I have to politely disagree with Myles on two accounts:
First, as a TP subscriber and one who has compared the Naylor tape to the cd many times, there is no contest. The cd wipes the floor with the tape---in my opinion. It was so bad in favor of the cd in fact; that I thought my tape was DEFECTIVE. Upon sending it back to the TP folks, they proclaimed that it WAS DEFECTIVE, and sent me another dupe. The second dupe may have been marginally better (I later found out it was NO better), but the cd STILL wiped the floor with it! Now, that is just MY opinion. My friend who is a recording engineer (with several commercial releases to his credit) heard the cd and the tape side by side with me---and he liked the TAPE more!! He said he understood the sound they were "going for" on the tape version (overly warm, full bodied, super tube like, and intimate) as compared to the cd which is clearer, cleaner, and more open and more dynamic sounding. And that comparison was done on a system approaching one-half million dollars as a sidebar. So, as they say----different strokes for different folks!! But I'm with Dave and the guy from United Audio on that Naylor release. Way too muted and dull for my tastes.
Second, I disagree that you need to be at 15ips on open reel to get sound that beats a high quality turntable. I have close to 300 commercial open reel tapes at 7.5ips----mostly 2 and 4 track MLP's, LS's, Blue Notes, Verves, and a nice group of rock and roll (Beatles, Doors, Moody Blues, Zeppelin, Who, etc.). Many of these releases on 7.5ips tape simply DESTROY their LP counterparts. It doesn't happen every time, no, but man when it DOES you know you have come across something very special!
First, as a TP subscriber and one who has compared the Naylor tape to the cd many times, there is no contest. The cd wipes the floor with the tape---in my opinion. It was so bad in favor of the cd in fact; that I thought my tape was DEFECTIVE. Upon sending it back to the TP folks, they proclaimed that it WAS DEFECTIVE, and sent me another dupe. The second dupe may have been marginally better (I later found out it was NO better), but the cd STILL wiped the floor with it! Now, that is just MY opinion. My friend who is a recording engineer (with several commercial releases to his credit) heard the cd and the tape side by side with me---and he liked the TAPE more!! He said he understood the sound they were "going for" on the tape version (overly warm, full bodied, super tube like, and intimate) as compared to the cd which is clearer, cleaner, and more open and more dynamic sounding. And that comparison was done on a system approaching one-half million dollars as a sidebar. So, as they say----different strokes for different folks!! But I'm with Dave and the guy from United Audio on that Naylor release. Way too muted and dull for my tastes.
Second, I disagree that you need to be at 15ips on open reel to get sound that beats a high quality turntable. I have close to 300 commercial open reel tapes at 7.5ips----mostly 2 and 4 track MLP's, LS's, Blue Notes, Verves, and a nice group of rock and roll (Beatles, Doors, Moody Blues, Zeppelin, Who, etc.). Many of these releases on 7.5ips tape simply DESTROY their LP counterparts. It doesn't happen every time, no, but man when it DOES you know you have come across something very special!