Reel-To-Reel and Tapeheads Thread

[SnowmaNick]

I’ve met a few guys that are hooked. There is a whole deep community around this side of things. Like you can get on lists for select estate sales around the world for tape collections of you go deep enough.

 

[Jbraswell]

A rabbit hole too far for me. The best show demo I ever heard was Magico using a crazy reel-to-reel of a pianist. I actually almost stood to applaud at the end. It was fantastic!

I’ve debated getting one as a decoration, but I know me. And I’m already too far down too many other rabbit holes. Best of luck, and I’ll enjoy watching this thread.

That's a pretty cool story.

I will say what is kind of fascinating is the gear rabbit hole is nearly shallow.
No cart, tonearm, phono stage, or other gizmos to chase.

Yes the media is expensive but the rest of it is settled after initial buy-in.
You can't upgrade anything unless you change an entire deck out.
The maintenance page in the manual is a couple of bullet points.
Oil a bearing and clean the tape heads with IPA regularly.

Of course nothing is perfect but this was an almost perfect audiophile piece in the hay days.

 

[Jbraswell]

I took a chance on this one from the fleabay and a few other misc titles that were <$20.
Nat ended up being cheaper than the AP45 vinyl.
I'm really curious to see how the 1957 7.5ips tape copy sounds.

 

[mdmost]

Is there a way to clean tapes? I would imagine they get dirty with age and use.

 

[Jbraswell]

Is there a way to clean tapes? I would imagine they get dirty with age and use.

I don't know of a process or a cool humminguru machine.
Some people use a barrel cleaning pad type paper but it's not reel common

 

[Melt Face Molly Drop]

Is there a way to clean tapes? I would imagine they get dirty with age and use.

I know the VHS community has ways of cleaning their tapes because tape that is more than 30 years old is notorious for getting mold. From what I saw it's a pain in the ass. But what isn't a pain in the ass in this hobby.

 

[Jbraswell]

I know the VHS community has ways of cleaning their tapes because tape that is more than 30 years old is notorious for getting mold. From what I saw it's a pain in the ass. But what isn't a pain in the ass in this hobby.

I'm out if mold is involved.

 

[Jbraswell]

Received a nice Maxell take up reel and put the 1957 tape from Nat King on.

Holy smokes this thing sounds fresh!
Insanely cool. His vocals are amazing sounding.

It's so wild with no clicks or pops from the vinyl. The sound is clean as digital but still a deep tubey analog sound.

The cell phone recording is attached but not nearly like the sound in the room.

New video by Jason Braswell

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Jbraswell]

A few more clips.
The dynamics are impressive.
These are some inexpensive eBay tapes I recently found.

New video by Jason Braswell

photos.app.goo.gl

New video by Jason Braswell

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Yer Ol' Uncle D]

A few years ago, I went to see All Them Witches in a 1K capacity club. They were taping their gigs and had everything mixed down to two channels out of the board straight into a sweet Teac reel to reel deck.

Respect to the young'uns.

If you're not familiar, worth your time...

 

[mdmost]

Received a nice Maxell take up reel and put the 1957 tape from Nat King on.

Holy smokes this thing sounds fresh!
Insanely cool. His vocals are amazing sounding.

It's so wild with no clicks or pops from the vinyl. The sound is clean as digital but still a deep tubey analog sound.

The cell phone recording is attached but not nearly like the sound in the room.

New video by Jason Braswell

photos.app.goo.gl

View attachment 227125

This is great. It makes me very envious and on the cusp of doing something dumb.

 

[Jbraswell]

This is great. It makes me very envious and on the cusp of doing something dumb.

I didn't spend a fortune to get in but I can say it was worth it.
Tape is worthy of the hype IMO.
Take your time. It's worth getting it right going in.