Tape Trail

Posted by Teresa (R) on May 13, 2007 at 23:08:37

In Reply to: Deathe Of The Tape? posted by Sour milk moon on May 8, 2007 at 05:02:53:

Prerecorded cassettes as played through a correctly aligned Nakamichi sound so real! I listen to recordings in most formats, Reel to Reel, Cassette, LP, CD, SACD and DVD-Audio I get the most Goosebumps from Cassettes.

Prerecorded Cassettes have a midrange especially through tubes that offers the most realistic portrayal of the human voice, musical instruments, soundstaging, and deep, deep bass I have ever heard. And even in the high frequencies where Cassettes are traditional challenged are usually not so on a Nakamichi. On my Nakamichi the high frequency response is superior to CD and even sometimes SACD and DVD-Audio and is only surpassed by 7½ IPS Reel and Reel and audiophile LPs.

Here are some of my previous comments from "My Musings"

October 27, 2006
Analog cassette and DVD-Audio comparisons

My Dokorder Reel to Reel is in the shop and I had a cantilever accident with my Music Hall MMF-5 turntable, so I have only two sources and have been playing lots of DVD-Audios and Cassettes:

DVD-Audio - Toshiba SD-5700 - $550.00 retail

Cassette - Nakamichi CR1-A cassette deck - $400.00 retail

I like the cassettes much better than the DVD-Audios; they just sound more real and alive! Audiophile cassettes from the 1970’s are the best but many regular commercial cassettes also sound excellent. Nakamichi seems to be able to drain an amazing amount of resolution out pre-recorded cassettes. There is something that is missing even from 192kHz 24 Bit DVD-Audios that even the lowly cassette format does right. It’s like some kind of undiscovered Distortion digital has, Digital does sound much better after they discovered Jitter and then were able to lower it. But there is still something else that separates the flavors of analog and digital. What separates Cassette from Reel to Reel is resolution, impact, lack of compression, etc. I’m working on language to describe what digital does wrong.

I think part of what is missing from digital is the human quality, emotion etc. and not resolution. So I think improvement in Digital is going in the wrong direction.

For music sources right now I have only had the Nakamichi cassette deck and the Toshiba DVD-Audio player as the Reel to Reel is still in the shop. And I am waiting for a new cartridge for my turntable as I accidentally destroyed my cantilever. I am shocked at how much more I enjoy pre-recorded cassettes over even the best DVD-Audios.

Some of the cassettes played in the past week include
MFSL High Fidelity Real Time duplicated on BASF chrome tape.
Cafe High Fidelity Real Time duplicated on BASF chrome tape.
Nakamichi Reference Recordings Real Time duplicated on TDK Metal tape from the Analog backup masters of Sheffield Lab Direct to Disc recordings.
Plus many excellent sounding regular commercial cassettes.

I also played the 2 channel mix of the DVD-Audio’s including AIX, Warner, etc. They do sound excellent but they do not satisfy the soul the way any analog format will.

The last week has been a revelation, as I knew LPs and Reel to Reels were superior to high-resolution digital but surely not cassettes! I was wrong, and digital still has a long ways to go.

"Music is love"
Teresa

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