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In Reply to: RE: CAS5 - Day 1 - Classical Music View - Three Rooms posted by Chris from Lafayette on August 15, 2014 at 20:39:08
Thanks, Chris, very interesting. I was especially interested in your comment that early 1960s London/Decca LPs are not worthy source material for a system that likely retails for well above $100k if it included large monoblock AR amplifiers or at least $50k even if it didn't.
As we all know, back in the heyday of the LP, most serious, no expense or trouble spared audiophiles considered reel-to-reel tape the true high end format. Nowadays, that format is nearly forgotten and even the most well-heeled analog fanatics belong to the cult of the vinyl LP. Nobody has ever satisfactorily explained that to me. The sonic superiority of the tape format over LPs has been sufficiently demonstrated to me, both with tapes from the late 50s-early 60s "golden age" and 21st century ones (check out The Tape Project -- reels for the 15 ips half-track decks that were typically used in recording studios).
If there are enough buyers out there to justify these $100k plus analog systems, why hasn't tape made a bigger comeback?
Follow Ups:
I bow to no one in my open reel tape fanaticism, but even I know why tape will never be a particularly big deal. It's the ultimate "hair shirt" medium in terms of playback ergonomics -- you can't find a given track or snippet on a 7" reel, and heaven help you if searching for one on a 10 1/2" reel. Raw tape prices are through the roof and less than a handful of tape manufacturers are still in business. The machines are ultra-complex electromechanical beasts. I know of no brand new machines; the few being sold are mods -- good ones, but mods -- of decades-old decks. Finding a good tape tech -- and the decks need regular servicing and adjustment if they're to be at their best-- is tough.
And yet, and yet. Multi-generation dupes of classic master tapes go routinely for $400-600 on eBay. There are some 9,000 offerings of old commercial tapes every day on eBay, a field day for Jim Nabors fans. The better open reel tapes sound great and the REALLY good ones sound just fantastic. But most of them don't. And any that have been played with magnetized tapeheads will have no highs. Buying them is a pure crapshoot. Or you can spend $300-500 for new or reissue tapes, but you have to have a 15 inch per second, 2-track tape deck to play them on. And most consumer decks won't do this. If yours does, though, and you have the money, you're in heaven.
Oh, and the spinning reels are hypnotic. Let's not overlook that :-)
I get ya. But when you do find a tape in top condition, you can make a high rez digital file from it that will still be superior to the original LP. Let's face it, even an ordinary 16/44 digital file will be superior in most cases, because the tape sounds at least a generation closer to the original master tape, as has been convincingly demonstrated to me with some superb sounding LPs.
A $150k system will squeeze more from the LP, but I don't see how you could ever make up for the difference in software.
A friend found one of those 15 ips decks in an antique shop in decent shape, and had it completely restored for a total investment of under $500. Yes, the tapes cost $300 each, so he only bought three of them. But if they came down in price, say to a mere $100 ...
The tapes will never come down to $100. Hell, the raw tape alone costs almost that much. And that 15 ips deck your friend found will still be playing the tapes back via its internal, decades-old solid state preamps (I had my own Otari rewired to enable tape head output to a current-model deHavilland tape head preamp). Interconnects and power cords have to be considered here too; they make a big sonic difference in my setup.
As to making a digital file, I wouldn't do that for a variety of reasons if I was interested in sonics uber alles, but for convenience' sake it would definitely be worthwhile.
Once your friend transfers the tapes to digital, ask if he'll sell them to me at a discount :-)
is making a small comeback In th Pacific Northwest. IIRC there is a company actually making RTR copies and refurbishing decks, as well as coming out with a "new" deck.
Also in Japan during the 60's no respectable high end store was without a RTR deck. TTs were only used when evaluating TT' arms and cartridges and their phono sections.
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