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


The format is dying and too expensive to repair properly. Heads wear out so easy and many out there are all worn.
High quality technicians are either retired or long gone. Its such an inconvenient format that can be equalled by nakamichi easily in tape decks.
Retire it please put them in museums. 
vinny55

I hooked up the Sony Video Cassette SLV 770 HF, and it sounded clean, loud and clear; no distortion. Beyond that I'm not going to compare it to any "high end" source, although the NEC I had was comparable to high end sources.

Chakster, get some "rubber cleaner" for your pinch roller, over a period of time you'll ruin it with water.

Now that I've down-loaded my records to digital I no longer use the record player. The expensive NOS Telefunken tubes in the phono pre went belly up, and I'm not going to replace them soon. I replaced them with some run of the mill tubes, but you know how that is; you can go up the ladder, but not back down, I'll have to live without the TT until I replace those tubes with the NOS Telefunkens.

I divide my time between computer playback and reel; although the reel is better, the play list is more convenient; plus the records were down-loaded when the NOS Telefunken tubes were functional.

Some years back, there was intense discussion on this forum in regard to upgrading digital playback until it was as good as analog. I took it all in and made the necessary changes including different cards in the computer, and the best equipment for down-loading records, as well as DAC for playback; my digital is very close to analog.

Those who haven't caught up can complain how inferior digital is to analog until the cows come home, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the quality and convenience of upgraded digital. Actually, since it's vinyl that was recorded digitally and played back through a Digital to Analog Converter, it's just half digital.


Happy Listening!


Chak.

 you really need to check out Ebay for reel-to-reel tapes there’s more than you think out there
Last week end I offered a DAC to my Technics RS 1500 US R2R, and recorded on a brand new lpr35 some WAV and AAC out of my SSD laptop Hard drive. What an improvement! The playback is fantastic, even at 7.5. Tapes or LPs, I really enjoy listening to the music while watching these 10 inches reels or the vinyl spinning.
@uberwalts

you really need to check out Ebay for reel-to-reel tapes there’s more than you think out there @uberwalts you really need to check out Ebay for reel-to-reel tapes there’s more than you think out there

There are no reel to reel tapes with music i can buy on vintage vinyl, but i am not listening to the mainstream, any reel to reel tape with rare stuff will cost more than my turntable. With all my respect to reel-to-reel format this is a problematic to find music i’m after.

@orpheus10

Now that I’ve down-loaded my records to digital I no longer use the record player. The expensive NOS Telefunken tubes in the phono pre went belly up, and I’m not going to replace them soon. I replaced them with some run of the mill tubes, but you know how that is; you can go up the ladder, but not back down, I’ll have to live without the TT until I replace those tubes with the NOS Telefunkens.

This is definitely not my scenario, i love to play records and i don’t like digital. But i have working telefunken tubes, probably the rarest of them (a quad of E84L and pair of ecc801s, both military versions from the 60s...). Honestly i prefer my solid state and no longer use tube amps or anything with tubes since i discovered First Watt, Pass Labs (by Nenson Pass). I am far more impressed by the sound of his gear than by those rare and overpriced telefunken in my ex triode push-pull arm after direct comparison in my system.