Tape Trail

Posted by Music Man Bob (A) on February 28, 2014 at 10:03:05

Hello all,
Most of you know that the excellent tape head pre amps are all above what I could afford. I wanted very badly to get into the game after my purchase of an excellent Tascam 42B tape deck. This baby had to be modified in order to play IEC reel to reel tapes. I also had to have a new playback head installed because the original head provided a very low output signal. While I was at it, I had an IEC receptacle installed so that I could use a better quality AC power cable.

I was looking for a fully assembled tube tape head pre amp for under $1500 dollars. The gentleman who modified my tape deck is also and electrical engineer who builds and sells tube audio. I asked him to build me a tape head pre amp, only if he could do it for under $1500 dollars. After a couple of weeks he got back to me and said he could do it. It took him some months before he completed my tube tape head pre amp. I am super pleased with the results and love the sound of this pre amp.

He says the next pre amps he builds will not take him long because he has designed and built this one for me. To my ears, through my Peter Gunn modified 1.6 Magnapans, Emotiva mono amps, Tascam 42B reel to reel tape deck I hear wonderful tape playback. I have tapes from, Ultra Analogue Recordings (outstanding classical music tapes) and International Phonograph Inc. (outstanding jazz tapes). Some day I hope to be able to afford to join Tape Project because they have many of the jazz musicians I love to hear.

I am hearing glorious sound from my system and am looking to gather new reel to reel tapes. The tapes I have collected so far all cost me less than $300 dollars and I love that. Right now I am heading up to my music listening room (my wife let me have this as a gift for buying the home) and play 4 of my favorite tapes. They are; Miles Davis/Gil Evans, Sketches of Spain (practice session), Sonny Rollins (The Bridge), Ultraanalogue's recording of Bach's Chaconne for unaccompanied violin (brings tears to my eye it's so beautiful) and International Phonographs, Jeremy Kahn (Duets)featuring jeremy Kahn on piano and Eric Schneider on tenor sax. Top notch jazz if I might say so. Finally, my new tape head pre amp is taking me where I want to be regarding the reel to reel tape experience. I am sure there is better out there, but the Amina pre amp is awesome enough for now.
An African American audio, classical & jazz music lover. I love all great jazz, classical and folk music. Am also a lover of 1/2 track (15ips) reel to reel tape decks.