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

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.  

I have been using reel to reel since this last december and have only managed to destroy one $8 tape (which I cannot find a duplicate of...ugh). But other than that i prefer it to handling vinyl. Everything seems to affect vinyl playback--everything.

To do it right, you have to manage static, dust, rumble, people walking, keep the needle clean, don’t bump anything, be careful how you slide the vinyl in and out of its selves, carefully drop the stylus, properly apply the RIAA curve (via one of a million different ways to do a phono preamp), dampen platter resonance, maintain tracking height, tracking weight, tracking angle, anti-skate, choose what type of stylus you want, how do you know if you have damaged your stylus or if it’s gotten old, deep clean your vinyl....

Tape has pretty much none of this. All you’ve got to do is get it calibrated once a year by a pro (or learn to do it yourself), degauss the metal parts occasionally, clean the tape path with lint free swaps and alcohol, clean the pinch roller with some distilled water every week or so and adjust tape position in or out if you happen upon a warped reel.

Nothing is near invisible with a tape player. Much is near invisible with vinyl.

Plus vinyl has an additional mastering phase and by the time it gets to your turntable it’s already like 3 more generations away from the master tape than commercially released tape is.

Tape path to your home:
Master tape>dupe master>tape you listen to at home

Vinyl path to your home:
Master tape>RIAA EQ applied and bass phase aligned and summed to center remix for cutting and then cut lacquer>mother>stamper(s)>record you listen to at home

One problem: You can’t buy a good music on reel to reel tapes that you can always buy on original vintage vinyl today in one click on discogs. So the choise of music on reel to reel tapes is extremely limited, if you’re not listening to some pop or some other well known garbage you will never find anything on reel to reel tapes (with very few exceptions). This is the reason why vinyl is still in demand. It will be simply impossible to find even 1% of my record collection on reel to reel tapes.