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... since anyone started a thread here. Are we not tape fans? Don't we have ANYTHING to say?
I'll never forget what Rod said when I suggested that a tape-related thread be moved here from "General" or wherever:
"There's a Tape Trail?"
I still listen to open reel tape about 25% of the time. CD/SACD gets 40%. Vinyl gets 30%. Cassettes? Maybe 5%. Computer audio, in all its forms, 0% (that's the old-dog-new-tricks syndrome at work).
How about you? Anyone out there?
Follow Ups:
further details as events warrant.
Oh, in the interest of full and complete disclosure, the aforementioned (high-speed, half-track) A77's beauty is NOT cosmetic.
all the best,
mrh
:
I'm here. Just seldom have anything worth saying. However, as experience increases that may change.
A comment about old tapes. Many tapes that my father recorded in the sixties through the eighties are on my shelves. As I checked them out most play well and record over well also. Either these are exceptional examples, or reports that all tape severely degrades over time are exaggerated. Or perhaps my ears don't work well.
I do a lot of reading and little posting.
I still use tape and have both cassette and reel to reel. I spin the cassette much more often as my reels went to hell that I recorded in the 70's and the cassettes I recorded have held up and still sound fine. I did spin a Johnny Cash prerecorded reel recently and it was muddy and dark but the songs were great (think it was his first album). The Nak cassette spun the Association greatest hits last week and that sounded just fine.
I primarily spin vinyl and use SACD and CD when the ale kicks in or I get lazy.
Same here, old dog no computer for me. Between vinyl, (sa)cd, reel, cassette, I am covered.
I'm probably 50% reel to reel, 30% vinyl, and 20% digital. I would listen to tape even more than that if I weren't worried about head wear...
Rob
"Let there be songs, to fill the air"
It's pretty much an extinct format.
ljb
Ok granted...high end cassette has a small but dedicated loyal following. The majority of cassette users however are dumpster diving broke hipsters that don't have a dime to their name. I agree with you that if that's the main demographic the format appeals to, it doesn't have much of a future.
Reel to reel is quite a different animal. It still has a studio following as evidenced by the products offered by ATR Services and RMGI. Also, the home hobbyist is something of a force to be reckoned with as there still are quite a few of them. It's just too bad that folks running quarter inch stereo on 7" and 10" Teacs, Akais, Revoxes, and Sonys *ARE* the forgotten ones of vintage audio.
Go spend some time looking at current and sold listings on Ebay for so-called "consumer grade" tapes, decks, and accessories and then come back here and tell me there's no market for it.
Meanwhile, here's a "new" component in my system. Look at it closely....at a casual glance you might not see it.
At this point I think the studios are the only serious force in keeping reel tape alive. They are the driving market for providing any kind of new production media. Watching Quantegy(Ampex) take over production for from Scotch-3M, having the US market nearly to themselves and still going out of business (twice, I think) has been pretty disappointing. Even the progression in Europe from BASF to EMTEC to RMGI to Pyral shows that the market is a pretty tough one.
The two most interesting things I've seen in the last several years has been the start-ups of ATR tape products and the Tape Project offerings. That either of these ever got off the ground is, to me, pretty phenomenal.
As far as 1/4 track consumer-grade stuff, I think that's as you described high-end cassette: "a small but dedicated loyal following". True, there's a lot of vigorous activity on Ebay, but it's really just trading a finite and slowly shrinking set of hardware & software. Vinyl has the advantage of new manufacture hardware, new releases and some level of affordability. Not so with tape.
ljb
Extinction sucks.
But since eBay still has many thousands of open reel (not to mention 8-track) listings every day, there's clearly at least a modicum of interest.
Just not here :-)
I don't know about cassette or 8-track as I have no interest there, but I believe the majority of those, like myself, who are into reel-to-reel have moved our attention to the tapeheads.net site. There are a couple of gentlemen there who are current repair techs and another gentlemen formerly of a major tape manufacturer who have been more than generous in sharing their knowledge and assistance. A lot of activity there.
ljb
And in addition to Tapeheads there is the Yahoo reel-to-reel site and specialized sites like NakTalk. What gets me is that there are plenty of tape-related threads posted on other Audio Asylum forums that invariably generate bunches of responses and yet here on Tape Trail, next to nothing.
I gather you gave up on finding that 8-track. You were kidding? Really? I'd never have guessed.
I did pick up a Revox A-77, but I have yet to get it into the hiFi room, w/ cables and find all my old tape -
I am also looking for some mirophones now....
I just have not been able to carve out the time....
I'm growing increasingly fed up with the quality of CD. Most record companies just use a 2nd or 3rd generation dub master to transfer instead of going back to the original session master. SACD is much improved but there is so much music that has not been transferred and is lying in record company vaults. The best I've heard is the Mercury Living Presence on SACD. Most of my favorite music is still on LP vinyl and I still maintain a moving coil cartridge and turntable. But the inner grooves are compromised especially toward the last side cut ends due to high forces in variable pitch cutting. There is no medium without drawbacks. I have a collection of reel to reel pre-recorded tapes but they are growing fragile and oxide is falling off with each playing and some Ampex tape is in need of baking to distribute lubricant. Computer wise, the companies have not standardized as to format. You buy some software and a year later it won't work or the company has gone out of business or doesn't support it any longer. Upgrade memtality to make you constantly spend money. Most affordable computer sound cards for the macbookPro are of questionable quality. Oh well, my hearing is deteriorating anyway. My 2 cents. Moe
"...the fool doth think he is wise but the wise man knows himself to be nothing but a fool." Will Shakespeare
Have you tried a different hobby ???
...and not enough money.
"...the fool doth think he is wise but the wise man knows himself to be nothing but a fool." Will Shakespeare
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