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. |
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!
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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. |
