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If you are ever driving through Madison WI and want to see an interesting collection of old tape machines, stop by Full Compass on the west side of town, about a mile west of the Beltline Freeway. Full Compass is an audio/video dealer serving the professional community, but it does offer a variety of gear for home audio nuts, like cables, adapters, switching units, etc. The building has a small room adjacent to the lobby that houses a variety of old gear that some of you might like to look over. It is open to the public and parking is easy. I was out there a couple of days ago to pick up some cables and took the pics below:
Follow Ups:
enn tee
all the best,
mrh
Not to be cynical, but 24 track recorders had some sound quality limitations. 16 tracks was more reasonable.
Although, several decades ago, John Stephens once took me to a studio where they had one of his 40 track (yes, forty!) closed-loop recorders. I want to say it was The Producer's Workshop, but I don't remember for sure. In any case, I was duly impressed, even with the tiny track width.
But, in my opinion, the creme-de-la-creme was/is a 4 track Studer using 1-inch tape, with custom electronics by John Curl. THAT is the tits.
I've always lusted over the absolutely excellent engineering of the A80 series transport and control. And, their FF and rewind speed was scary fast.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
enn tee
all the best,
mrh
Then, get one, ASAP. You only have one life to live! Live it!
I've lusted after an A80 quarter-inch two track for decades. The Ampex ATR-102 would also be the tits, but the A80 is an icon and is my dream girl.
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
I too lusted for it since seeing its promo material for the first time - its dual-roller tension sensors are way sexy.Of course I had to have one, and I bought the R version, with no bridge, because I prefer not to have any junk in signal path.
It is a pleasant machine to use, but I can't say it is ideal. Its most serious flaw is, in my view, its lack of reduced speed spooling - I prefer to never use full speed rewind, if I can. So to me it is big deal.
It also doesn't take 14" reels.
Another issue is its sound... it is unremarkable. In fact, all Studers sound unremarkable to various degree - the later ones, such as the A810, A807, A820 are particularly bad because their signal paths are overloaded with digital components, put there in order to make their calibration easier. But even the fully analog one like A80 still produce a closed-in sound.
Part of the reason is their obsession with "butterfly" heads. These give you a couple more dB's of SNR, but they damage the channel separation. It is clear that the studios and audio fanatics have different objectives.
Overall I am not thinking of parting with mine, even though I rarely use it. When I do it plays through one of my head preamps - it gets better that way.
Edits: 05/31/23 05/31/23
I think when somebody says "Swiss precision", they were talking about Nagra, Stellavox and Studer. :)
My friend John Curl commented a long time ago that the Studer electronics weren't as good as their mechanical engineering. He's not impressed, which is one reason why he designed new circuitry for a couple of them.
Still, it'd be nice to have an A80 just for fun - even though I really don't have a place to put it! (The living room doesn't count!)
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
I have some of each, and I enjoy them all. :) There definitely is that fine quality to them.Although I would not put Sony far behind. :) Their TC-510 is also a gem.
Regarding the space - don't you have some unused place in your home? I built my room in our large walk-out basement.
Edits: 05/31/23
Now there's a blast from the past!
Full Compass was a small but decent recording studio run by Jonathan Lipp. After college, I wanted to move to "the big city" (Madison), and that was one of the places I went. He didn't have a job for me, but he put me in touch with a locally-based rock band which would need a new sound engineer soon. They hired me, and I moved to "the big city".
Fast forward a few years, and Jonathan started Full Compass Systems just down the street from a hifi dealer where I was working. It was a "store-front" type of place. We weren't competitors - he was selling sound reinforcement and recording gear, and I was selling hifi. Fast forward even further, and the next thing you know, Jonathan had turned his once-modest business into the huge business it has been for at least the past 30+ years. I've been to their facility seveeral times.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
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