Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.

There is one vintage recorder that no body mentioned; it was my favorite, I owned one that was as good if not better than my reel, and it was more convenient. The one I owned was hi-end and I don't even remember the name, but if I took the time to look through some old magazines I might find it.

Aside from professional quality open reel, a Hi-Fi VCR was the best audio recorder around. I still have VCR tapes that I recorded on this machine. It broke and couldn't be repaired, but I bought a Sony that's still working.

By request, if anyone is interested, I could do a review of the Sony, and try to find the brand of the Hi-Fi VCR that was so good.

At some point there was quite a bunch of Hi fi VCRs able to record Audio very well. They were there originally to play Hi Fi stereo pre recorded movies and sure it was a great improvement over ordinary VHS. First tape I tested through my AKG headphones was Silverado that was just released! What an experience! Could hear all the details of a very serious sound production. Don’t remember the make of this VCR. Later I became involved in video editing and used maybe the best S-VHS ever, the Panasonic NV-FS 100S.

I became seriously involved in HI-FI VCR's after purchasing what I considered the best ever, it was head and shoulders above the rest, although I do recall owning a Panasonic; I know they made some good one's.

After this VCR broke and I was unable to get it repaired, I was never satisfied although I purchased several Hi-Fi VCR's after this one;


  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmuL6AnO4SA


Unlike most people, I used it exclusively for music, and other VCR's for the purpose they were intended.

I think I'll listen to the Sony playing tapes made with the NEC and get back to you in regard to the quality. Too much trouble to put it in the setup, so I'll use headphones for the evaluation.

Isn’t VHS-HiFi just digital pcm?

I correct myself, VHS-HiFi uses FM encoding. Great in concept except for the challenge of audio being a continuous stream which means head alignment is critical to ensure the playback isn’t hobbled with background buzzing.