hadelman,
nice information, however,
your post is about what ’the ultimate’ tape can do. Interesting, however ’ultimate anything’ is probably not relevant for the majority of us.
I think it might give the wrong impression of how good R2R tape sounds without ’ultimate’ upgrades.
Without upgrades, played on a readily available ’prosumer’ tape player (i.e. Teac X1000R, other models and brands) readily available 4 track pre-recorded tapes: ...... easily ........sound better than my/your well set up LP system.
btw, 3-3/4 ips was not a standard of the next era as someone might think reading your text.. 7-1/2" ips was the existing standard consumer speed, 2 track, and 4 track. 3-3/4" ips was the ’added’ alternate cheaper version (only half the tape needed, lighter shipping, ...) Each album had 7-1/2 ips and 3-3/4 ips versions. Look on eBay, a ton of 7-1/2 ips pre-recorded tapes exist along side the 3-3/4 ips versions. Then as now, price differences exist. The masses go for compromise as you know.
A few have had bad results, there are exceptions, but once again:
The MAJORITY of 50-60 year old pre-recorded tapes sound great. I repeat from my prior post: I bought over 500 R2R tapes, every one offered returns, I never had to return a single one. Some, like any format, disappointed in content when listened to, yes. Some great engineering choices, other’s, like any format, not great. ALL 7-1/2 ips sound better than my matching LP versions.
And, I sold 150 of mine years later, 148 customers quite pleased, 1 box smashed en-route, 1 customer got ’low volume’ when he played it, who knows why, refund, no questions asked, keep the tape.. I gave each tape a farewell listen, added leaders, added return strips,
To get into R2R without spending a lot of money, buy deck and tapes returns accepted only, and my advice remains: be handy enough to do the mechanical work on the player yourself, or, have a shop near enough to drive to for that so no packaging/shipping in/out time/cost/damage potential is involved.
