Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: stellavox on October 06, 2009, 09:04:49 AM
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O my God, where to begin.
What a great time but I blinked and it is gone; except for the memories. LOTS of great sound; which you can undoubtedly read about in the ?press? and blogs. And a very little bit of reel tape.
J-Corder was there with more 1500?s in one place than at anywhere else in time ?cept back at the Technics factory. Beautiful refinishing jobs ? hope they sold a few.
I only found one exhibit with a recorder in residence. I believe it was a local Denver dealer Audio Unlimited, with a modified 1500 playing Project tapes. Outside the door I found Paul S. who had just delivered a demo Jimmy Smith Project tape ("The Sermon" ? TP20). Went back in and listened. Oh my ? Lee Morgan and his trumpet were there. I can understand why Paul indicated that he is ?very happy? with that and the Staples Singers release. Can?t wait to get my own.
Brought my Stellavox and went around to a few rooms to ?audition? a few tapes including the Project Arnold Overtures. When allowed, it proved to be a mixed blessing as the ?front end and medium? exposed problems in most of the systems: restricted dynamic range; lack of (true/controlled) lows or steely highs. The exception was the Orca room where the magnificence of the ?Commonwealth Christmas Overture? astounded all listeners and provoked applause at the end ? each time ? I was held captive there for a while. As I mentioned to Paul, one can think of this selection, played through the right equipment, as (IMnotsoHO) the absolute, BEST ?tool? to demonstrate the weaknesses (dare I say strengths) of a system. Every dealer and manufacturer espousing to be truly high end should consider this Absolute Sound.
Finally ? didn?t run into any Projectapesters at the allotted Saturday 2PM time (gotta get screaming yellow t-shirts) but did meet a few during the course of the show ? great conversations ensued. THANKS as always
Charles
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Correction; the Audio Unlimited tape deck was a modified Studer PR-99
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Charles.....You must have missed the Nola room. Not only was it using TP tapes for source, a reviewer from Absolute Sound gave the tapes and the associated tape deck the "Best Source Component of RMAF" award! The playback deck, BTW, was a highly modified Tascam BR-20 sold by United Home Audio, designated the "UHA-HQ".
" A speaker that I know considerably better?and that I also will review?was in Room 2021. For several shows in a row now, the $65k, open-baffle, ribbon/cone hybrid Nola Baby Grand Reference has been making wonderfully lifelike music. This year, at RMAF, an improved version (with better ribbons) driven by ARC electronics and sourced by a tape machine playing back the Tape Project?s second-generation dubs of mastertapes was simply marvelous?so open, so sweet, so clean, so continuous. If there was anything about it I could criticize, the BGRs might have been a little less transparent in the bass than in the mids and treble. But I don?t know for sure. Alongside the Vandersteen 7s, they sounded the most like music to me."
"Best Source Component: The UHA-HQ 15ips 2-track tape deck from United Home Audio ($10k) and Tape Project tapes in the Nola room"
http://www.avguide.com/blog/rmaf-report-speakers-over-20k#comment-18661
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Yup - unfortunately didn't know about it. My loss!
Charles
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Well-
I fully intended on the 2:00 PM rendezvous, but the kerfuffle with the power at around that time kind threw me off my game. Mike Lavigne and I hooked up for a listening session earlier that day in the United Audio/ARC/Nola room for some TP Staples Singers on their modded Tascam deck. Sounded really big really clean and really funky.
On the non-tape side of things, the ARC/Vandersteen/Linn Sondek vinyl playback was superb, as was the Ypsilon/Tidal room, playing LPs on the new Bergmann Airbearing TT.
What was really cool for me was running into Paul Stubblebine in the Vandersteen suite.
My fifth RMAF, and over way too soon.
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Hi Charles:
The only PR-99 I saw was in Phillip O'Hanlon's Vivid/Luxman room. When I visited, he was not playing TP tapes but later I heard from MikeL that Phillip had special TP compliations that sounded very good.
I was there at the Lift Lounge little after 2 pm on Sat but didn't see anyone there... even brought a "fresh meat - TP virgin" who was about to be infected...
Yes, it was too short for me also. I didn't even make it up to the 11th floor...
Ki
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Correction; the Audio Unlimited tape deck was a modified Studer PR-99
One more correction: That wasn't the Audio Unlimited room, it was Philip O'Hanlon's Vivid/Luxman room, and the PR-99 is modified by Arian Jansen. He has posted information about the mods here on our forum--do a search if you're interested.
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I'm really bummed I couldn't make it to this one but I'm glad to hear that you guys had a great time.
Some of the early press stuff is starting to surface but MikeL has the best early impressions thread going:
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/55/552958.html
Here's the first one from Positive Feedback;
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue45/toc45.htm
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Two of us did the best we could to be visible at 2:00. We had a TP tape on the table and Paul with a beer. Sitting close to the main entrance path too. Oh well, we tried.....
Walter