VHS Hi-Fi Stereo - Should I Invest In It?

I am planning to buy a VHS Hi-Fi Stereo machine, just to record audio tapes. I used to use one everyday to watch my Disney movies back when I was a child in the 2000's, but I never used it's full potential, because it was always plugged at a CRT television. Now that I rediscovered the amazing sound quality of VHS Hi-Fi Stereo, I really want to record some tapes on it... Would you recommend this as an addition to my hi-fi, or should I just stick with Type II cassette tapes for audio recording?

 

Personally, I wouldn't do it. I used a Hi-Fi VCR back in the late 80s to record a bunch of my records. The record quality was indeed very good. But trying to find what you are looking for on a 6 hour video tape is for the birds.

 

I think that there are few logical reasons to use a medium like this when it comes to practicality. One can discuss whether it makes sense in terms of SQ.
This is something only you can answer for yourself.

 

Why not? And if you like it you can look into reel to reel machines. I bought a vintage ReVox A77 a couple of years ago and it’s been great fun.

 

I really wanted to invest in a R2R machine, but unfortunately, in Brazil, where I live, the prices on these can go to the roof... That's why i was planning to invest in VHS Hi-Fi, because the sound quality is somewhat similar, and it's cheaper, but if, someday, I had the very good luck of finding one of the good R2R decks for a good price, I would certainly pick it up!

 

If you find a purpose having VHS Hifi go for it. but to record compact cassette on VHS doesn't make me sense. I record FM broadcast on VHS.

 

If you feel you must, then by all means, but even with the supposed good sound quality benefit, I'm not sure there's a good enough logical reason to go with all the faff with better interfaces, hardware, functionality and equivalent-if-not-better sound quality already out there.

 

The rotary head makes means editing and making smooth mix tapes is somewhat difficult, since there is no instant start.

 

I currently use a Panasonic NY HS-900 SVHS recorder as this is a lot better than a VHS one (larger tape area used for audio) and SVHS tapes.
Great for making mix tapes. Sound quality is surprisingly good as well.

 

just stick with Type II cassette tapes for audio recording
Buy a really nice cassette deck if you are committed to that format. Otherwise, choose Lp or CD for playback, either of which will be more rewarding. You can of course record digitally.
-Bill

 

great sound, poor convenience.
if you just want to play back hours of music for background listening it will be fine. if you want to record individual LPs it will be a pain to find them unless you log the starting point on the counter, or record one LP per tape which will create a physical storage issue.
if you want physical media why not record to DVD ?

 

Some models had a search function for the counter that allowed you to automatically go to a certain point on the tape.

(You did have to go through the trouble of finding out where those points are...)

 

They stopped making VHS tapes a few years ago, so you're going to have a limit as to how long you will have access to media. Ditto with high-quality cassette tapes, which command a ridiculous price nowadays.

I keep a couple of VHS decks running, mainly to digitize stuff off of old VHS tapes. As you mentioned, it's really not a great format, except for audio.

If you're looking for a high quality analog recording medium, I think reel to reel is the way to go nowadays, as you can still get blank tape. A decent reel-to-reel deck can be had for a thousand dollars or so. About the same price as a decent cassette deck, which is weird.

ATR Magnetics

 

If you were lucky enough to have a real-time tape counter, you were indeed far better off. I even went to the extreme at one point of plotting my VCR's non-real-time tape counter on my machine VS time for a 6 hour run (that was pretty boring work, let me tell you) and I kept the resulting logarithmic graph next to my machine so that I could get a good estimate of how far into a tape I was just by looking at the graph.

But even with that, you put a lot of wear and tear on a machine when you constantly jump from play to FF, then to RW, etc. And unlike when used as a VCR, you can't watch your screen for cues as to whether you are getting close.

What VHS hi-fi is fantastic for is for recording long programs off of the radio, as well as for making super long playing tapes. But if you want to listen to a particular album, or worse, a particular song, on that tape, you are going to waste a lot of time trying to find it.

But to the OP: If you have a Hifi VCR and some tape, then have some fun with it, if you like. Just don't expect for it to be all that practical to use, even though these can indeed make very good recordings.

 

VHS HiFi is not a substitute for a proper tape machine. And built for light duty home use.

 

Most of the newer VHS HiFi machines back then had an index feature. I used to add them for side changes and new albums.

 

Much better than using open reel if you are making your own recordings.

 

Used to make great sounding audio tapes with my Sony Sl-900 and Sl-1000 back in mid 1980's. Still have the sl-1000 and it's mint and works. If life can get on track again I might indulge in recording music on it again.

Used the first hi stereo machine with analog meters for each channel the JVC hrd-725 back in 1984. It had less pumping noise than my previous Panasonic Stereo video tape machine which was not Hi-Fi but a wonderful stereo player non the less.

If getting tapes (new) is not a problem then go for it. My tapes did sound great and I'm sure you're will too. John M.

 

Who's making new blank tape? New heads? Drive mechanism spare parts?