How many People own Working Reel to Reel Decks?

Casey-You bring up an interesting point. One of the things that tape also has going it for in comparison to LPs is that LPs can't sustain the same level of bass and treble information across the entire disc. You start off with a 12" diameter at 33 1/3 rpm and after the second song on the LP, the diamter has shrunk and continues to shrink. Kevin Gray wrote a good article on how mastering engineers have to take these physics into account when they are mastering LPs. They always try and cut the most dynamic songs at the beginnings of both sides of the LPs. Tapes don't suffer from that problem. The last song on the tape can and will sound as good as the first song on the tape. RCA engineers knew back in 1958 that two track stereo 71/2ips tapes were better than their LP counterpoints. In fact, it is too bad that 2 track tapes lost out to 4 track tapes as they don't have the problem of two tracks always going backwards over the playback head while the two tracks you are listening to are going forwards. Sometimes you can hear this. Also, with two track tapes, the two tracks are wider than they are on 1/4 track tapes as are the gaps on the tape head which should translate into more information in a given space on the tape. 2 track tapes lost out to convienance which is how so many things were dumbed down in audio. Consumers choose convienance over sound quality or at least the marketeers tell us so. Now people want 1 million songs crammed onto a device the size of a matchbook and they don't care what it really sounds like as long as it is digital.

I have 3 decks, Revox B77 MKII, Sony TC 765, and an Otari MX 5050 BII-2. I mostly listen to pre-recorded tapes and will make my own recordings as well.

Currently own a Technics RS1500U, Otari MX5050IIB, and a Teac x700R. The Teac needs repair. Also have a Akai 1800SS reel to reel/8 track tape quad unit on the way. I use them for transfering tapes to cd/digital formats.

Steve

Timely question for myself, as I have recently put my TEAC X-10 reel to reel back into service after about ten years, along with my turntable. Finishing up on my basement music room the reason. It could use a little work, but still works and sounds great. I have always loved reel to reels. My Teac has been the most enjoyable single piece of gear I have owned. Now I just play back tapes I recorded many years ago. My plan is to dub the tapes into the computer, as I do not know how my longer even my mighty Teac can last. Parts and the folks who know how to work on them I fear are getting scarce. Nothing beats the look of reels goin round and round.

After trying out most of the good digital sources and LPs, the idea of finding a way to get closer to the ultimate master tapes that were used to make the those nice CDs and LPs, triggered my interests in tapes. There are significant developments along with finding decent pre-recorded tapes on ebay: The Tape Project may have been one of the most influential thing to happen.

I've collected few hardware within last few months mostly Otaris and Studers... I will tacle the software next.