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Author Topic: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site  (Read 11881 times)

Offline Greg Beron

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TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« on: February 02, 2010, 10:19:26 AM »
Guys,
Important news:
Jonathan Valin Executive Editor of The Absolute Sound magazine will be reviewing The Tape Project tapes and the United Home Audio UHA-HQ R2R in an upcoming issue of The Absolute Sound magazine. 

Mr. Valin is currently in possession of 4 Tape Project tapes (with more going to him when available), and a United Home Audio UHA-HQ Phase5 tape deck. I spent the weekend with Jonathan and personally set the tape deck up for him in his listening room, while there I covered all the basics of operating the deck. Jonathan has had some experience with R2R so covering both listening to, and recording on R2R was easy. I can tell you that he is a prolific listener; the two days I was there we listened from late morning till after midnight! No wonder the man has been a reviewer all these years, he likes his job. I can also tell you that he was very impressed with both the tapes and the tape deck and I assume there will be a very exciting review forthcoming.

Jonathan has started a blog on The Absolute Sound web site about all this, do check it out!
http://www.avguide.com/blog/the-ultimate-source-component

You may find some comments made by people on the blog have varying degrees of accuracy, or just don't hold up based on your listening experiences with TTP tapes. I seriously doubt that the naysayers on the blog in spite of all their theoretical evidence have ever heard a TTP tape. So you may want to share some of your actual listening experiences with your TTP tapes. There are almost 4000 hits on the blog, so I would say it is pretty popular; however a title like "The Ultimate Source Component" should get some interest.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 11:17:18 AM by docb »
UNITED HOME AUDIO
UHA Reel To Reel tape decks / High End Audio
WASHINGTON DC / MARYLAND / VIRGINIA
www.unitedhomeaudio.com

Offline john

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2010, 11:03:21 AM »
I look forward to reading about his experience listening to the TP tapes although I'm not familiar with that particular tape deck.

                                                                     John.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2010, 11:10:40 AM by john »
John Taylor

Revox C270, Teac X-2000R, Technics RS1506, RS7500, Nakamichi Dragon, CR7E, Sony WM-D6C, Sony EL7 ( Elcaset! ) Brinkmann balance, Brinkmann Ti Cart, Clearaudio Balanced Ref, Esoteric XO1-D2, ARC Ref3, Ref 210, JM Lab Micro Utopia Be and Jas Audio Plato.

Offline john

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2010, 11:12:02 AM »
I see its a Tascam !!!
John Taylor

Revox C270, Teac X-2000R, Technics RS1506, RS7500, Nakamichi Dragon, CR7E, Sony WM-D6C, Sony EL7 ( Elcaset! ) Brinkmann balance, Brinkmann Ti Cart, Clearaudio Balanced Ref, Esoteric XO1-D2, ARC Ref3, Ref 210, JM Lab Micro Utopia Be and Jas Audio Plato.

Offline xcortes

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2010, 11:31:49 AM »
Without bashing the UHA machine (don't have a reason to) the problem of this review is that the reviewer will reviewing the deck and the tapes together. I think there's no way around anyway!

Still is great to continue seeing interest from the specialized press
Xavier Cortes

Offline Greg Beron

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2010, 12:40:28 PM »
Important Clarification:
The UHA HQ Tape Deck that is being used in this review is no longer a "Tascam".
The only part left of the original deck is the tape path.




This particular UHA Phase5 deck is optimised for the best playback possible. Producing the UHA-HQ decks has taken over two years work by several very talented people to complete. We first showed at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest October 2009 where the deck playing TTP Master Tapes received the "Best Source Component" of the show from Jonathan Valin. Impressive considering there were literally thousands of source components at the show. Over the two plus years of development the UHA-HQ design objective has been constant; make the best possible sounding deck in a one box wife acceptable (consumer sized) unit.

The deck being reviewed by Jonathan Valin has a new handmade playback tape head that was made specifically for this head block and this machine. The preamp boards are a completely new design built to optimise the performance of the new HQ head using the finest electronic components available. Internal shielding has been used throughout the deck, even new single crystal copper double shielded wire has been used. Every detail has been examined in these decks right down to the power supply modifications, and premium input and output connectors.
We are also preparing to send Jonathan the new Phase6 deck soon. The Phase6 is an all out assault on 15ips IEC playback and record also featuring the new UHA HQ Record head, our statement deck.

No, this is not your fathers Tascam.
UNITED HOME AUDIO
UHA Reel To Reel tape decks / High End Audio
WASHINGTON DC / MARYLAND / VIRGINIA
www.unitedhomeaudio.com

Offline High and Outside

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2010, 01:55:39 PM »

You may find some comments made by people on the blog have varying degrees of accuracy, or just don't hold up based on your listening experiences with TTP tapes.


Greg, you are so diplomatic. More than I would be in this case.

I am somewhat familiar with the Tascam BR-20, having one in my ever-growing collection of decks. The transport is really very nice, a bit of a sleeper among the compact machines. The electronics, of course, are a small step up from a transistor radio. Greg has covered the swap-out of the electronics in another post, so I won't repeat that. I'll just add that I have heard the deck three times now. Twice under show conditions, where it acquitted itself very nicely even with that caveat. And one long afternoon of listening at his showroom (with about thirty other tapeheads) on a well set up MBL system. No, guys, this is not your father's Tascam. It's a very estimable deck.
Paul Stubblebine
Managing Director, The TapeProject

Offline john

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2010, 07:46:06 AM »
I'm sure that's just one of many colours/styles available, check their website. Its obvious they have put a lot of work into this machine to make it effectively their own design and a very good one at that.
John Taylor

Revox C270, Teac X-2000R, Technics RS1506, RS7500, Nakamichi Dragon, CR7E, Sony WM-D6C, Sony EL7 ( Elcaset! ) Brinkmann balance, Brinkmann Ti Cart, Clearaudio Balanced Ref, Esoteric XO1-D2, ARC Ref3, Ref 210, JM Lab Micro Utopia Be and Jas Audio Plato.

Offline Greg Beron

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Re: TTP and the UHA HQ R2R on The Absolute Sound web site
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2010, 11:28:39 AM »
Hi John,
Thanks for the new post.
Yes we have done quite a bit of work on these decks; I've employed two technicians with a considerable level of  experience to work on these decks. One has even done design work for a major audiophile manufacturer for many years, (one that everyone would know and respect).

The important point is that the UHA-HQ decks are produced with similar expertise and design skill employed by major audiophile manufacturers. Yes we use a Tascam deck for its nice tape path capabilities but Paul is correct the electronics are not all that. So for our higher end decks where we offer a UHA-HQ preamp like the Phase5 or Phase6 decks we use the tape path and the box but that's about it.

Everyone that has heard the deck seems to be impressed, Jonathan Valin from The Absolute Sound magazine wrote, "The very item I (and a lot of other folks) called the best source component at RMAF (and would've named the best source component at CES, if we'd given an award for best source component at CES)".   
Pretty powerful words considering the number of rooms at these shows, RMAF had 470 exhibitors according to their web site and CES had (I have seen) approximately 240 high end audio exhibitors. That's quite a few source components!

However a very important point to remember about this is that during these shows we played primarily The Tape Project tapes. Our primary focus has always been to build a UHA-HQ deck to do justice to the finest source material available in the world today, The Tape Project tapes.

We do not make that statement lightly or without considerable experience in both digital and analog hardware and software. In our retail store United Home Audio we have some of the finest and most expensive audio equipment in the world. Our reference system is pictured below, we do our tape deck listening evaluations on an MBL system that retails for over $300,000 (pictured below). For example just the Tara Labs Zero interconnects are $15,000 per pair.
This system is capable of discerning the slightest and most minute differences in the UHA-HQ preamp designs we have developed over the last two years. We have spent countless hours listening and tweaking the final designs. The Tape Project tapes have been invaluable in this process because of they offered a standard, a base line that was as close to the actual performance as possible. This allowed us to design our decks sound to that absolute.

 


UNITED HOME AUDIO
UHA Reel To Reel tape decks / High End Audio
WASHINGTON DC / MARYLAND / VIRGINIA
www.unitedhomeaudio.com