Continuing my Stereophile show report, for Saturday. Both rooms now have Technics machines which are operating as they should. I never got to hear the one in the Magico room as whenever I stopped by, they were listening to CD's but always busy. Once again, I spent a disproportionate amount of time in the TAD room. It's very hard to get tired of hearing 100K worth of audio gear, no? Anyway, early on in the day I asked Andrew if I could hear another tape. I was told again to stop by later in the day. So, I went down to Ballroom E to buy some software. The big fiasco on this day was having the hotel close the Ballroom at 4PM. Apparently, some yahoo scheduled a reception for this area and the hotel had to clear out all the music vendors by 4:30PM! This would include Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds, Reference Recordings (back after several years' absense) and many others. Marcia Martin of Reference was not at all happy about this, she told me. I'm sure Stereophile will be hearing the music (sic) about this for a long time too! Back to our story. I stopped back in the TAD room at 5:40PM. The show closes at 6PM, yet people just kept gathering and music kept being requested and played. It was kind of funny in a way. The inmates had finally taken over! A little after 6PM, Andrew says he's going to the restroom and motions for me to load up my tape, while yet another CD is playing. This tape is the one I wanted to hear most of all, yet did not want to hear. You see, this recording is one I recorded myself. This is of a group here in Rochester, NY called the Rochester Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra. It's a big band with 20+ pieces and a vocalist. I asked the group to come to my Church in November 2005 so I could try out a microphone system I built myself. My design is based on Ray Kimber's IsoMike. I ended up playing "Come Rain or Come Shine" from those sessions. I was petrified of what people would think, and once again, I apologized before the music started. Bottom line-When it was over, people said it sounded very nice. I was very happy to say the least, and relieved! Tape Project's machinery had a large role in both of my tapes sounding so good, and for that I am very grateful. The only critisism I have is that the rewind and fast forward were sloooow. That's it! My 2 days in New York went by too fast, but I had a nice time. I also left with new (more) respect for what Doc, Paul and the whole Tape Project crew are trying to do. I felt that the various CD's, SACD's and the like all sounded good. But, whenever any tape was cued up and played, whether my own or not, I felt like I could relax and let the music do it's thing-replenish my soul. I feel this is a winning team we are seeing. Yes, these tapes are expensive. But, they will always be in style and be able to be played at anytime in the future, no matter how far out that may be. Try that with anything digital! When I can, my first purchase will be Doc's Seduction preamp modified for both NAB and CCIR. Then, I'll pick some tapes. My congratulations to all for their hard work. Nice job! See you next year.
