Reel-to-reel -- should I bother?

I have a computer source and a vinyl source. Should I consider exploring reel-to-reel or more trouble than it's worth?

 

Possibly the latter. Potentially expensive to service and good tapes possibly hard to come by.

 

Do you mean good material or good condition?

How does the sound compare to vinyl?

 

Need a Reel to Reel 101 course »

 

What are you looking to do with it? Buy and play pre-recorded music? Or record things onto it?

I bought an Akai GX-77 a couple of years back, and it was my first exposure to the reel-to-reel format. I was curious about it, and found a really nice machine at a decent price. It's a lot of fun to get into -- I was fascinated by it, though I do admit the novelty wore off after about a year and I find I don't buy all that many reels for it now.

If you can find some decent 7.5 IPS pre-recorded reels in good shape, they can really sound fantastic. Unfortunately, eBay prices have started to go a little bit insane as of late, and it's a bit of a crap shoot in what you can find and how well they've been cared for.

 

Get a good digital recorder and don't look back. Whatever you record will likely cross a digital threshold anyway, although it will have that rounder "tape sound". Unless you have the funds and desire to experiment or just want that analog sound for your band recordings, digital is so much easier, quicker, quieter, cleaner, with much less maintenance and less expensive. I had 5 reel decks until recently, soon to be just 2. Once everything was transferred to at least 96/24, I started selling them off. I love the sound but all tapes are a bit fiddly with head cleaning, demagnetizing, buggered tapes occasionally, belt wear, head wear and so on.

My son uses an 8 track Tascam to lay down tracks for his band, then they go to digital to finalize it. That's probably the only practical use these days that I can fathom, other than sheer enjoyment of the format. But it will cost you.

 

It depends on where you live. I'm in Toronto, and there are at least three highly experienced, highly reputable service shops and (used rtr) resellers in the city. But as BR posted, (elsewhere and in smaller cities) service is likely to be problematic. Lots of new, high quality tape available online, but it's pricey as BR first noted.

So if you're going to get into rtr, first make sure you've got ready access to a respected rtr service tech and that you're clear about the budget needed to buy good quality tape. Without both those things thoroughly in hand, don't bother.

I used to buy new LPs, bring them home, and at the first available moment record them in tape at 7.5 or 15 ips. Preserve the origna pressing! Then CDs happened, then high-res digital files happened, then TIDAL Premium at 1411 happened. The thing is, a good rtr setup can still be really absorbing.

 

I would keep an eye on Craigslist. If you see a quality unit come up for sale at a reasonable price (below $200), grab it and see if you actually get any use out of it. If after maybe a year, you haven't made much use of it, then throw it back on Craigslist and try to get your money back. That's what I plan to do!

(The two most important things you need to do to your reel to reel is clean the heads regularly and also demagnetize the heads.)

 

Speaking of "quality units", can we put together a list of what qualifies as a "quality unit"? I haven't been into analog tape in ages but these are the brands I remember. Please comment on if there are brands below that should be avoided, and if there are any I missed:

Revox
Studer / Revox
Ampex
TEAC / Tascam
Telefunken
Sony
Nagra
Otari
Akai
Tandberg
Philips
Dokorder
Technics

 

The tapes are prone to degrade over time without proper storage and care -- and it seems like few people really took proper care of them over the years. So you need to watch out for that.

But if you find ones that are truly in great shape and play at 7.5 IPS, the sound can be impressive. Reels that play at 3.75 IPS rarely sound all that great, although there are a few exceptions, though I have yet to hear a 3.75 IPS tape that sounds as good as the LP. Some of them sound like 8-track tapes. So aside from the cool experience of threading up the reel and watching it play, there's not much point.

I do have a few reels that rival or beat out their vinyl counterparts -- The Beatles reels issued in about 1971 or so were Ampex tapes and had the playback speed of 7.5 IPS. My copy of Hey Jude is spectacularly good, and is one of the best sounding Beatles releases I've ever heard. Badfinger's Magic Christian Music and No Dice are also quite stunning. When you find a really nice sounding tape, it is a fantastic experience.

 

I had to have a r2r. So I bought a Revox a77 on eBay. Never even hooked it up so there it sits. I can think of no reason to own one except for just the hobby aspect. Tape is insane priced.

 

I bought a Teac on ebay and got rid of it. Too much trouble for me to bother with.

 

The negatives:
Too many moving parts. (Repairs. That's some pretty old gear!)
Tapes too expensive, maybe hard to find now (I really don't know).
Too much of a hassle. (Even back in the day really, but all we had 7" RtoR and LPs.)
Big piece of gear. Where ya gonna put it?
Really not necessary now-a-days. LPs are enough of a problem. (I love LPs!)
Now-a-days, for the normal person, it's much more of a novelty.
Forget about finding parts. That gear is 45 (+/-) years old. Buy a second unit for spare parts & hope for the best.

But... the positives!
1. Great... back in the day... and it's analogue !! Sounds great!
2. When recording, you can play with the medium (if you have the associated equipment - which can be found on eBay used (but that stuff is 45 years old too). It's BIG fun!
3. Looks cool... if you have the room.
4. You might get lucky and the unit you buy works fine!!
5. Just buying 'specific' company 7" empty reels can break the bank! Well, $70 and upwards each. lol. (They do make nice wall clocks!)


Used to have a brand new TEAC back in '71. Had a lotta fun with it but I was really glad when cassettes came out.

 

Most of the ladies are impressed by a R2R. It certainly shows you can commit to SOMETHING.

 

I work with 1/4" reel to reel every day and I will say that it is STILL the best recorded/recording medium... BUT it need regular maintenance, blank tape is scarce and expensive and there is hardly any content to buy as a listener. If you were an amateur recordist with a connection to some local classical musicians or something, I'd say rock on, but I think you aren't get the enjoyment out of it that you invest.

 

I'm going to be Mr. Negative and say no way. Having been into reel to reel off and on since the early 70s I would say it is way to expensive today. I bought my last reel to reel - a TEAC that took the big 10 inch reels - about 15 years ago for $300 off eBay. I also bought a lot of 7 and 10 inch reels.

I mainly used it to record and play vinyl albums. I also recorded a lot of the Beaker Street radio show. It was fun for awhile but I gradually stopped using it so I got rid of the machine and tapes about 3 years ago.

With the expense of machines and tapes today I don't think it is worth the expense for what you get. Yes they sound good if the machine is kept in good shape and high quality tapes are used. But IMO the expense is just not worth it.

 

With a good collection of r2r tapes and several decks myself, the choice is up to you, it is an expensive hobby. Initially r2r introduced stereo in the 50's before it was introduced on records. Tape was an alternative to records with the advantages of no ticks or pops, and with the auto-reverse feature, the ability to play an r2r tape continuously or playing an entire album without having to turn a record over.
As far as sound quality, compared to records, even at the top consumer speed of 7.5 i.p.s. for pre-recorded tapes, overall sound quality is a bit less than a record and you have to put up with audible tape hiss. The other common speed of 3.75 i.p.s., is barely passable for sound quality which was used for all commercial tape cartridges and the p-r. r2r tapes were $1. cheaper. This lower speed was basically used as a convenience feature and required less tape for the record companies putting more money in their pockets.
With any tape format, the pre-recorded tapes were never made with the best quality tapes. The higher the quality of tape, the finer and denser the magnetic particles were. The backing and bonding compounds were oftentimes superior. This is not only important for sound quality, but also for longevity. As a tape ages, the bonding material can dry out causing the magnetic particles to fall off, plus some tape backing materials can stiffen causing the tape to become brittle and prone to breakage. All old tapes should be baked before playing to prolong their lives and less wear on your deck. You can take a quality blank tape(like Maxell UD), record an LP on it at 7.5 i.p.s., and it will be better than any pre-recorded tape that you can buy. The same goes for high quality tape cassettes and cartridges. Professionally, at radio stations, our r2r preferred speed was 15 i.p.s. and we found the sound was even enhanced over the source record. If you listened to music radio from the 70's and into the 90's, you were hearing music played from r2r for the automated stations and continuous loop tape carts which played at 7.5 i.p.s.(which were based on the Lear 4-track carts).
One main reason that I still use an r2r deck is for quadraphonic tapes. Quadraphonic was available in record format, but 2 of the formats were matrix and were not discrete. One other common format, CD-4, was discrete but had frequency and sound issues. Although there were Q8 8-tracks cartridges, they ran at 3.75 i.p.s. and didn't sound that great, so that left only r2r quad tapes , all running at 7.5i.p.s., to be the best and sometimes only ways to hear a true discrete quality 4-channel playback.
Not all quadraphonic issues are the same sound quality. Recently, Audio Fidelity has been issuing multi-channel quadraphonic 4.0 SACD's. The best of the lot they've done, in my opinion, is the "Blood, Sweat & Tears" 4.0 SACD and the worst is "The Best Of The Guess Who" 4.0 which sounds like it was mastered from a Q8 cartridge. If you have a multi-channel SACD player and have the 2 SACD's I mentioned, play them. The sound quality of a pre-recorded r2r will land somewhere in-between.

 

100% absolutely do not bake any old tape you come across. That is not the appropriate treatment for a great majority of old tapes. That is to be done on tapes with binder failure only.


IMO if you're only looking to play back commercially pre-recorded tapes, invest your money elsewhere.

 

Absolutely true. I see the assertion that pre-recorded tapes should be baked, based on the misnomer that the issues with professional recording tape were also issues with the stock used for consumer pre-recorded tapes.

While I am sure someone will be able to identify some release from the late '70s onward where they used bad tape stock with binder issues, the reality is that for at least 99+% of the pre-recorded tapes ever issued, baking is not necessary or advised.

 

I have r2r tapes and decks, but only because I've had them for ages. Can't imagine what the appeal would be for starting out with this format in 2016. Go with cassettes.

 

I went though a torrid reel-to-reel collecting phase in the mid '90s, which mostly pre-dated eBay and the larger waves of collector interest. As a result, I got a lot of reels for very little money. Even 2-track reels in good shape were cheap (since few of them feature rock or well known jazz) when you could find them.

Now? The players are 20+ years older, and the desirable tapes are a lot more expensive...You might still get lucky at an estate sale or something, but it's a tough road to slog if you aren't ready to put down a lot of money.

In terms of quality, not just something to collect: Some of the early 2-track tapes sound a-maz-ing...but you're really limited as to what you can get on 2-track, even if you're willing to spend some bucks. The 7.5ips quarter track tapes are really hit-and-miss. Some sound very good and some even sound better than their vinyl counterparts. But a lot are just OK. The 3.75ips tapes are mostly mediocre and some, especially the late era Columbia House tapes, are downright hideous. Every once in a while you find a 3.75ips tape that actually sounds really really good. But those are definitely the exception.

 

absolutely get into them! Like others have said, can be expensive, but a heck of a lot of fun.
and with the right configurations, the best sounding audio you'll ever hear.
you will need to dedicate time and money into the hobby, and do a lot of research
and also find and have someone who can 'service' them. They are a dying breed.
Anything mechanical will need to be serviced and electronics replaced.
The nature of the beast.
Tape is expensive to buy, I would recommend buying new tape from RMGI or ATR as
old tape may be dirty, deteriorated etc. Old tape can still be great to use, but
unless you can score it for minimal bucks, I wouldn't bother.
Older tapes unless stored correctly, are risky and personally I think that the modern
formula is as good as any. I use RMGI LPR35, which I think is great.
Big Toys for Big Boys!
Explore!

 

I'm bowing out. Thanks guys!

 

Reel to Reel will always be ingrained in my mind with heroin overdoses.

 

I have the X2000M. Sometimes we have a little dance contest.