Most older prerecorded reel to reel tapes were actually dubbed high speed, which we all know created a poor quality copy. Factor also that they were dubbed to a slow playback speed, its not hard to understand why they never really had a fan base. I had a Revox high speed B77 mk2 and it was terrific. It would not however have been optimized for the tape project stuff since some of it is 1/2" rather than 1/4". Lastly the tape project software is WAAAAY overpriced.
Pre-recorded Reel-to Reel tapes
About 30 years ago, I had a nice 4 channel Reel-to Reel tape machine. I think that was the best fidelity I've ever heard. I have researched a little, but haven't found many pre-recorded tapes available. I guess it's almost like searching for 78 records. I'm loving my vinyl, but wish I could find a place that offered many titles of tapes. Is there such a place?
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E-Bay. Yes, pre recorded R2R tapes are hard to find, but e-bay has a vast selection. While most are 4 track, 3.75 speed, the treasurers are 2 track, 7.5 speed. A while back a Miles/Blue of the latter vintage went for almost $2K. Barcley Crooker tapes, perhaps the highest quality of pre recorded tapes also are sought out. Some of the latter go for $50 plus, however most are classical titles. Another area of pre recorded tapes are 'broadcast' masters. Most come on 10 inch reels, and are 2 track. The best of these are AFRTS tapes produced by the government for the military broadcast system. I have a few hundred of the latter and quality is very high, our government produced nothing but the very best, after all it was using taxpayer funds. I have about 6000 tapes in my collection and enjoy them everyday. I have about ten working tape machines. |
it all depends which quality you get. For 1st copies or even 2nd copies you pay quite an amount. I was able to get some very good copies. Also got the 1st series of The Tape Project, some among them are good. I use the Tapes on my A820 and C37. You should connect the Speaking Machines to a good sounding system - and voila, now you know why well recorded tapes sound superior to vinyl. No question about that! |
Buconeer, you might note that all Barclay-Crocker tapes were Dolby-encoded (except the few that were dbx-encoded), so you need a Dolby deck or a way to cut the highs if you play them back on a standard deck. That 2-track "Kind of Blue" has only 3 of the original 5 tracks, which works out to $36 minute! Pretty much the only reason to get into reel-to-reel today is that the great tapes sound so awesome :-) |
Hi Here are some Reel-to-Reel tapes from International Phonograph Inc. http://internationalphonographinc.com/master_tapes.html I have no affiliation with the company. Just passing some information along that I found on the net. Enjoy. |
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