The Sound Quality Of Commercially Pre-Recorded Reel-To-Reel Albums

Interesting thread. I'm always fascinated to hear from people who's experience has been different from mine.

I have a Teac X1000RBL reel to reel that I bought new. It does 3.75 & 7.5 ips. I used it mainly to record classical vinyl to get long play times. Using the dbx noise reduction, high bias tape, and recording at 7.5 ips the recordings are a dead ringer for the original vinyl. The deck works extremely well for this purpose.

I also have a modest collection of about 30 pre-recorded tapes with most of them being 7.5 ips. My experience is that the best of these pre-recorded tapes cannot compete with a CD. They are maybe a little better than the vinyl version but they don't "blow away" the vinyl by any means. After reading @elliottbnewcombjr 's post I think I'll go back and try some of them again because I've had such a different experience than he has.

I've heard 15 ips tapes at a few audio shows and they sound amazing but I would love to compare them with a CD or SACD. I've got a pretty nice CD rig (Berkeley Alpha Reference II MQA, Jay's Audio CD3 Mk III) and I would be surprised if these tapes were clearly superior to an audiophile CD version.

Even though I don't play my R2R very often I love it and will keep it until I go into assisted living or die, whichever comes first. It's a beautiful piece of audio engineering and it's just plain cool.

8th-note

Your pre-recorded 7-1/2" tapes: make sure DBX is OFF.

and, some, they recorded L/R signal strengths differently on purpose, watch meters, listen, adjust, enjoy. Mine definitely beat CD or SACD. SACD for me is simply a lower noise floor, music emanates from aural darkness, sometimes un-natural quiet.

Tape does have some hiss in quiet passages, as used LPs has some surface noise. We train our brains 'not to hear' the hiss or LP surface noise. After years of CDs only, I had to re-acquire the ability to not hear LP surface noise

My friend's 15 IPS 2 track is Phenomenal, way beyond 7-1/2 IPS 4 track; LP, CD or SACD.

Next visit, I expect terrific sound from the 2T 15 IPS Jazz tapes he has been buying.

@8th-note I think that it depends on the kind of distortion which you can tolerate.

I don’t mind wow and flutter, but it drives other people bananas. The audible high frequency ’fizz’ that sits on top of almost all digital recordings, like the crap on top of an electrolytic capacitor, drives me nuts - I can’t listen to more than a few seconds of the worst, and get no pleasure from the best.. I even have to choose my cartridges carefully, lest they pick up the electrolytic caps used in the recording studio.

Apparently, your milage varies.

Hello Mitch4T!  I have many "pre-recorded" commercia tpes from 50-60 years ago, broadway shows, movie soundtracks, etc. They Stil have EXCELLENT sound. The years have added a noticable hiss from sitting inthe earth's magnetic field, however.  I also have many tapes recorded from LP's and FM radio programs as well as live recordings of musical groups. The hiss can be easily removed by using a program like Wave Pad. First: record your music digitally. Then find about 5 - 8 seconds of space between songs that should be silent. It should be in the program material itself.  That way, you can remove noise and hum in the original presentation Plus any noise and hiss in the original recording equipment.  If it is just the blank tape sound, you can get rid of the hiss from the aging of the tape and any hum in the equipment. The trick is to record this "blank - supposedly silent" area and then make a copy and reduce the level by about 10- 20 percent and use that reduced level copy as the "noise sample" for the computer to remove. This way, you will avoid cutting the high frequencies in the actual music by any noticable amount. The results are remarkable. Happy listening!

I’ve had a Teac X-10R since 1981.  During the 80’s and very early 90’s, I recorded about thirty 10.5” reels of old school soul/R&B and contemporary jazz albums.  Each tape is dbx encoded.  I don’t know how, but my dbx tapes sound better than the original vinyl album.  My 15ips reels sound the best.