A New Reel to Reel Tape Deck?
For those complaining about the paucity of reel-to-reel tapes. Currently there are now 21 companies releasing reel-to-reel tapes. You can see a few of my reviews about the tapes on PF. http://avshowroomsforums.com/showthread.php?5-Companies-Currently-Producing-15ips-Reel-to-Reel-tapes-Plus-Myles-All-Star-List! |
I think it would be great to see RTR make a comeback, but, I would expect that its appeal will always be limited to a small group of truly dedicated connoisseurs. I don't think the price can ever come down enough for tape to have mass appeal, certainly, not without major compromise in quality. To do a really nice job, the dub would have to be at normal speed, not something where the production master is playing at twice (or more) regular playback speed. Both the machine playing the production master and the machine producing the dubbed tape would have to be of high quality; even if there is enough demand to run several machines doing the dubbing per run of the production master, the cost would still be high. I recently saw a new release of an album on RTR that I think would be worth owning--"Garcia and Grisman"--and the asking price for that reissue was $450. |
larryi, Back in the late 70's early 80's when I was working in a studio we would have to run second generation masters. The mixed down master was almost always done at 15ips. To save time, we would take the 15ips tape and then play it back at 30ips. The machine making the recording was also running at 30ips. Honestly, there was no loss of information whatsoever. We did this regularly using either Scully's or Ampex machines. I am pretty certain that many of those companies making second generation masters are doing the exact same thing as we did. Running and recording at 30 and playing back at 15. This would certainly be necessary to play into the economics of mass producing second generation master tapes. I don't know of any machine capable of 30ips that is less than stellar in performance. Studer, Sony, MCI, Telefunken, Scully, Ampex were all common place in various studios and dubbing banks. When we think about the cost of two metal reels, tape, packaging, and the labor to record and package the item, $450.00 is still a bit on the high side. If they could cut that cost to just under $200.00 per title, I think they would have a hard time keeping them on the shelf. We should also consider some master dubs at 7.5 ips I have heard some of these and I must say in most instances that I absolutely cannot tell the difference between a 15ips half track and it's 7.5ips half track copy. If we were talking quarter track then it would be very obvious, but half track is a different story. Just think what that would do to the cost of second generation masters? Norman |
Norman, Thanks for your interesting description of your personal experience. I agree that 7.5 ips can sound very good and I take your word for it that 2x copying can be essentially perfect. The issue there is whether the hyper-critical audiophile market would accept anything that appears to be a compromise. Several of the premium reissue labels claim that they do regular speed one-to-one dubbing (i.e., only one slave) which means that, if volume increases, some cost savings could be achieved by making more than one copy per pass of the production master (save wear on the master too). Given how much some people are willing to pay for nice rare vinyl discs, I think you are right about $200 being a cost point that may attract some interest. But, it still would probably be a niche market, certainly much smaller than the market for $50 premium 45 rpm vinyl reissues. |
