Reel to Reel vs. Needle Drops-What's the Better Recording Option?

Do the needle drops to digital. Have the reels spinning as well, but not playing.

Best of both worlds?

On a more serious note I've been transferring some audiophile 45 rpm LPs and records that don't have a good digital mastering to digital using an ADC a friend built/designed. At 24/192 it sounds very good, but the down side is the files are huge. 64fs DSD is a bit smaller, but the best DAC I've heard is R-2-R ladder, so PCM sounds better. While surfing the web or reading the difference between digital and LP playback is slim. For active listening nothing comes close to the real thing.

 

True, but the colorizations of the media is a part of the sound we've come to love.

One could argue, why add additional 'pleasingness' to a product that is already pleasing? A hi-res digital transfer should not really add anything to the overall sound like an analog tape copy does.

 

I do just want to make one point in favor of needle drops.

In order to get the best possible results playing records, you really need to optimize your setup for each record. If you can do that and make a needledrop, you can be assured that each time you listen to your needle drop, your setup has been optimized.

This is rarely the case when just playing records. Who among us stops to recalibrate before playing each record?

Well some of us do when we make needledrops.

 

I've always auditioned the loudest and quietest parts of each individual song to figure where to set the VU level. It would take a good chunk of day recording a 3 hour reel tape. Fun work.

 

Back in the "Golden Age" of Stereo—the early roll-out, like the "Living Stereo" and Living Presence" era, one of the engineers had read to score so that they could ride gain. And I recall our host writing of the extraordinarily "hot" work tapes for some of these recordings. It makes me think of how extraordinary the best of current digital recording hardware is right now.

 

Ummm...I have to respond right here and say that .wav files should sound the same or superior to any CD. That's what the CD is made from.

 

A needle-drop is the act of dubbing a vinyl record onto another medium, be it analog or digital.

Since it sounds like you have money, you could certainly afford to buy lots of reels of blank tape.

 

Echoing that. Check out the price and availability of a new 10-12" reel of 1/4" tape. If money is no object, give it a whirl. Otherwise...

 

1/4" x 1800' RMGI LPR35 on 7" Plastic Reel at about 25 - 27.50 (recorded half track @ 7.5 ips, fits 2 sides of most LPs)

This seems the most reasonable for consumer recording.

ATR Master Tape, cost of entry, just for a pancake is $37.

It depends on how you look at it, though. A new reissue LP costs as much or more than a reel of tape. On the other hand, a DVD-R blank best quality TY/JVC is probably 30 cents! even recorded at 24/192 (or 5.6MHz); or about 100 of them for about the same price as one reel of tape.
But, if tape is your thing, it's not all that terrible. What is terrible is buying a 2" reel of tape for your album project @ $300 and up. That hits the budget.

 

Geez, I used to pay $70 for a 2" reel of Ampex 456.

 

Those were the days. Good times. Good times. Reminds me of a song.

 

Grant,

Thanks for correcting my improper use of the term "needle-drop." That just goes to show, there is so much more for me to learn!! Since starting this thread, I have spent a couple of hours reading up on some of the analog to digital converters on the market, such as, the Benchmark and DecWare models. The ADC route seems to be the more logical option, but I haven't completely ruled out testing the "needle-drop" waters utilizing tape. I do appreciate everyone's contributions to this thread. Keep them coming!

 

I would say that the key to recording to tape is to ensure that the bias is set properly for the tape, and that the tape path is clean, and the heads aligned and demagnetized. Use the highest tape speed available for your machine, and use the best tape for your needs.

If you are playing tapes from the Tape project, you're probably already there. After the tape part of the chain is set, ensure that the signal going into the deck is of the purest you can get.

It sounds like you are leaning toward digital, though, and that is an excellent way to go.

 

I don’t have any experience with tape. Sounds as if many believe it is the best. I’m a fan of digital needle drops. There is so much you can do with them.
There was discussion about the cost of media. Not much about convenience. I recently got an Oppo BDP-105D. I now play music and movies from HDD and there is an app that lets me que up and files without the need of a monitor or a computer for playback. I have three 4tb drives hooked up to mine. How many rooms of tape would it take to fill 12 tb of data?

 

There is no question that NOW tapes are not as convenient nor as capable of digital sound, but back in the day they were the best. I could get blank 1800' reels from Radio Shack for $3, and they STILL play better than all the Ampex 456 reels that are now shedding junk.

It was fun to be an affecianado of reel tape.

 

All this talk of reel to reel...

I decided last night to press one of the old faithful Revox PR99s back into service. For the past couple of years I've been examining the possibilities of high res digital and to my ears it's gotten very good. The DV-RA1000HD is still in the rack and I've no plans to move it out (unless I replace it with the DA-3000). Nevertheless, I miss the gorgeous sound that the Revox machine can produce. So, as before, I guess I'll soldier on as a lover of analog and high res.