Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: docb on August 26, 2009, 11:47:31 AM
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We will have samples of a few of the new Tape Project releases (The Staple Singers BeAltitude/Respect Yourself; Monk's Brilliant Corners and probably Linda Ronstadt's Heart Like a Wheel) playing on my new Nagra T Audio/Bottlehead Tube Repro setup; a Quickie or two ( our new battery powered preamp/headphone amp); the prototypes of our new MQ step up transformers and a Stereomour (stereo 2A3 amp) prototype ready to listen to by the end of the month. Looks like either September 13 or September 27 would be a good day for us to have a little soiree at Chateau Bottlehead. Anyone interested?
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Unless there is a major objection I think we will shoot for September 27th. By that time I should have some form of prototype hi res tube DAC and a music server setup to show as well as the other stuff.
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i'll be there either day unless i get tickets to the Seahawks-Bears game on the 27th (unlikely at this point). that's a great line-up of music and gear to listen to and i'm very much looking forward to the event.
oh, and thanks Doc for the extra Tape Project reel that arrived last night; it was a very nice surprise.
a question; have you settled on the sequence of delivery for Series Two? the web site shows 'Heart Like a Wheel' as listed first, then Jimmy Smith, and then The Band. that would be a powerhouse start. but there are no numbers next to the listings.
Mike
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Hey Mike,
Would love to see you at the meeting. The only album that has been numbered is Heart Like a Wheel as TP-011. We wanted it to be the first out of the chute for Series Two. They are starting to be duped and Shawn has been engraving reels for the past few days, so we are getting into the production process already. Beyond that we haven't worked out the numbers. All three of us have been traveling lately and it has been a little hard to get together for a conference call to work out the release order. I suspect we will have it decided some time next week.
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Yeah, I'd love to make it too but those are the weekends before and after Monterey. I'll be broke and pooped after and saving and packing before. It sounds like a great time though but one again I'm "No show Koto"!
I received my TP take up reel today also. It's so nice I hate to use it! Maybe I'll just save it for when the Technics and I go out on the town.
I can't wait to hear what Ronstadt sounds like on tape! I guess I could say that about all of them though.
There is something about the sound of "TP-011" that I sure do like though. I like it so much in fact that I'd have no objections if you engraved it on all the tapes from now on.
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Dan, I am going to try to get up there. I have discovered that one of my best friends from HS is practicing in the Kitsaa peninsula. I haven't seen him in over 40 years. I've also found out that he is an audiophile! Anyway, he lives in Poulsbo and I have a place to stay when I visit. If he is available, I would like to invite him to join the festivities. What time and are you and Eileen in Poulsbo also? I know Bottlehead is there. Thanks, Larry
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Hi Larry, it would wonderful to have you here. The meetings usually start at noon and go until the late afternoon. And of course your friend would be most welcome.
Steve, dude, the door always stands open for you. Whenever you can make it.
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Just a little added incentive - along with the Staple Singers and Monk I now have a copy of the Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane album, and Paul is sending a copy of The Sermon that will be here in time for the meeting.
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Doc, I've got my tickets to Seattle. See you on the 27th. Larry
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The meeting next Sunday is shaping up to be a good one. Looks like the attendance will be at least 10 and possibly more like 15. I have three of the Series Two albums here - BeAltitude: Respect Yourself, Brilliant Corners and Burrell and Coltrane, and we may have one or two more demo reels of other material by Sunday. I have the Nagra T with its custom Tube Repro running in the system. The system is at full power with 32 watts on the midrange, and PB came up with a very slick isolation mount for the midrange driver that has taken it up a notch from it's already good performance. I also have an early prototype of a new hi res music server/DAC. It's still in very rough looking breadboard form, but it's working well. We can give it a try as well.
Any blues harp players out there? I just finished a nice Astatic JT-30 mic with a Shure CM element. I play harp just a badly as I play guitar and I'd love to hear a real player run this mic through the routine.
As usual the meeting will be BYOB, BYOG (gear), BYOSW (software), BYOFCF (favorite comfort food), BYOGF (girlfriend) and we'll see what we can do to make a nice party out of the day.
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Hi Dan, where is Chateau Bottlehead. Somewhere near Poulsbo? Thanks, Larry
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It's on the Bottlehead website contact page:
1127 NW Brite Star Lane
Poulsbo, WA 98370
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We got a surprise in our last shipment of pancakes - a listening copy of Little Hatch, Rock With Me Baby. And I got a shipping notice from the studio this afternoon, which I suspect may be my listening copy of Jimmy Smith's The Sermon.
Life is good.
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Argh!
Your killin' me Schmalle!
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I know man, this is really getting to be work. I'm thinking Shawn and I might need to stay late tonight to make sure that the tapes arrived in perfect shape.
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Hi Steve:
Don't mean to rub it in too badly...but I have been emotionally and phyiscally preparing for the gathering that you will miss. ;-)
I am refraining from listening to any decent music until this Sunday - just dialing in in the car - for the gloomy Seahawks AM talk radio programs in low fidelity and getting my ears cleaned on Friday for the event!
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Hey, no problem Ki. I'm still recovering from having waaay to much fun at the jazz festival last weekend (maybe I wouldn't feel my age quite as much if I just got a little more exercise).
I'll get a chance to meet you guys and spend some time with the Schmalle household some other time I'm sure.
Have a wonderful time and be sure and take a few pictures of the gathering.
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Paul just informed me that he's also sending a demo reel with some songs from a couple of the other Series Two albums, so we should have examples from seven of the ten titles. I think we may set up a second tape rig in the lab with a Seduction tape head preamp and our new Quickie battery powered preamp modified for headphone use. I should mention also that I have several Technics and a couple of Otari machines for sale that we would be happy to demo on that rig (the Seduction is for sale as well), and we also have several Series One Titles in stock - TP-001, TP-002, TP-003, TP-005, TP-006, TP-009, and TP-010.
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Dan, looing forward to Sunday. We are planning to be there about noon? Is that right? Thanks, Larry
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Yes, the meetings start at noon and usually folks start heading out around 4.
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Thanks Doc and Eileen for openning your home (once again) for the Get together. it was fun; meeting people, putting faces with names, intense conversations, good food and adult beverages, and lots of great music reproduction done as god would have if he'd of thought about it. from tape at 1.5 generation from the master played thru the Nagra T/Repro. i heard parts of 5 of the Series 2 tapes (that i recall).
Ki Choi and i drove over from the eastside of Seattle to Poulsbo for the festivities. it's about a 80 minute drive each way for us. Ki has amassed a horde of RTR machines and has taken the trouble to learn about them technically. my RTR knowledge grew exponentially from my over 2 hours talking tape with him. thanks Ki.
it was great to meet Larry Toy (Astrotoy), his friend Bob who lives about a mile away from Doc, and Kip Peterson (Kipdent). Larry and Kip both traveled up from California for the event. i truely enjoyed our wide-ranging conversations.
some of the tapes i heard clearly with some listening focus; others during conversation in brief spots. i heard brief parts of 'The Sermon', which i loved--it seemed far beyond my middling Lp pressing. another brief listen was to 'Brilliant Corners'; again, wonderful and 'i can't wait'. i did spend considerable time with Little Hatch's 'Rock With Me Baby'......WOW!!! this is a killer tape! sooo transparent and immediate. a great recording. another one i liked alot was Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. a mono, but a mono with space and excellent definition and pulse. great music. i've already had the 'BeAltitude; Respect Yourself' tape in my system; it was interesting hearing it on Doc's system. still alive and wonderful. everyone stopped talking for awhile as it played.
every Series 2 tape i've heard is special as a recording and the music is sublime. bring'm on!
Doc also played some digital music files thru a new dac design of his; it really sounded 'analog' to me. very nice.
it was a fun day in every way (except the Seahawks lost to the Bears--at least i didn't watch and get upset about it) and thanks again to Doc for having us over. i did not take any pictures but others did; hopefully they will post them.
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Thanks for the kind words, Mike. As always it was great to see you. You are always so positive and supportive about what we are doing and by gum, you're a pretty interesting cat to converse with. It was a busy house yesterday, which always makes for a difficult listen. We get together at the Chateau so seldom these days that the conversation gets pretty competitive with the music since folks haven't seen each other in so long. Makes for a really fun party, not for the best critical listening. It was the first time we had a good sized group in the room in this new configuration, and I kept thinking "man this sure isn't how it sounded when I was by myself in the sweet spot last night!". The added bodies really damped down the hf and upper mid energy. I appreciate that experienced ears were present, understanding the limitations of doing a demo in a crowded room. Sounded great after all you guys left ... the guy who was running the system was playing it way loud ;^)>
I really, really appreciate folks like Larry and Kip coming from so far to hear the tapes. It was great to meet the new folks like Kip and Ki and Bob and Ed and great to see old friends like Lew, Richard and Cameron that we seem to need a meeting as an excuse to get together with. And of course thanks to the Bottlehead live crew, PJ, PB, Shawn and Colin of course the Queen for coming to help out. I'll just note that the car and motorcycle show out front was fun too. John's gorgeous Maserati, Lew's 350HP Beemer, Camerons's new Beemer single 650 bike, Bob's cool custom stereo - I've been getting the jones for my midlife crisis-mobile and you guys were killing me.
I tried to extend the invitation where I could at the end of the day yesterday, but I was tending to get pulled three directions at once all day and I know I didn't get to say it to everyone - you are all welcome back to have a listen with just a person or two in the room, who promises to stay quiet at least when the music plays. Just give me a call if you find the time and we can roll as much tape as you can stand.
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Dan, thanks to you and Eileen for a most enjoyable afternoon yesterday. It was also great to meet some of our fellow TP fanatics Mike and Ki as well as others. The "Little Hatch" tape was especially impressive. I still need to understand Mr. Coltrane better - but the sound was great and I didn't even know it was mono. Thanks again. Larry
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All--
What a great afternoon, and thanks so much to Dan and Eileen for their wonderful hospitality. Everything I hoped I would accomplish in coming up from San Diego came true--meeting great and insightful music fans, learning more about this timeless technology and appreciating even more the labor of love called The Tape Project.
Dan--you'll be happy to hear the trip made me a believer and soon I will be ordering at least a selective subscription to Series 2. I thought Jimmy Smith - The Sermon was simply sublime, with an ambience and natural decay of instruments that beat my beloved vinyl system and sealed the deal for me.
Ki, your knowledge and willingness to help me understand more about R2R machines and help me in my choice of a machine have been invaluable; thank you so much. I will write you off-line about my current thinking.
Thanks also to all the kind and interesting people I met, including Mike, John and Bob. It was a blast! The fresh air this extremely civil Forum exudes was evident throughout the day. I'm already looking forward to the next meeting--
Kip Peterson