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Tape Trail Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats. |
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Tape Trail Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats. |
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In Reply to: is reel to reel worth it? posted by ketchup on May 28, 2005 at 12:36:56:
If you mean tapes you make yourself, then they will only be as good as your analog playback system (turntable, tonerarm, cartridge, phono stage preamplifier) and the quality of your vinyl pressings.If you mean, how do factory prerecorded tapes sound compared to CDs of the same performance, in my experience the reel tapes usually sound better than the CD.
Factory duplicated reel to reel tapes, first in 2-track and then later in 4-track were the high water mark of consumer audio for over 25 years, from 1953-1978 or thereabouts. They sound as good or better than the best quality LPs played on a high-end playback system, but without the surface noise of the LP format. Also, an LP record is 6 or 7 generations removed from the final mixed-down stereo master tape, while the same performance on factory reel tape is only 3 generations removed.
Compared to most LPs, factory reel tapes have more extended frequency response and dynamic range. Also, the lower bass on many LPs was intentionally rolled off below 100 Hz so that the record would play on the average consumer player without causing the stylus to jump out of the record groover on the more heavily modulated passages. This rolloff of the bass is not required for the tape, many times the tape has superior bass vs the LP.
Many early CD reissues of older analog recordings suffer from being made from inferior wornout duplicating masters that were equalized for LP use decades before the CD was introduced. CDs of older material can actually sound quite good, but no better than the quality of the master tapes that the recording labels make available. Many times the original master tapes are not available, and the multichannel tapes may be lost, leaving little choice but to use master tapes of questionable condition and audio quality.
There is quite a bit of recording studio and hall ambience that was captured on tape along with the performance during these early recording sessions. Factory reel tapes excel at presenting this ambient sound information to the listener, especially if the playback equipment uses tube amplification. I mostly listen with headphones and feel that the detail of sound captured on these tapes is superior to any other consumer format.
Some factory reel tapes can become fragile with age, and develop dropouts or even break when played. Tape hiss on factory reel tapes can be audible, more so on the 3-3/4 inch per second tapes than the 7-1/2 inch per second version. Dolby noise reduction was not common on factory tapes until very late in the life of this format, and then only on specialty label recordings. I find that the tape hiss is a good way to adjust the playback level, if I can hear the hiss then I am listening too loud and possibly contributing to long-term hearing damage. Also, as the tape hiss is a constant sound, it is easy to tune this out and listen to the music while largely ignoring any background noise. I find the random ticks and pops on analog LPs much more distracting.
Depending on your musical tastes you can pick up a nice collection of factory reel tapes from eBay at a reasonable cost. On any given day there are approximately 1500 titles on reel tape being offered. Classical, Jazz, Folk, Broadway Show Tunes, Movie Soundtracks, Easy Listening, and Rock music (including rock released up to about 1975) are well represented in this tape format. In a little over three years I have been able to acquire factory reel tape copies of almost every rock music performance I ever owned in LP format with the exception of Steely Dan (only Aja seems to have been released on reel tape), and Pink Floyd (as far as I can tell none of this group's recordings were ever offered on reel tape.)
Many of the major classical labels offered their most successful recordings on reel tape. You can build a nice collection of classical music on reel tape for comparatively little money because relatively few people are collecting classical music in this format. Easy listening tapes are very common and probably the least expensive to collect. Jazz and Rock music, depending on the artist and the rarity of the performance on tape, will command the highest prices.
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Follow Ups
- Re: is reel to reel worth it? - mkmelt 22:17:01 05/28/05 (0)
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