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1

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Demagnetization of Studer A810 - to do or not to do?

« on: October 15, 2011, 04:37:46 PM »

Here there is a question: I am happy owner of Studer A810 and newbie to Tape Project experience. Following advice of Ironbut I read the 'beginners pages' and try to buy demagnetizer to prepare my R2R for first Tape Project tape listening (the tape is on its way from US to Poland).

However, the person who sold the Studer to me said I shall not demagnetize A810 tape path and heads as I may made 'serious damage' to it. :-s

So now my question is: shall I demagnetize or not my Studer a810 before the first TP tape will be put on it?

Please help.

All the best!

2

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Tape Project machines from European perspective

« on: September 26, 2011, 08:48:04 AM »

Hi to all!
This is my first post, hope not the last one.
I am from Europe and I want to join the Tape Project' Club.
Last weekend spent a bit of time trying to read the posts here. Could be that I missed some of important infos, however...
my feeling is that the Project itself is heavily influenced by US' perspective.
Why I mean so?
The machines chosen to be 'workhorses' of Tape Project (TP) are chosen from US perspective. Even very informative and interesting document by Arian Jansen has the 'show-stopper for Europeans' (in a doc it is stated 'if you are not in US you can stop reading here').
I can understand majority of TP' subscribers are from States, but I do believe in other parts of the World, especially in Europe there are lot of potential subscribers too.

Having stated that, I want to ask few questions to all my more experienced Colleagues:

I have a chance to get to my audio collection:
.Revox PR99 mk3 (mint condition)
.Otari MX-55N (very good condition)
.Revox PR99 mk1 player only (good condition, after service check by Revox specialist)
.and Revox C270 (very good condition).
Pricing of all above is more-or-less similar (difference between the cheapest PR99mk1 and the most expensive C270 is up to 20%). All a/m r2r fulfill TP' technical requirements.

1. After getting some of local (I mean - European) advice I was suggested to go with Revox and not Otari, due to ater sale service and spare part availability issues; could you please let me know your comments on that? Does the Revox (being more future-proof for Eurpoean) deserve to overcome Otari in the final choice?

2. my system is basically tube oriented; shall I go - for reproduction of TP' tapes - with PR99 mk1 or PR99 mk3? In coming weeks I intend to purchase tube Bottlehead Tube Repro - provided you will be able to offer this to European TP' enthusiast ;-). I am aware of the opinion that PR99 mk1 is more 'purist' than mk3, but is this justifying having two machines (one 'pure' playing only - i.e. PR99 mk1 and second for normal tape related activity recording/playing - i.e. PR99 mk3).

3. I was in contact with Otari HQ and understand the new MX5050 is not available for Europe anymore (could be that is not available at all); how this will change TP' Team perspective as to chosen machines: Technics and Otari? will you intend to add Studer/Revox mod's to the list?

My idea is to purchase one (!) r2r at the moment (if I would go for two, I will most probably end up with pair of PR99mk1+PR99mk3 or PRmk1+Otari55N; however this is not he case now - I need to save some resources for tapes ;-) )

Hope my post will not be understood as a claim, but as a bit of request to become 'more European' oriented in the Project than up to date :-).

Anyway, the TP and this Forum is great and I am happy that I came across your idea - after focusing a bit of time on vinyl front-end only, your approach (tape front-end) gave me a lot of freshness and new enthusiasm in my audiophile life.

All the best to all of You!
Robert