Recording Degradation on Recording to reel to reel

Interesting Discussion!  Thanks 

yes; performance will diminish by playing; but you can’t really generalize about tape signal quality degradation as there are many variables. and also the question is at what point is this degradation audible?

modern tape formulations hold up better, properly maintained transports, and better tape paths are easier on the tape.

i have tapes i’ve played on my Studer A-820 master recorder dozens of times without apparent degradation. but the quality of the tape, and the transport quality is at the very tip top. this is 1/4" 15ips. all of my tapes are high quality modern formulations, most are at least 10 years old.

i’m sure there would be measurable degradation, but so far i don’t hear it for my playback purposes.

lower speeds, and less robust transports, less quality heads, less quality tape, will have different results.

to answer your question; playing a tape 3 to 4 times should not appreciably diminish the playback quality unless the deck has problems. most (but not all) 30-50 year old decks have some level of problems.

Everything is relative, i.e. perfection, darn good, good enough.

I have over 500 pre-recorded tapes, 7-1/2 ips. Inherited some, bought most on eBay. Played how many times?

Despite what people say, these tapes, and the Technics X2000r player are my best sounding source material.

I have many albums: CD; LP; R2R. Everyone picks LP over CD and R2R over LP, despite the fact that there is tape hiss in quiet passages and the S/N specs are worse than others.

Re-recording: IF the magnetic materials have not deteriorated, good to go. Repeated play, 60 year old tapes, no bleed thru, still sound better than other sources.

15 ips; 30 ips, gotta be amazing. I had a Teac that played 15 ips and 7-1/2 ips (they do not have 3-3/4 ips typically). I gave it to a musician friend and stuck with the X2000r (last pro-sumer deck Teac made). Plays big reela, 7-1/2 and 3-3/4. I do have some 3-3/4 ips, nowhere as good as 7-1/2, and LPs will beat them, but I can play them.

My tapes I made myself, FM simulcasts, still sound great.

like I said, if a perfectionist .....

@elliottbnewcombjr

I agree with you. The quality on some of those early pre-recorded 7" tapes is drop dead amazing. I’ve got a Temptations Gr. Hits Vol. 1 (7" pre-recorded) from the 1960’s, and there are a few dropouts on it (mainly from use), but the quality...OMG! I actually compared it to the commercially sold Motown CD, and that CD has more dropouts on it from their master tape than on my 7" pre-recorded version.

I grew up with my dad's Ampex tape machine and hundreds of prerecorded tapes, jazz and classical. The tapes were all 7.5 ips. Back then turntables, tonearms and cartridges were not near the quality they are today and in spite of considerable tape his the Tapes were vastly superior to LPs. Today the situation has been reversed. Modern upper level turntable playback especially with 45 rpm records recorded from uncompressed files are vastly superior (and quieter) than those old tapes. I can not speak for 15 ips modern transfers as I have no experience with them.