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In Reply to: RE: Dolby was the beginning of the end posted by Tony Lauck on January 13, 2009 at 11:39:27
Tony, GR, Fly.... I just wanted to say that your series of posts were the most thought-provoking I've come across on the Asylum in the New Year. I graduated H.S. in 75, college in '79, but remember "getting the use of" a R2R back in 1973 (borrowed from a friend's brother), FOR JUST ONE EVENING. The only tape I had to play on it was somebody's live Wayne Newton stuff. Of course, I was fully not interested in W.N., but was floored at the sound quality, so much that I remembered that brief experience to this day.
I had already appreciated non-solid state FM radio output, as I had my grandmother's 1947 Zenith to listen to early 70s FM as a teen (when the FM DJs had creative freedom and the commercial interests weren't so demanding as to be largely in control).
Unfortunately, as the 70s progressed, I got blindly swept up in the portability / "acceptability" of cassette, up to the point that I ended up with close to 1000 home-records from the period of the mid-70s through today (sourced mostly from vinyl or FM).
I got to hand it to cassettes in one small regard though: My friends and I would mail-exchange creative mix tapes and themed tapes, (sometimes interspersed with comedy bits). Living several states apart in the West, we would rendezvous at a central point, such as the Grand Tetons in WY for camping/hiking, but we'd have pre-sent each other "road tapes" for the journeys out in 60-cent mail pouches. EVEN SO, what I would give to experience some of, say, some of my favorite live Van Morrison, or King Biscuit Flour Hour recordings on R2R equipment ! ! !
I just wish I had that "first intro" to R2R that you guys had, and thusly would have gone out and collected and cherished said equipment, instead of funds going into my '66 Mustang. Audiophonically, I was born about 6 to 8 years too late. My hope these days is to keep my eyes open for an estate sale that maybe includes equipment once owned by a true audiophile, at a price I can justify amid the other normal expenses of life. Then, without delay, selecting / recording music on that format would become my new addiction.
One brief point on Dolby, I always disliked the audio loss, and since I was always a "question the direction of the herd kid", I never toggled on the Dolby for recording or playback, happily accepting some tape noise, but categorically rejecting any loss of detail. I wanted to hear Leo Kottke's fingers sliding on the guitar strings, or every bit of a playful, energetic, "outside of the lines" Hammond B performance on a Jimmy Smith album.
Thanks for your comments! Be thankful that you latched onto the best of the best for your ears. Even if you momentarily got distracted from it, you're back to it obviously. So, I am a bit envious of you guys flourishing within that great R2R subset.
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