A in storage ...

 

Right, as does my Technics 1506, along with its choice of 1/2 or 1/4 track playback (2 playback heads). My Tanberg 10X also ran at those three speeds, although strangely enough its successor the TD20A was only 2 speeds (you had to choose which 2).

 

I have the Tandberg TD-20A, which is a better deck than the 10X/10XD ...

 

The otari mx-5050 is another one where you "pick two" from the factory but really all that it takes is a small switch on the main board which switches between both "sets" of speeds. A small cutout in the rear of the unit gives you access to this switch without having to open the entire thing. Handy to drop down for playing back the occasional 3 3/4ips tape whenever necessary. Then come back up to 15ips.

 

Yeah, if you don't care about sound quality, just care about playing music as cheaply as possible. There are other websites for this kind of thinking.

 

In my experience with decades of making music and listening to music, the 4 track stereo commercial pre-recorded tapes 7.5 ips are something to rave about. Despite the minimal loss at 7.5 ips, these losses are so minimal that a well duped RtR can trump the vinyl record (ie Jeff Beck "Truth" on Epic 7.5 ips tape blows away the record) When the head azimuth is adjusted to the tape, and the tape well mastered at no more than 4x, the sound is nothing less than amazing.

The "inline pre-recorded 2 track stereo tapes trump the 4 track stereo tapes, something to experience for anyone who hasn't.

For home recording, the professional decks at 15 ips are the best choices, but also the 1/4 track stereo decks at 7.5 ips can be considered, as they make great sounding copies. One of the differences between pro half track vs 1/4 track home user, is the noise floor and distortion of the pro decks are low enough to make 2nd generation dupes without audible losses. The 1/4 track stereo for home use are not good for making back up copies... (copy of a copy) the added noise and distortion begin to become audible.

I do not discourage anyone from making 7.5 ips home recordings on a high quality home user 4 track stereo machine. The deck must be lined up and the heads unworn to produce an impressive result... but the dupe will never be studio quality, which "studio quality" means it can produce more copies with minimal to no audible loss.

A well lined 4 track stereo deck with unworn heads will trump a pro deck well worn, and not lined up well. No matter what deck is being employed, 1/4 track or 1/2 track, the most critical factor in reel to reel performance is the condition of the heads, and that the deck is lined up.

 

Yes indeed and when I sold mine in the mid-90's I got back about what I paid for it over 10 years earlier (not counting any dollar devaluation in the interim).

 

I really think the SACD/DSD/Computer Audio Guys actually need to hear a quality vinyl playback system rather than reading paltry graphs at magazines. Reel to Reel with a good tape is utterly staggeringly good. But as everyone notes - the machines are expensive, large, difficult to repair (and all the used ones are likely to need repair or adjusting). And it's not like techs under the age of 40 are likely to know how as these things aren't common - so not every audio repair shop is going to have someone who TRULY knows how to fix them up properly - and of course there is very little good quality sounding music available on the format.

It's a lot to pay for a format where music content may have 2,000 high quality sounding LPs available for every 1 R2R. Even if the R2R is 5 times better sounding - man it's a lot to pay. You're into $3k I suspect as an entry point for a good quality R2R deck and probably $10k for something truly good. Is there any truly high quality R2R in the rock/pop world? Can you get say Eva Cassidy or Jackson Browne or Madonna or AC/DC or Sarah McLachlan or Kate Davis, --- or heck anyone who is actually still breathing and putting out albums --- or is it all dead people music? And even classical - Do I get Horowitz on Piano - which version of the Beethoven 9th am I stuck with? There are many - are they ALL available or just 2? I like Jazz - I prefer Sophie Milman and Kate Davis to Patricia Barber - the latter is on R2R for $450 but I wouldn't pay $10 for her entire catalog - the former 2 I bet are not available. All are available on CD - Heck they're not even available on LP.

I get the goal for the best sound - but the real goal should be about listening to music first and foremost with sound quality taking a back seat. For a time I bought music to show off the prowess of the stereo - but that's crazy when you think of it. It's ultimate Nerd and Geek land to be buying stuff for that purpose.