Great Concept but...

[Todd Bailey]

I like the idea that new material is being offered on tape that is very close to the master as possible, however

A few years back a small company called MFSL released various material that was remastered and sounded pretty good.
A great concept.

Then more recently the SACD was released and it too sounds pretty good.
Another great concept.

Recently, I just found this site and read with great interest, new material being released on mag tape.  It's about time and another great concept.
But to my disappointment, to play the media requires specialized equipment and a fat wallet.
Sadly, I have neither. I've been absent from analog for many years by getting caught up with cd's and dvd's and other source material stored on a pc.
Recently I unpacked my old teac a6010 and a few tapes, just to get an idea how well it still works to set up a ebay auction.
I was amazed at how rich and full the music sounded so many years later.  I quickly dismissed the idea of selling the equipment and now the deck sits proudly next to my media center and the stack of vintage audio equipment.

As a special request to those in power, would you consider additionally releasing this media in a more common format such as 1/4 inch 4 track @ 7 1/2 ips on 7 inch reel size with more attractive pricing?

If this is simply not possible, can a few people suggest possible equipment to consider to experience the new material?

Any thoughts on Teac x1000/x2000 series, technics rs-1500, or Akai GX-45x series

thanks

[docb]

Unfortunately we have neither the time nor the space to set up a second operation to produce lower quality tapes. For an inexpensive machine for playing our albums,  probably the best bet these days is an Otari MX-5050BII which has all of the required features. The tapes won't sound as good on a stock Otari as they will with a higher end playback setup, but they will still show just what is so special about 15 ips two track tape duplicated in real time compared to other formats.

I encourage you to read through the Tape Project website and the forum. There are a lot of good ideas for not too expensive ways to set up a system for great sound.

[steveidosound]

Welcome !
Glad to hear you have rediscovered the joys of analog audio including tape.
I don't know if you have had time to browse the forum but there is a wealth of information about all things relating to analog reel to reel tape here.
Here is a link to a theread that talks about all the tape machines that are theoretically compatible with the Tape Project tapes (15ips., 10.5" reels, 2 track, and CCIR/IEC eq.)
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,20.0.html

There have been postings that talk about passive eq circuits that will modify the output of your properly set up  NAB machine after the fact to compensate to the other eq. Of the requirements, the eq. is the hardest feature to come by in a stock machine. Many have the other pro requirements. Additionally you will find threads on building from kit  or buying new tube tape head preamps from Bottlehead. The sky is the limit $ wise going that direction for the best sound.

As you have discovered,  even  7 1/2 ips. quarter track can sound pretty wonderful at times and there are also sections here about tapes other than Tape Project which you can still find used in great numbers on Ebay etc.

Your comments regarding the expense/quality ratio are well taken. The market will always try to push toward cheap/low quality media for the masses. I guess, on the whole I would rather have iTunes than badly mastered and pressed 45 records but that sort of thing will always be there. And really good sound will never be as popular or cheap.

 

[Ben]

Well I figure, spend 1/2 your money on the subcription and the other half
on getting a machine that works at 15IPS. You save more $$$ than playing around with the latest FAD interconects and speaker cables to make CD's sound better.
From the Otari MX5050 manual freq response.
15  IPS 30 HZ to 20KHZ +- 2DB
7.5 IPS 20 HZ to 18KHZ +- 2DB
3.3/4    20 HZ to 10KHZ +- 2DB
With R2R I know I get that, with todays digital stuff I am guessing only about 13KHZ[1] of real freq response.
Ben.

[1]40 KHZ sample rate / 3.

[ironbut]

Hi Todd, welcome to the forum. You're story is very close to mine a few years back. I hadn't had a reel to reel machine since the early eighties when I was given. I found some 1/4 track tapes at a used record store (I was listening to vinyl almost exclusively at the time) and I couldn't believe the richness of the sound. I asked around a lot and almost everyone discouraged me from pursuing open reel as a viable format. Luckily I'm pretty hard headed and started buying other machines and tearing them apart to see what could be done to improve the awful playback electronics in most of them. Knowing that all my favorite records had been produced and mastered on tape told me that, just like the tremendous strides of record playback in the last 15 years or so, there was gold hidden in those tapes. If you look at those spec's that Ben listed, you can see that on paper, tape doesn't seem to have much going for it. But as you've heard for yourself, the spec's don't tell the whole story.
Fast forward to just about 2 years ago,.. Doc started hinting at the formation of the Tape Project.
I can relate to your hesitation to dive in with both feet (I too have very modest means) and Doc has made and excellent suggestion about getting an Otari. Due to the abundance of them on the used market, it isn't too tough to get a nice machine for a few hundred that is really worth investing some time to get running up to spec. It does take patience to find a good deal on a well cared for machine but the extra shopping around really pays off in the long run. I suggest looking at a few locally first to see what your looking for (Craigs list) and if you're near a large city, that usually isn't that tough.
 Taking the time to learn about your machine can save you plenty too. In many ways, they're much more like working on a car than a piece of electronics gear. And while there are some specialized pieces of test equipment that you'd need, they can usually be had for crazy cheap prices on eBay. I really enjoy working on my Technics and over the years, the improvements in sound have been very gratifying.
If you do decide to invest in even one or two of the Tape Project tapes, be aware that the runs of a given title are limited so contacting the management directly may become important.