Tape Project Tapes

I think some of the Project Tapes are starting to show up on e-bay. Plan to buy one and see what the fuss is all about. I have two decks, many reels including some of the B&C tapes. Well recorded 7.5 tapes sound best. The 3.75 are easily beat by vinyl. As always, condition is everything. Most of the tapes I originally purchased new in the 70's and none are tightly rewind, so they seem stable. One thing most people don't know is that if you have a 4 track deck you can still play two track tapes. Not ready to buy a $5K technics, yet.

I am a charter subscriber to the Tape Project. I am playing them back on a Technics RS1500 modified and optimized for playing back the Tape Project releases. The Technics internal electronics have been bypassed so that the tape heads directly feed a Bottlehead Seduction tape head preamp.

The Tape Project tapes use the IEC equalization curve, not the NAB. They are two track, 15 ips. Each tape consists of two 10.5 inch reels packaged in beautiful slipcases, including cover art. All charter subscribers for the first set of 10 tapes are assigned a serial number so that all tapes arrive with the same number. The Tape Project has licensed the original masters and each copy is duped from slaves in real time.

To date, I have received Tapes 1 & 2, with 3-6 on their way shortly. I do not have the vinyl versions of the two I currently have so I have not been able to do a head to head comparison against my LP playback system. That said, they are damn fine analog listening. Dead quiet, big deep soundstage, and David Alvin's voice on tape 2 (Blackjack David) just hangs in the air between the speakers. Coming releases in the first set include "Saxophone Colossus" and "Waltz For Debbie".

To learn more, check out http://www.tapeproject.com

As a follow up, I just perused EBay and saw no mention of TTP tapes for sale. Mike, Paul and Dan are still busy getting charter subscribers orders taken care of. They have yet to start selling the individual tapes. I doubt that anyone who has invested in the project thus far would want to break up a set and sell them. I would think that should that be the case, you see them here first, rather than EBay.

heck, i wouldn't mind a 7.5ips dubbed copy of one of their tapes sans packaging, etc. for, let's say, $75? the audiophile lp 180gm would cost about $30; so add the cost of a nice reel of tape ($20) and the time and effort ($25). play it on a regular ol' teac, etc. i'm willing to bet it will still sound good
even on the most revealing systems, with a slightly higher noise floor. i like the tape project for shedding light on magnetic tape, because i have a reel to reel (a teac x-2000r piece of plastic junk) which i have made some AMAZING tapes of classical lp's. the music just jumps out of the speakers and grabs you like "Ahnold S."! moral of the story is that you can have a BLAST with a tape recorder with OR WITHOUT all of the proprietary hardware and software. it's LIVE RECORDINGS where you start running into major difficulties without a professional setup, but recording from another tape or an lp, a cd, etc. is a piece of cake, with extra icing with tapes dubbed from lp's (of course).
oh, i forgot- the TURNTABLE i used to make the tapes from?
a $300 thorens with a denon cartridge. i wonder what would happen if i record NOW from my VPI Aries? Hmmm....

French Fries that may be a possiblity after I get my tapes, I could copy from one deck to another.