Tape is back! Reel-to-reel tape!
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Monday November 25, 2024
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
@_uncle_bob: I must spend.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @_uncle_bob: I agree. Spend your money on a SuperThanks. For me obvs.
@EricPham-q4v: Thank you sir
@scottstrang1583: i WANT one to soften up many of my otherwise great CDs that are harsh. Example: Chilliwack Wanna Be a Star. Released on cd many years ago and not pleasent for listening. I can see myself recording it on 15 ips .5 track and back to 192/24 .
@rlstowe3: P. T. Barnum was so right.
@rustywp: Too much talking head and not enough cutaways to photos and videos of tapes and machines, IMHO.
@slyspy9819: No one under 50 is interested in tape or albums anymore that's the truth . Streaming is taking over and it requires zero storage and little footprint space to listen in your living room
@IceboxVideoProductions: R2R Tape is like buying a classic car, you are not buying it for latest technology ability but it’s for nostalgia, there is a character of its own not forgetting the visual
Impact of this beautiful engineering sitting in your lounge with those glowing orange VUs and large 10 inch alloy spools.
@MichaelRusso: 2k to 10k later
@jsenear: Well, you just had me fall in love with my Luxman K-111 again, which, by the way, I never fell out of love with.
@derekheeps8012: Tape is NOT 'back' - it never went away .
While I likewise started out with domestic tape recorders in the sixties , including the various Thorn brands , Philips , Bang and Olufsen ( they made VERY good tape recorders ) and Tandberg machines , before moving onto Ferrograph , which were of much higher quality - all of these were mono machines and really just playthings . I got properly interested in hi-fi in the early seventies and got my first stereo machine - a Sony TC-377 , around that time , along with a pair of ECM-280 electret mics , then a pair of ECM-22p and an early Sony mixing desk , which I used to record musical friends , amateur operatics , then local bands in nightclubs etc - which I developed into a business . Later I got Seck 62 and 122 mixing desks , before eventually pushing the boat out and getting a 16 ch Soundcraft 200B , and for bigger jobs I could hire in . These days I just have a small Soundcraft UI16 digital mixer which links to my macBook Pro . As for microphones , for many years my mics of choice were the AKG C451 preamps , mated to any of the capsules available with different pickup patterns ; getting later into sound for video production I got a load of Sennheisser and Sony mics ; and even still have a pair of classic Reslo Ribbon mics I was given by a friend .
I have had many 1/4" tape recorders down the years , and still have my A77 MkIII , quarter track standard speed ; and my B77 Mk II half track high speed ; both owned from new . At one point I had five Revoxes ( really regret selling the high speed half track G36 ) , two Ferrograph Series 7 ( one half track and one quarter track ) , a Technics RS1500 , a Sony TC-377 and my Uher 4200 and 4400 report stereo . Now I just have the two Revoxes and the two Uhers . Good as the A77 was in its day , and it was probably the first really popular Revox , its predecessor , the G36 , with valves , was actually a far better sounding machine . Revox were of course the domestic side of Studer and the PR99 is the professional version of the B77 ; a little more user friendly for editing , and of course the BBC had their own special versions made . Sony also made some very high end tape recorders as did TEAC/TASCAM , the latter being the pro side of the company , but the only TASCAM I have is my 133 AV cassette deck with a sync track for controlling slide projectors - but it does run at 3-3/4ips .
There was also , briefly , a halfway house system called ELCASET , launched by Sony with a large cassette containing quarter inch tape , Technics also joined in and I had a few in my shop , but never sold a single one - eventually they were taken back as the format was a commercial failure .
I also still have my two Nakamichi 700 Tri-Tracers ( both owned from new ) my Technics RS276 and RS279 , and my Sony TC-KA6ES cassette decks , all still in good working order . These high end cassette decks are not so far behind the quality of my open reel decks and indeed I bought the two Nakamichis to make copies of live recordings I made on my open reel decks for customers ; and the Sony deck to make recordings to play in my car on type IV metal oxide cassettes with Dolby C or Dolby S ; which my Sony XR-C900 RDS would play , before adding the CDX-91 changers in my boot and then upgrading to the CDX-C910 head units , then later to the XES system which remains the best car audio kit ever built .
I actually did use my recorders for off air recording , and still have my THD timercord timer unit which plugs into the power line feeding the recorder and used to record off air onto open reel , with a bit of latitude before and after the event , then dub to cassette so the recording started neatly . I bought the optional wired remote control for my B77 along with the optional varispeed unit , the former having a switch for timer recording ; and I made a wired box with a switch for the A77 to do the same and drop it into record as soon as power came on . As you mentioned BBC broadcasts can be very good , but you need a decent tuner and depending on location a good aerial - I started out in the 70s with a little Sony ST-88 tuner which was great for the money and a six element aerial on the roof . When I was a little better off , I upgraded to my Quad 33/303/FM3 system , which with my KEFKIT 3 speakers , was pretty decent back in the day , and had another six element aerial on a rotator . Time has moved on , DAB has proved to be a flop and Quad tell me they will never make a DAB tuner , at least two years ago they told me that when I was having my speakers serviced - most of my hi-fi is 30 or more years old , ranging from my Gtrodec , through my Quad 77pre/77FM.77CD and 707 power amplifier , and my ESL 63 loudspeakers fully rebuilt two years ago ; I now have an 8 element blake antenna on a rotator , and BBC broadcasts still sound superb , but other broadcasters are not up to the same standard .
I still occasionally do live recordings on reel to reel , as well as live audio for conferences , presentations and other events , but am close to retiring , and have only kept enough machines to play back my original recordings , many of which are unique . However , after a while I moved on to recording on video tape and used two systems , both Sony , the first of which was their SL-F1 Betamax portable recorder partnered with the PCM-F1 digital processor which allowed it to be used as a digital audio recorder ; around the same time Sony had launched the Video-8 system and the early decks such as the EV-S 600 and EV-S 800 had a PCM multi audio system which allowed multiple tracks of PCM audio to be recorded across the width of the tape ; I still have the later EV-S1000 deck which uses the Hi-8 format but only one pair of PCM audio tracks alongside video ; then moved onto DV , HDV tapes and SDCAM , which records onto professional Blu-RAY disc cassettes with 4 tracks of digital audio embedded and can be recorded at different bitrates to allow more running time at lower quality or less time at higher quality . Being now 68 , I plan to retire soon , and only to do odd jobs out of interest rather than for a source of income .
As for tape , which you mention later ; after moving on from the domestic machines for which which in the sixties I bought EMI , BASF and Philips tape for , then with the Sony I bought their SLH tape and experimented with Scotch Classic , I eventually settled on TDK Audua ( in its different versions ) which was pretty decent and available readily in both 7inch and 10-1/2" reels , as well as Ampex 406.407and 456 of which I still have many on the shelf , but latterly I settled on Maxell ( which was part of Hitachi ) and used their UD and UDXL tapes of which I still have a few unopened boxes , alongside a fair quantity of unused Fuji type2 audio cassettes and a few hundred Panasonic DV and Mini DV cassettes - so I doubt I'll ever need to buy any more . One last thing re tape is that the Revoxes always were very fussy about tape and had to be carefully set up to give their best for each tape type , while some of the older machines , like the Ferrographs didn't seem to care and you could put any rubbish through them , as long as you kept the heads clean and demagnetised , and they would always sound great .
Sitting through to the end , and your discussion of tape costs , you never mentioned that some studios will record at 30 ips , which make my 15 ips machines feel quite pedestrian , but then again my UHER portables have four speeds ranging from 7-1/2 ips , down through 3-3/4 , 10/7/8 to 15/16 ips ; and forget ye not that many radio stations , and emergency service control rooms used logging recorders that ran at 15/16 ips onto 10-1/2 " NAB reels giving many hours of recording . Besides LP tape there was also double play and even triple play tape , of which I must have a few reels somewhere - and if you want really scary - TDK used to make a D C180 audio cassette which offered three hours running time or 90 minutes a side !
I would rarely re-use tape , other than conference recordings and the like , but another good investment was my Weircliffe bulk eraser , which made sure used tapes were 'clean' again before re-use , but that stayed out in the garage , well away from my tape library and all electronic equipment !
Actually , that price for the B77 Mk III isn't so scary , plenty of turntables cost a LOT more than that - I was looking at a £100K Linn LP12 a couple of months ago - just the deck , no arm or anything , and the 'cheaper' model was £50K ; SME turntables span a similar range . I don't think Michell charge quite that much , and are threrfore a bargain ; but my very first turntable was my Pioneer PL-12D which cost me £35 with my staff discount ; then a colleague who needed the money offered my his Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference for £50 ( we sold them then for £120 new when an LP12 was £86 ! ) and I kept that for 20 years ; I bought my Gyrodec in 93 for a smidge under £2k and used it with my old SME S3 arm until I could afford my Rega RB700 arm which was from memory somethig like £500 , the QC power supply was also a few hundred from Michell , and the AT-OC9 was also about £300 ; I'm now on my third one . Looking at getting a SME IV arm to replace the Rega , no longer on general sale but I can still get one for around £4.5K .. so really £15K for a tape deck doesn't scare me at all but the machines I have work perfectly fine and I maintain them myself . Oh ,, there's a company in Germany who will sell you new , old stock UHERS but they aren''''''t cheap either .
@dpfreedman: Late to this video but still very timely for me. I'm expecting a new splicing block from Amazon tomorrow. Many years ago I had a large collection of pre-recorded open reel tapes produced by Barclay-Crocker. Seven inch reels and Dolby B encoded. I wish I still had them. Two years ago, a neighbor gifted me with her late husband's beautiful Pioneer open reel deck along with a dozen or so 10" reels of tape. Tomorrow the deck gets cabled to my "vintage" DBX 224 encode/decode unit and the analog tape follies will awaken after probably 25 years of slumber. FWIW, it was the Tandberg TD20ASE that I lusted after. Alas, the price of those beauties has skyrocketed :-(
@BillMezines: DAT Digital Mastering 16 Bit 48K from a Half inch Ampex ATR 102 Tape machine running at 30 IPS was standard in the 80s and 90s in professional Recording Studios
@robertmiskey5502: Still have my Technics 2 track RS 1500. Closed loop drive. Fantastic machine.
@homeless_horse2038: Dude 32 minutes on a 10" reel is crazy, my simple little Akai (4000DS Mk-II) can only fit reels up to 7" and they play for like 45-50 minutes on the max speed (7,5 IPS).
@dalemettee1147: Yes, I'm what they call 'old'. I had reel to reel's. Not just one but three! Two Technics (RS 1500 Us) and a Teac 7010. Along with a Pioneer CT F9191 and a 3M 8 track recorder/ player. I'd get a recorded tape, crank up the volume to hear when the session started. The hiss would start and I would quickly reduce the volume knob. The vinyl portion was handled by a Dual CS 721 turntable and a Shure V15 type III cartridge.
@buddafingahz9057: A "friend" of mine gifted me his fathers Akai GX 260d. Not the greatest RTR but a decent home audio unit that puts on a great show with its wood sides and huge "kachunk" buttons. It should be back from the tech in a month. I see 1800 foot 7" x 1/4" RTM blanks on Amazon for about 70 bucks on Amazon which is just within my comfort zone. Really looking forward to messing around with it.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @buddafingahz9057: This would be the kind of fun I had with my first half-decent but non-pro reel-to-reel. It was a long time ago but it was one of the things that gave me my start in audio.
@atomlow: Woah, it sounds like you actually sorta like tape. I do too, no need to buy those pre-recorded tape reels. That kept me out of it, but recording HI-Res Qobuz, Cassettes, LPs, CDs is where it's at. Use a 10.5" at 3-3/4ips gives you up to 6 hours of recording time, and if your deck has auto-reverse it can play all day long. This doesn't have to be an overly expensive hobby. Hopefully it doesn't catch on too much and become what vinyl has become. It's cheaper to buy Reel to Reel tape compared to the cost of lps.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @atomlow: Professionally, I'd still say that for production tape has a nice sound texture that plug-ins fail to replicate, and if I could be bothered I'd get my Revox out of the cupboard for the occasional effect. For listening, I had my own tape fun back in the 60s and 70s but there's no reason, other than the cost, that an enthusiast couldn't start having that same fun now.
@BlackManRisingNow: I refuse to pay 18K for Old Tech That Does Not Cost That Much to Make. I will just wait until Behringer Clones One.
@alainguinot7951: The new b77 mk lll has not the warm sound of mk1 or mk2 due to modern electronics components and lightly different circuit its cold sound better to fully restored a b77 mk2 or pr99 l have b77 mk1 same reel playback on my b77 and mklll ....
@EasyMusic36: I currently own a 1982 B77-MKII, made in Switzerland. It's clearly been modified—I customized it to my liking, replacing many parts and incorporating modern technology, such as a new quartz speed tracking PCB. I've also added a Wi-Fi connection that controls the counter, forward and rewind functions, and track selection; the system is managed by a software app. I've separated the power supplies, keeping the DC audio supply separate from the rest. Therefore, the 21V for the audio PCB and sync mechanism is separate from the other PCBs that control solenoids and motors. Thanks to my friends at Revox in Germany, I was able to replace the motor driver and brake control PCB with electronic components, so the braking is now electronic, eliminating the need to manually adjust brake bands, make adjustments, and so on. I sent the main motor shaft to some experts in Nagra in Australia, and they performed a complete reconditioning, restoring the original factory machining. The entire motor section has new bearings; the shafts and lubricated parts are lubricated with P-65 oil. I've replaced the entire set of heads with butterfly heads. All the cards, both recording and playback, have been readjusted to their original EQ settings. I've installed a three-phase relay for the tape drive motor. Finally, the cabinet is made in the Czech Republic, a combination of 18-gauge sheet metal and natural walnut-style wood sides. To be honest, I'm very pleased with the result; it's a one-of-a-kind piece, by the way. I think it's like when you buy a car from the '70s and then go and look at it and it turns out to have all the latest features; well, that's what happened to my 1982 Revox B77-MK2, and my name is even laser-engraved on the dashboard.
@gerardvanroyen6920: Just restored a medium quality reel to reel (AKAI GX600 DB). I like it, just like I like a high quality record player. Does it make me an analogue fan? No way!! Having extensive test equipment and years of experience listening to and testing all sorts of audio gear I am convinced that the so called special sound or tone or color always comes from the idiosyncracies of the recording or playback head or cartridge or tone arm or vinyl etc etc. Yes, it can sound good or pleasant or some might even prefer it, but given any original master, being tape or digital can only be reproduced carbon copy like by a digital recording with high sampling rate and high bit depth. All that superior digital quality for pennies in the dollar compared to analogue trying to get close to it. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth of it. So to summarise: for the creator of the master recording, only a digital copy will give back a signal that you can overlay with the original on an oscilloscope and conclude by eye and ear that it's identical and representing the creators work of art. My watch is analogue, and I like it, but a digital one will keep time more precisely. Nostalgia can count sometimes but when performance matters in reproduction or time keeping, digital is king.
@strictlyraggashowdowndjkartel: Hi I've got an akai gx635D and my mum had the gx600D when I was growing up please can you tell be why they put backing on the tape it an NIGHTMARE as it clog up the heads and most of the time unplayable or would loveitifyou can do an video on it as this has puzzle me for years
@AudioMasterclass replies to @strictlyraggashowdowndjkartel: I don't have a certain answer to this question as I've only ever used amateur tape recorders with tape that doesn't have a back coating (a very long time ago), and professional recorders with tape that either doesn't or does. I don't remember the back coating ever causing me any problems. The oxide side though is a different story. Tape will shed onto the heads and guides and some tapes very much so. Professional practice is to clean the heads and guides daily with isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds.
@sneakyfox4651: A couple of years back I got a B77 Mark I at a bargain (apr. €500,-), including a couple of large tapes on metal spools and one empty plastic spool). Plays fine, but one of the VU meter lamps have pooped in the mean time. However, there's a repair shop 20 miles from my home specialising in old HiFi gear, including Revox reel-to-reel recorders, so it's only a matter of me taking it there to get it made.
A friend of mine has a handfull of reel-to-reel machines and he collects cassette tapes and reel-to-reel tapes from a thrift store almost for free since they save the CO2 tariff for those tapes they don't have to send to destruction (the tapes we don't take get burned at a power plant producing electricity and heating, hence the CO2 tariff).
We've got so many cassette tape that we only keep the CrO2- and Metal tapes now and give away the Normal position tapes for free. As late as today I dumped apr. a thousand cassette tapes in the swap shop at the local recycling center, keeping my 500+ CrO2 tapes for recording my vinyls and radio programs.
Last friday we then hit the jackpot: My buddy got two large moving boxes of reel-to-reel tapes for €50,-, many of the tapes in plastic cassettes. That's normal sized reels, not the large one. But we don't complain at that price. :0)
@Theoobovril: Out of interest, you stated that you should not run your Revox A77 in the vertical position. But the Revox A77 was designed so to run in either the vertical or horizontal position. So it would be of great interest if you could explain your reasons why you stated what you did.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Theoobovril: Editing.
@Theoobovril replies to @Theoobovril: @AudioMasterclass Well obviously, but if you do not use your tape machine, for editing, then of course you can run your machine either Horizontally or Vertically. Perhaps, in a future video, you can clear this matter up.
@rustywp: I have RTR, cassette, 8 track, CD, and digital recording capability 🙂
@doubleslit3389: Definitely not back.
@GewoonTeike: Just got a nice A77 MK3 for free. Pushing drums through it and bass. Probably never going back. Tape-plugins don't do this low-end.
@davwht9: You sure look like Paul McCartney. 😮😮. 👍💖
@AudioMasterclass replies to @davwht9: Am I Paul McCartney? Related to him? Or am I even Eric Idle? Find out here - https://youtu.be/aB3JNivlMnI
@davwht9 replies to @davwht9: @AudioMasterclass Right ! Yet Mr McCartney should hire you as a great body double stand in though. 👍
@Gendo3s2k: I'm just buying cheap, old tape, for like $10 a pop, and recording over it
@acidfroggy1194: Many moons ago my older brother gave me his old Bell & Howell open reel stereo tape deck. Even though it pre-dated Dolby it still sounded great. The motor finally died on it. I switched to cassettes and donated my old tapes to charity. I sure miss that system!
@LenovoLenovo-g2f: Ok, but where can we buy new tapes for this recorder?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @LenovoLenovo-g2f: https://www.recordingthemasters.com/
@nickm8134: I'm a bit of a tinkerer! I re-built an A77 a few years back. In the process, converted a domestic machine 7 1/2 IPS, 1/4 track to 15 IPS 1/2 track. Revox was only a small step down from the Studer pro machines like the B67, the mechanics were very similar and built to a very high standard.
Use it more for making rather than listening to music, but it is a truly excellent machine, and I understand why it was popular in radio stations and lower-end studios etc.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @nickm8134: You wouldn't be the only Revox converter - https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/golden-gear-studer-revox-pr99 (scroll down) - Perhaps it's more common than one might think.
@83Roboto: Just when you think you have seen and heard it all. I wouldn't hold my breath on a resurgence of R2R.
@islandtime1402: $16K for a new B77 isn't bad considering it is professional equipment and will outlast most of us watching your video! lol
@AudioMasterclass replies to @islandtime1402: If you’re as old as me, it will probably outlast you without even a single relap.
@Jim-Brown-g4w: This is going to be my next purchase.
@duaneeddy3984: Tape is back. In the same sense that horses are back. They never went anywhere. Same with vinyl.
@mondial100: The best machine OTARI, best tape Maxell
@AudioMasterclass replies to @mondial100: Nahahnah, Agfa. Loved it in the day.
@stubarnum7344: I guess Revox only caters to rich people.
@user-GrahamT: Is this a joke! I was demonstrating a tape deck (Nagra 4S) at several HiFi Shows not only in the late1990s but also in 2015 onwards using a Studer 807 and 810.
@Kinetickaze: Was this Dracula Flow 6?
@mosfet500: Thanks, that was great! I restored a TEAC 2000R, lots of fun and I have a pile of tapes from the 80's that are working well. So I guess I'm not a 'real' audiophile. I guess I'll have to dump it all for a new Revox if I want to keep up!
BTW, there's another company, I forgot the name, that sells a new machine for $35k USD the last time I checked. Now those are the 'real' audiophiles.
@tripjet999: If it's not on CD, it's not for me!
@rolandvanalphen4355: One BIG laugh!!
@JoviLeMonstre: As we speak I am currently trying to purchase a REEL TO REEL TAPE MACHINE !!!
@alanperry8676: I don’t call myself an audiophile but I am interested in old technology and have never owned reel-to-reel before. I picked up a Teac A-4010S for $175 USD at an electronics swap meet. A local electronics recycling shop sells used 1200 and 1800 feet tapes for $5 each. I bought 4, intending to record over them, but one was a home-made copy of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. And it sounded so good. It sounded better than the digital copy I bought from Apple.
I have parts on order to service it and a friend is giving me two boxes of tapes when I am out his way in Aug.
It doesn’t have to be expensive to get into tape.
@ravington666: Did I miss you mention the price of the Revox ?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @ravington666: If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.
@billysea7769: Geez first seen I know thought he was Paul McCatrney
@AudioMasterclass replies to @billysea7769: Yeah yeah yeah. Nah.
@JanetJarvis-i1u: my husband loves reel to reel he would pay 5,000 for a top brand !!! please bring back Anolg !
@adrianwu6761: Peter Mony of Nagravox in Australia can completely refurbish a B77 for around USD$2500 including the machine.. All the new electronics that goes into the mark III can be retrofitted into the Mk I or Mk II, including electronic braking, selectable Eq etc. for extra. Even then, the whole deal should not cost more than USD$4000.
The best reason to get into tape is if you like analogue but cannot find good pressings or reissues to your liking. Many recordings from the 1950s and 60s have been reissued, but the quality varies, depending on the state of the master tapes and the skill of the remastering. 1:1 copies of masters (production or safety) will often sound superior, at a cost and if you can find them. Even commercial 7.5 ips releases (esp. 2-track) from that era can sound better than any LP, but this depends on the condition of the tapes. If the price is cheap enough, it is worth taking the risk. Specialist releases such as the Barclay-Crocker reissues from the 70s and 80s can sound amazing. Direct DSD transfers of analogue materials, such as the downloads from High Definition Tape Transfer are good alternatives, but I find most PCM transfers to be inferior.
@Robert-TomCat74: A cassette is actually a miniature version of reel to reel. If you examine the cassette closely, you will see two miniature reels, one on the left and one on the right. Of course the tape is half as wide as proper reel to reel, 1/8 inch instead of 1/4 and only running at 1 7/8 IPS instead of 3 3/4, 7 1/5, and 15 IPS or inches per second. 30 IPS is reserved for studios, I believe.
@Phiyedough: That new Revox is more than I paid for my house! I do have a Tascam cassette deck and it is good but....
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Phiyedough: Don’t worry. The government will soon subtract what you paid for your house from what it’s worth now and tax you on your unrealised capital gain.
@Woffy.: I have a collection of machines, The Teac 8-80 is fun but very hungry munching miles of 1/2 tape salvaged from studio's. The other day I dug out an old Sony TC 645 from my stash and after an hour of cleaning and service it was up and running. I dropped some tracks from a CD and replayed them in sync. I was very surprised at how well it performed and the low noise floor. I am not into Digital and my CD's came from a friends estate and OK but give me Analogue and the ritual of threading a tape or dropping a stylus into a track you have not played for years. I buy up tape from eBay and have picked up some good tracks and quality tape. Long play tape is ok at higher speeds but the main problem is with machines which have poor tension control on rewind which will stretch the tape, go gently and its OK.
@madmad8582: I have two reel tape recorders , the first one is a Sony the other is a Teac , I did have the Teac 4 track recorder , but traded it to buy some records reason being the Teac needed a mixing board plus I don't have much room to run a Studio , but i do love my Sony it has a Sound on sound and I use that too make my guitar sound like two Guitars it very cool if you do it right . but yes Reel to Reel is a lot of fun to use and it sounds very nice , Les Paul use to use like 4 tape machines to do his multi track recording , He invented a lot of gear for the studio , recording great music started with Les Paul , and it was made in the USA , I love some American Gear , also some Japan made stuff can be nice too. like I said before my EV collection is the best there is and is true audiophile gear it is sad there is some nice modern speakers but carry a huge price tag on the Market speakers have not changed that much over the years , speakers are motors for sound , and this has not changed since they where invented, to be honest people are being ripped off Big Time Modern speakers are made out of poorly made materiel's , The day's of wooden speakers are gone , and so much plastic is used as well , I use too run Tube Gear it was nice but decided it was not my cup of tea , I did have a Sony Mastering Deck it was the nicest Reel to Reel I ever Had the tape ran in one direction , and it was the nicest sounding deck I ever Heard in my life , that is one thing Sony ever made was very good recording gear even in video gear and cameras Sony had there name on it , do you remember Beta machines that is a perfect example on how Sony made cool stuff and they have quite the History of making Electronics starting with the transistor radio , I had one and I found it at a Ham Fair with my Father his call number was VE7-AIL , I have a huge History of Electronics Gear over the years even computers The Sony Transistor radio I sold for 800.00 dollars , being I only bought it for 3 dollars , it was a great find and I bought a ring for my Girl Friend from the profits any ways Your shows here on Youtube are very cool I enjoy what you have to say about audio gear , and you are correct about what you have to say , plus you have bin too one of the greatest Studios on the planet like WoW that is very cool . I will watch more of your videos and drop some post to you ty Audio Masterclass :-)
@slappymcslapster8845: Bring back 8 tracks! Lol If that happens I will then know for sure some of you old farts (my age LOL) are off your rockers. The only way that some people think that vinyl, cassettes, R2R (And 8 tracks maybe... is that next?) sound better than a decent mp3 or wav file is because of the nostalgia factor.
@slappymcslapster8845: I'm in my mid '60s and never ever understood the obsession some audiophiles have with vinyl, cassettes, reel to reel... What's next? 8 tracks? Nothing like having your song fade out in the middle. I don't want to go backwards with audio quality no matter how nostalgic it is.
@NTSCuser: Can't wait to see a TEAC/Tascam knock-off at a fraction of the price!😛
@AudioMasterclass replies to @NTSCuser: We used to have Teac tape recorders and they were not anything to get excited about. Then they professionalised and introduced the Tascam brand. I had a G16, or was it a G24, for review for a while. For it's specs and price it was good.
@jtavegia5845: Tape is back my butt. Have you checked the prices for used R2R machines lately? They are mechanical nightmares and have fun finding a new cassette recorder with Dolby B. Too cheap to pay the licensing free? Tape is joke with speed issues, expensive tape that degrades over time.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @jtavegia5845: £15 quid for a 30 minute reel in the 1980s. Happy days.
@MrMcGuy: I want one so badly, but it's a rich man's game. I opted instead to pay to have my Pioneer RT-909 and RT-707 both fully restored by a professional.
@mobilepsycho: Now let's see, where did I put that $23,000 😂😂🤷🏽♂🤷🏽♂
@Andersljungberg: How good does an album sound that is at the speed of 71/2? On Etsy, pre-recorded tapes are at that speed, among other things, as Dire Straits brother in arms
@Andersljungberg: Analog productions in the USA have also sold albums on real to real tape. Still available on their website. There may also be master tapes that you can find in different places but according to him at Anadalog. there are things that you should look at that can make it realistic that it is really a Mastertape. Then there are probably also copies on master tape
@ramchandharphotography2836: location link company sent
@trevorjohnson2315: Pretty sure this is Paul McCartney
@pb.5444: Sorry, but for 16,995.00€ I can buy a fully reconditioned professional multitrack tape machine with a set of 64-channel converters i/o, and I have money left for a 2-track and a crappy car. Crazy... extortion is what it is. hahahahaha
@xisotopex: what size tape do reel to reel machines use?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @xisotopex: Domestically, quarter inch.
@viliamvala6289: Hi, you seem to be very qualified and so maybe you can tell me what are exactly the two knobs in my Revox a77 mk4 2 track on the left side under the silver lid saying recording calibration. I cannot find it anywhere. I am new to Revox and somehow my machine I just purchased does not record at all. The sound is getting through the aux, but when I switch from input to tape there is nothing recorded. Thank you very much.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @viliamvala6289: I don’t remember the A77 specifically in this respect but tape recorders in general need to be calibrated for bias, level, and EQ. I wrote a couple of articles years ago. Here’s the first https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/tape-line-up/1647
@viliamvala6289 replies to @viliamvala6289: @AudioMasterclass thank you I will have a look. It is the Dolby version of Revox A77, still short on info
@viliamvala6289 replies to @viliamvala6289: @AudioMasterclass I found it is the Dolby B version and it needs to calibrate the noise reduction before recordings. There are no real demos of that unfortunatelly, but it is described in the manual. Thank you for your reply :)
@Ptownjohn: It certainly is ❤
@MechWarriorBK: im from Poland i have Revox a77 professionally refurbish but not from revox , replaced all the caps , brakes etc i have whole bag of old capacitors from that service , im using RTM LPR90 tapes have around 10 of them , my A77 can record and play 2 track at 7 and half speed (15 was in some b77 models like you mentioned) , rest my setup is new from German Brand Magnat , Speakers Transpuls 1500 , and Magnat MA900 with tube pre amp , Magnat MTT 990 record player , around 20 vinyls ofc for revox i have 6 steel original revox reels few plastic ones , original nabs and a cable remote what i import from switzerland (60y old remote and 60 year old revox :D ) i have other audio eq from technics mostly models from 1989-1994 (imported high grade models) myself im new in that hobby only 4 years +- , im 41 y old now , i had speakers and cd players before and was using streaming servivce like Tidal (never liked spotify even before i had decend audio ) for my friend i have crazy high end setup, for rich audiophiles i have peasant setup even if that are best Magnat models there are other brands, my audio setup is arround 8900euro not including tapes or records only equipment but that refurbished revox cost me only 600 euros (a bargan almost like cost of servive itself) , in Poland we have a guy named reel to reel king he service them and for service you need wait in line for 1 year! mby im deaf alredy at 41y old but if i record flac files 192kb 24bit (from tidal ) to that reel to reel and then play them for me they sound better , placebo? meaby that i put some work to create that record setup machine record it mby that make them for me they sound better? but i rly think it is sounding better then native tidal i don't know, meaby that tape adds something to it , in other topic my record vinlyl player was very expensive for my standard it cost 1090 euro and i have all ''new'' max 4 year old vinlys and few brand new you still hear occasional ''pop'' sound but albums and operating that machine also give some enjoyment , but my revox a77 at 7 and half speed outclass that expensive vinlyl record player.
@alexrossi-g9k: Reel To Reel tape recordeR...HAHAHAHAHA
@davefm-d8g: I have 2 reel to reel player recorders. They are to hard to maintain. Nobody knows how to keep them running. So they sit gathering dust.
@thattubesound2214: Witty, informative, fast-paced. What's not to love about your videos? Thank you, sir! To see where I am on the spectrum, you must look low. No, lower! There I am. At the bottom. My main hobby is restoring vintage and antique electronics. I am currently doing a full restore of my Teac A-4010S from 1970. Next, I have a Sony TC-850 that I want to go through. See, I told you I was way down there. BUT these machines, to an unprofessional and untrained ear like mine, sound utterly fantastic when they are right! Please keep your videos coming. They are delightful.
Michael in Champaign, Illinois, USA
@victorbloom8286: Still have My Teac X1000R from 1976 . Still going strong
@stridersongs: As much as I laud the return of vinyl and tape (I am proud owner of a relatively new Revox T700 turntable) this makes no sense whatsever. Who would spend 16k (Swiss francs) for a prosumer tape machine? To transfer your $400 audiphole records to save them from wearing out? -What they won't do on a good system anyway or if they do you'll be too old too hear). If you want to learn about tape and recording then get a Tscam 4-track cassette recorder for probably 100 bucks and you'll learn a ton. It's how I started before getting into Pro Tools and though it was only a short period I wouldn't want to miss it. This here is for the hobby musicians that buy 5k custom shop guitars to hang on their walls.
And wait, there's a 26k (Swiss francs) ALICE COOPER edition......No, this is not a joke.
Look, it's a fact that some folks have too much money and don't know what to do with it.
@ingenfestbrems: You’re a overcooked idiot. The voice and dialect just as.
Staring into the lens
The entitlement is of the scale 🤯
@camhyde9701: So I have to buy the IV-S then... at one point Nagra were refurbishing them.. I emailed them but never heard back
@FeminismIsCancer-GodIsAConcept: Please don't be selfish.. this video is unplayable outside YouTube. Sharing is caring 🙂 please remove the limits on the video.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @FeminismIsCancer-GodIsAConcept: Puzzled. What limits?
@jonarmandhalle8021: Why the hell would you use a tape machine, unless you wanted to make the sound wobbly or lofi or <put yor answer here> ? There is CD, which is outplaying tape by far. I get the point of recording onto tape for the pleasant compression, but why would you use it at home for playback? It makes absolutely no sense. I have been recording music onto tape in a studio. We used a 2 inch tape at 30 inches per second, which would obviously provide a very high fidelity. But at home? Why?
@bpm2190: Reel to Reel have caught on with many of my friends all various ages. However, they are looking for more music on tape.. this should be a wake-up call for the studios. Please forward this to the formentioned studios 🎉get straight on it.. make more tapes 😃😃😃😃. REEL TO REEL.. KEEPING IT REEL
@pinarellolimoncello: I've splashed out on a Linn Sondek with an ittock arm, it makes me feel ever so superior in the hifi world, it doesn't play tapes very well but its very good at playing the vinyl I get from the charity shops for a few quid , the money saved helps pay for the counselling I receive for my audiophile addiction. I would agree that these rather exotic looking tape machines do sound even better but thanks to my therapy I won't be getting caught up in this overly exuberant and overly enthusiastic tape race. Thanks for the video though , cant help thinking you should be the curator in a musical online museum where you play lots of old reel to reel tapes for youtubers to reminisce about 'back in the olden days'.
@inforobob: I have a Mk III, my initial thoughts at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_syEJmF7xs. .
@Thecat1962-h8p: I Had the reVox A700 .
@THEAUDIOTRAVELER: Revoke is not all that!
@TheAstroKid: Buy a new car instead 😅
@Supergeologist: I nave an Akai 4000db that my neighbour was throwing out. Its cost me around £250 to have it repaired/serviced/refurbished and it sounds just lovely.
The new Revox B77 coming in at over £15,000 is just way beyond my budget and I have to wonder if it sounds £14,750 better and whether or not my aging ears can tell the difference!
I agree you need a minimum 2 brushed aluminium reels, it just looks so 😎
One thing I will go on about (again!) before you spend a small fortune on HiFi get your hearing tested, you'd be surprised how much it deteriorates over the years. Chances are you wont notice the difference between a £15.000 tape deck and a £250 one.
A lovely high end tape deck is massively desirable ( i keep umming and ahhing about getting one) but I have to bear in mind that these things are around 50 years old and like a grand piano 'should not be moved'. I'm always worried about the 'pro logic' push button tape transport buttons, I notice these often crop up on ebay as 'not working ,for spares' because they can be almost impossible to fix if a chip controlling the tape transport takes the day off. You will quite often see these high end machines for sale as 'pick up only'. Its obvious why!
The cheaper machines use levers, springs and cams to operate the tape transport rather than digital micromotors. They sold by the ship load so there's always loads available for spares. They are also dead easy to fix yourself. If its an Akai check that its been recapped, serviced and had those bloody awful prone- to-go-wrong LD3141 Ic whatevers replaced. If not its quite straightforward DIY if you are reasonably decent with a soldering iron. There's also loads of 'how to' videos on you tube.
Avoid 'rare' examples cos the chances of getting it fixed when it goes wrong is almost nil.
Try and find the provenance of ten inch machines because it may have been flogged to death in a studio.
Anyway that's my tuppence worth.
@YnotNomis: NOTHING beats the sound of Reel to Reel tape!
@eternalcoldweather replies to @YnotNomis: Except my iPhone.
@cigarland replies to @YnotNomis: @eternalcoldweather 🤣 - YMMD!
@slappymcslapster8845 replies to @YnotNomis: Yeah.... Numerous formats beats reel-to-reel sound. Hell, YT music beats it...
@fepatton: I have a few dozen old pre-recorded tapes, and recently purchased a Teac A-2300SX for 200USD - needing a bit of refurb to make it usable - to replace a dying Sony portable. It does sound quite good, but old tapes are a gamble. New tapes at 500USD and up? Never gonna happen for me. I'll stick with $30 vinyl records, thanks!
@Davethreshold: I have a Crown CX844 which needs work. It has the DBX187 included, but that doesn't work. This unit on RECORD/PLAY, was within 3db to 32 Kilohertz at ZERO DB. No other RTR tape machine can do that, unless you are talking about TRUE studio machines like Scully. John Gill, from Gill Custom House, Palos hills, IL. recorded the ENTIRE RAT PACK on it with MANY other feature famous acts, including SINATRA, right across the street in the saber Room. I AM thinking of selling it.
@Solitaire001: After the failure of the Digital Compact Cassette format, I considered purchasing a reel-to-reel (r2r) deck. Unfortunately, the decks I could afford weren't very good, and for less money I could get a compact cassette deck that would (with quality tapes) outperform the r2r decks I could afford.
@lesguiblin4463: My thing is to grab them as thikkos don’t realise what the junk in their garage is and refurb them. You know, belts and pulleys, replace caps etc. then I wonder why did I bother.
@lesguiblin4463: I’m a NAB man myself.
@lesguiblin4463: So I retired three years ago but had already started collecting r2r machines. (I had always wanted one but could never afford one). Yes I like the Revox machines but my favourite is my Teac x2000r. This had Dolby B which turned out to be the Betamax of Dolby - great sound quality (you are fine with 7.5ips but the downside was you could not use it on another make of machine). It is still pride of place in my living room. I got a second one cheap and refurbed it. A while back a visiting nephew was drawn to it and so I played the tape that was on it at the time (Close to the Edge by Yes). He looked thoughtful at the liquid motion of my beautiful machine and asked ‘so, Uncle Les, you downloaded the music from Amazon Prime and recorded it onto the tape. You can now play that back, but - ok you know the rest. To me it’s the fusion of music and movement but this is lost on the youngsters of today.
@johnschlesinger2009: There was something even better: the Nagra D, the only digital reel-to-reel recorder using video technology. I still have mine: it has a choice of four sampling frequencies (maximum 96Khz), four channel operation at up to 48Khz, and 24 bit resolution. At sample frequencies up to 48Khz there is an option of full speed four channel operation, or half speed 2 channel, with a doubling of recording time in 2 channel mode, allowing for long recording times. The D/A and A/D stages are of the very highest quality. It cost a fortune, but, like all Nagras, it was built with jewel like precision. It used special tape, which was ultra thin, no longer available as far as I know.
@happypapi1903: 3:50 I'm assuming the format you are referring to that required "expert maintenance engineers" is the Sony 3370 DASH units, which were popular in Nashville and classical recording circles because of the high dynamic range and very clean sound, where as 2 inch 24 track was more favored for recording rock and pop music. There was a brief period in the 1990s when digital multitrack on tape was affordable - Alesis ADAT and Tascam DTRS (DA38/DA88/DA98HR) as well as a slew of modular hard drive recorders. Some major records were made on that format (Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill being one, the score for Apollo 13 being another)
@bpm2190: Many of my friends are truly happy to reconnect with the reel to reel tape player, however since most are retired some are on a limited budget. There needs to be various levels of reel to reel tape players to easily fit a wider range of budgets so everyone can get one. For myself still have my AKAI 1730 SS a great tape player. I do plan on buying a new one in the future to record music with, but will keep my AKAI 1730 SS. As I always say.. staying in touch with the music tapes and Vinyl.
@Derpy1969: It’s NOT BACK! It’s still DEAD.
@Samurai-Steve: I hated reel to reel. Hard to use. Linear on steroids.
@BrianBollocks-h8r: What about Elcassette! Sony EL7
@John-ys2pn: CDR will beat it....350 quid for TEAC.....CDR....IT WILL BEAT IT RECRDING CD....BUT NOT VYNAL
@gregeney: I haven't seen the video yet. I have a big problem with this line... :"but are you truly an audiophile without a reel-to-reel recorder?" Equipment doesn't make one an audiophile at all.