Tape Trail Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats.

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Reel to Reel: Best sounding format ever?!??!??!!!!!!!!!

Posted by joeljoel1947 (A) on February 27, 2008 at 21:04:45

I knew that would get your attention. This tape trail place needs some EXCITEMENT! So I thought I would provide a spark to this place----- at the least.

Below is an email I sent to Dave Pogue tonight. He is a well respected and well-documented contributor to this forum (and also vinyl asylum).

About 2 weeks ago, I bought an Otari 5050-BII-2 deck (thanks to Dave) and have been working my way through a new adventure: reel to reel playback. You can check my systems as a back-drop to what I own. It's not amateur hour over here, to say the least.

I have learned so much in so little time. I have to thank both Dave and Matt (X-2000R) for their help in walking me through this journey so far!!!!

I will now share with you what I shared with Dave tonight. The only reason I do so is that others may join in to the reel to reel lifestyle. That, IMHO is a GOOD thing, though I know we don't want to get the "secret" out.......



Hi Dave,
I finally got my Reel to Reel 7.5 IPS copy of Dave Brubeck "Time Out" today. Keep in mind, this is only 1 of 2 commercial tapes I own, so I can only base the things I am about to say off that incredibly small population.

I really hate emails or comments like the ones I'm about to make. I somehow feel like I am (names omitted) on Vinyl Asylum waxing lyrical about whatever it is that I've just tried (i.e. flavor of the month). So keep in mind that I hate exactly about what I'm about to write to you; but I've heard what I've heard so I must write this.

Like you, I owned previously both Brubeck's "Time Out" on Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) and the vinyl Columbia 6-eye LP release of this album, both stereo. Tonight, I managed to cue-up and level match all three of them I now own---the stereo reel 2 reel tape, the stereo LP, and the stereo SACD. Just like you did.....

With all due respect to your findings (the reel being best), I thought for sure the LP and the SACD were going to beat the tape. I don't know why I thought that, but I think I just didn't expect a 40 year old piece of brown tape running through a 23 year old reel to reel player was going to beat out a state of the art digitally remastered/up-sampled to the extreme SACD nor the highly regarded LP of this release. Although I have compared MANY Redbook cd's and SACD's to their vinyl equivalent, I have never done it for THIS album. So going in, I had no pre-conceived notions of what would be better that what. For all I knew, the SACD would walk away from the both of them. And the sad part is I was kind of rooting for the SACD in a sick way: I'd sure like for the EASIEST TO USE format to also be the best sounding. But somehow I knew the Lp would at least beat the SACD though I was not sure.....

That was not to happen. Instead the religious experience happened.

I cued the 3 of them up best I could, maybe they were off a second here or there, but they were close enough to say for sure the differences between them. Levels were very close as well. My Shack SPL meter had them within a decibel between the 3 formats and my ears confirmed this. I use a remote from the listening position (like you) so that I can get on the fly immediate impressions between the 3 different formats without going anywhere.

Now is where all the audiophile jargon comes in, and I will spare you most of it. There was simply NO comparison between the tape and the SACD. The SACD by comparison to the other 2 formats (as phenomenal as I thought it sounded prior to this) sounded compressed, muted, closed in, and two-dimensional. Much of the detail and "openness" was lost with the Super Audio CD disc. The reel sounded more open, more 3-D like and most importantly: It sounded like LIVE MUSIC. To coin a too often used phrase: "The musicians were in my room."

The LP and the tape was a much closer match, but there was a clear winner relatively quickly. On the LP, the cymbals sounded "whiteish" and closed-in, and by comparison the reel tape sounded much more lifelike, more realistic and more believable. The drum kit as a whole and in particular Desmond's sax sounded like it was IN THE ROOM on the reel, and the LP sounded simply less life-like. The SACD was a few further steps behind the LP too.

The clear winner overall was the reel 2 reel out of the 3 formats.

There was one drawback I thought to the reel however (besides the 10 minute set-up time and threading time between sides!!) At first, I thought the reel had excessive tape hiss, but then I remembered this is an OLD recording. Switching over to the SACD there was just as much tape hiss!!! The best part was how "quiet" the hiss got in-between songs on the reel to reel. Just like an LP, or SACD or CD, the tape hiss quieted to NOTHING in between songs. So it was only playing back what the master tape originally had to offer! In the pauses between tracks, it quieted to nothing like the other formats do.

I must conclude by saying this is just one case where the tape beat an SACD and an LP. Obviously on a different release, an LP could beat the tape or the SACD could beat the tape. But I feel with such an important release as this, the fact that the old tape beat both an SACD and an LP of the same release is reason enough for me to investigate this format further. The fact that a tape can beat vinyl or state of the art digital in any way/shape/form is incredible to me; I cannot believe what I just heard!

Also I was really hit over the head tonight by the age-old question: "What is your reference point??"

If all you owned or heard was the SACD version, you would say, "WOW!!! This sounds unbelievable!!!" and you would leave it at that and be happy. But all that means is that SACD was your point of reference! Until you heard the superior formats, you would be none the wiser! You would be happy with what you had. I kind of wish now I had never bought this reel to reel deck, because now I have a true "reference".

Religious experience has been had here. Thanks again for bringing me to this point!"

Joel


Regards,
Joel

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