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Author Topic: 2nd series titles  (Read 46175 times)

Offline Kenkirk

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #60 on: January 12, 2009, 05:47:49 PM »

We appreciate that you have played your tapes, Ken (which as I recall you purchased from an original Charter subscriber via ebay rather than from us) for folks who later subscribed. Thank you! This is a critical part of helping the Tape Project grow, letting folks hear some exceptional recordings of exceptional performances on an exceptional format.



Oh no, I did not purchase anything from Ebay! :-(
I gave you my credit card information over the phone personally! I paid full price and think it was an excellent move on my part! I just wanted to clear that up! I am not a scavenger and don't want to be portrayed as such! And you might also consider extending the deadline to buy series II after we have all received our series I tapes. Just a thought.

And thanks Doc for all of your work!

Ken
Ken Kirkpatrick
Cat Ultimate preamp, Basis Debut Vacuum, Basis Vector tonearm, Urishi,Walker motor drive, Cat JL-1 amps, Sony XA9000Es SACD, Wadia 860,Yamaha CT 7000, Nak Dragon, RX 505, 2 REL Stentor II's, Sonus Faber Amati's, Cardas Golden Cross and Siltec cables, Otari MX 5050 B III, Teac X2000R

Offline Kenkirk

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #61 on: January 12, 2009, 08:41:12 PM »
Personally I would accept a pancake and a label!  :-)

But I must admit that fine art work and box is fun to show off to friends!
Ken
Ken Kirkpatrick
Cat Ultimate preamp, Basis Debut Vacuum, Basis Vector tonearm, Urishi,Walker motor drive, Cat JL-1 amps, Sony XA9000Es SACD, Wadia 860,Yamaha CT 7000, Nak Dragon, RX 505, 2 REL Stentor II's, Sonus Faber Amati's, Cardas Golden Cross and Siltec cables, Otari MX 5050 B III, Teac X2000R

Offline mikel

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #62 on: January 12, 2009, 08:49:01 PM »
Gone but not foregotten

Amen and thanks,

mikel
Mike Lavigne

Offline docb

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #63 on: January 12, 2009, 09:30:55 PM »
Ken I do apologize to you here publicly for my confusing you with someone else regarding your subscription. I was out of line in not checking the facts before posting. Once again I will thank you for sending us new subscribers. That is something that means a great deal to us.

Our intention is to complete shipping of all of Series One albums to anyone who is currently subscribed by the end of February and to begin production of Series Two in March. Because of this we feel that March 1 is an appropriate date to end the special offer.


Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project

Offline mstcraig

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #64 on: January 12, 2009, 10:21:07 PM »
I thought I might add my perspective to the price increase wars, too. First off, I am not a subscriber as of yet. I'm just a regular working guy who happens to have exceptional hearing, kind of like most everybody else on this board. I do make live recordings to open reel tape, as I'm sure most on this board probably already know. I am a HUGE fan of the reel format. However, I will admit that Paul's rather curt (IMHO) sounding response to the flack over the price increase does beg some questions to be asked. For example, why was this financial issue not addressed long ago, and shared honestly with the subscribers? If the TP guys are losing that much money, why not put in for a modest increase a year or more ago? I'm sure anyone here will agree that a 50% increase is a bit much, especially for something that is clearly a luxury item. Secondly, are there not ways to combat the cost of the final product? Things like less elaborate packaging, more master recorders to make more dubs at one time (going from the present four ATR-100's to six or even eight), switching to RMGI LPR-35 to get 45 minutes per tape instead of 30 minutes per tape with RMGI 468, etc. I'd even go so far as to suggest that the TP copies for customers are done at 2:1 or even 4:1 copy ratio, so more of them can be done faster, with little sacrifice in the final sound quality. Please do not misread my intent here. I echo all the sentiments about the Tape Project succeeding. But, as KenKirk has stated, a line must be drawn somewhere here in the real world. To wit: I have a wife and an adopted son with special needs. I work at a real job, which means I make far less than I believe I should. I am not like Mikel, in either what I do for a living, or in all of the nice toys he has to play with, but I oh so wish I was! Every year I have been married, thirteen at last count, my wife has out-earned me (she is a teacher of Special Education). She already thinks I've lost my mind. Imagine the look on her face when I tell her I have a music subscription that cost me just $3,000! I'll need to then move into my car, or the local sanitarium. All I'm saying is that most people here are just regular folks, with everyday bills to pay. And as much as it pains me to say it, I must reluctantly agree that 45 RPM LP's are looking like a better alternative to have high quality music reproduction in my home. I know how hard the TP guys have worked on this. But, unless cost can come back down to the real world so regular folks can take advantage of this, it will only be a matter of time before the whole thing crashes down. Paul's comments really deflated me Sunday when I read them. I mean here I am, busting my hump to make it in before the February deadline, and I read that?! I guess what I'm trying to say is that the way it came across to me, it was as if Paul was blaming the customers for the Tape Project losing money all this time, and it very much rubbed me the wrong way. I suppose, if I can get my subscription in before the deadline, it will be both my first and last one. I cannot justify this kind of outlay when there are so many other things that need to be paid for, like the house, car, and my son's education. And, I certainly cannot afford to spend my very hard earned money with anyone that displays contempt for me, the consumer, no matter how wonderful their product is. If anyone is offended by my words, I'm sorry. But, please know that they are true in the eyes of both my heart, and gut.
Craig Sypnier
(Magnepan, VPI, Sumiko, Shure,
Belles Research, ReVox (A-77 and B-77), Scully 280-B, Teac A-2300SD, Nordost)

Offline Ben

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #65 on: January 12, 2009, 10:59:12 PM »
All this is true, but it the series II pricing is throwing off people. I have known about
the tape project since it started, so I have had time  to think about money for TP when the chance for me to get a R2R came along. So when the chance came for me buy R2R, I did have some extra cash* to buy TP tapes.
I am looking at late summer, early fall to order series II, and by then I hope to know the remaining selections.
*The real reason I got TP tapes is I got new speakers, and I felt then, I could get a music source with the quality TP tapes claimed to have. SCAD and DVD/A just to my ears don't sound better than CD's.
Set 45,Open baffle speakers,Otari 5050,,Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD/CD/SCAD player

Offline PJ

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #66 on: January 13, 2009, 01:16:27 AM »
...However, I will admit that Paul's rather curt (IMHO) sounding response to the flack over the price increase ...
Not sure if that was directed at me or Paul Stubblebine - if it was to me, I apologize for that - I certainly did not mean to be curt, guess I was just being defensive. These guys are friends of mine, after all!

I do understand the frustration about expense. I myself am retired on a fixed income with a (badly shrunken!) 401(K) and a bit of consulting income from Bottlehead to supplement. Frankly, I can't afford these tapes, much less a machine to play them on. I get to hear them at docb's place, on a system that I mostly designed, once a month or so - that's as close as I get. (I do subscribe to the symphony and opera seasons here in Seattle; I could only afford the tapes and machines to play them if I gave both of them up. Which I won't do - the absolute sound is still absolute!)

I am however incredibly glad that the Project is happening. Well done analogue remains the best source material there is, and in the age of MP3 we are in danger of losing entirely any reference standard by which to judge our audio efforts.
Paul Joppa
Bottlehead R&D

Offline zhou bin

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #67 on: January 13, 2009, 01:49:02 AM »
wooo

I am series one Subscriber, I have reveived 4 reel tape,but I want know what time  will I  receive  the other reel tape ?

If I order series two, Is the price  3000USD?(shippoing to China).

BTW: My TP008 photo is wrong,the photo is the TP005 ,next time if you shipping other reel tape ,please give me  TP008's photo .thanks

my Subscriber No:084



 
studer A820,nagra IV-S,Reyaudio 1MKV +Jeffrowland

Offline Ben

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #68 on: January 13, 2009, 03:05:12 AM »
I was just thinking, it is the price of the metal 10.5" reels that I suspect has
the biggest price jump for new tapes. Just how long is a TP tape album?
Cutting it down to a single reel, could in theory I guess cut the price down
about $75, but then I really start to wonder if the tape has any archive quality
left. Tape stretch,breakage and warped reels after the next 25 years?
I guess I need my ear trumpet at a young 75 years, so having a tape last that
long might not be a worry now. :)
Ben
Set 45,Open baffle speakers,Otari 5050,,Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD/CD/SCAD player

Offline Kenkirk

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #69 on: January 13, 2009, 09:43:44 AM »
I just wanted to say that I think it is time to just back off of the money talk. I think it is nice the owners gave us a forum to talk about the tapes and machines and music etc... But from here on I don't see anything constructive coming from this. We all have to make our personal decisions about what we want, what we need, what we can afford. And the owners have to this also. So we just need to dig a little deeper! So what else is new?  :-)  The main thing is the Project needs to live and breathe. We want more tapes!

Ken
Ken Kirkpatrick
Cat Ultimate preamp, Basis Debut Vacuum, Basis Vector tonearm, Urishi,Walker motor drive, Cat JL-1 amps, Sony XA9000Es SACD, Wadia 860,Yamaha CT 7000, Nak Dragon, RX 505, 2 REL Stentor II's, Sonus Faber Amati's, Cardas Golden Cross and Siltec cables, Otari MX 5050 B III, Teac X2000R

Offline docb

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Re: 2nd series titles
« Reply #70 on: January 13, 2009, 10:54:01 AM »
Hi Craig,

Thanks for your impassioned commentary, and thanks Ken, Mike and everyone else for your participation. I tend to agree with Ken that it's probably time to get back to talking about the new titles themselves here, but I also feel the obligation to address some of the concerns expressed in this thread, after which I think I will lock the thread.

It was not Paul's intention to sound curt. But we felt it was not appropriate to express our passion in that situation, because that kind of thing can often be misconstrued. And so Paul posted what he felt was a simple factual response.

We are not blaming the subscribers for the needed price increase, far from it. We of course appreciate subscriber participation, there would be no Project without it!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, when we started the project we realized we had the ability to deliver the best possible quality of any format, the closest you can get to the master as an end user. It is very time consuming and demands exceptional attention to detail. That is where we intend to remain focused, delivering the best possible transfer on the best possible tape with the best possible packaging, creating something extraordinary. There may well be other folks who start labels putting items out on tape with speed of production and low cost in mind. But that's not what we desire to do.

I'm not sure how to address this situation of folks feeling that the subscription price is somehow constrained by their particular priorities in life. We don't know six months ahead that the tape manufacturer will suddenly raise the price of raw tape, or what the subscription level will be a year from now so we can plan our equipment purchases to meet demand (by the way, purchasing more ATRs could speed up delivery, but it won't create an immediate price reduction when the cost of the machines might be around $12K each). So we can't project an increase in June that we didn't have knowledge of needing until December. We have done our best to soften the blow by offering a special price to current subscribers.

I do know that I was surprised that when we started we got subscriptions from so many folks who were selling off other toys to get tape because they didn't have the disposable income to subscribe. I suspect you will find that most of us are in a situation similar to yours. My newest car is 14 years old. I have a kid headed for college and another in modeling school. My house is 70 years old and needs about a $100K remodel that isn't going to happen for some time. My 90 yo mom lives across the street on a limited income and demands larger and larger amounts of our time for care. I can assure everyone that I've spent a lot more than $2500 on the Tape Project. Whew, a lot more...

And I will also mention here that while this discussion ensues amongst those of you who are expressing your concerns, we are receiving subscription orders for Series Two. The comments from those who have already re-upped are very positive, I really appreciate them, and I think those folks deserve recognition for their support. Thanks!
Dan "Doc B." Schmalle
President for Life, Bottlehead Corp.
Managing Director - retired, The Tape Project