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| What's the best format? |
| Vinyl (33, 45, even 78) |
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83% |
[ 5 ] |
| Cassette |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| 8-Track |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Reel to Reel |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Compact Disc |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Mini Disc |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| MP3 (or other digital formats like WAV, OGG, FLAC, etc) |
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16% |
[ 1 ] |
| Still Waiting...they'll come up with it someday! |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 6 |
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| Author |
Message |
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Joe_Stax
Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 354
Location: deep inside your radio
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 Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 3:35 am Post subject: Format Wars! |
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We've been seeing a lot of news lately about vinyl's big comeback, and I'd like to know what you think the best format for music is...
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One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz. |
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JimENight
Site Admin
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 183
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| Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:36 am Post subject: |
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What about 16 rpm vinyl platters even?  |
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Rockin'_Art_Lewis
Joined: 23 Apr 2007
Posts: 119
Location: Gallup, NM.
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| Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:44 am Post subject: |
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Well, Joe, It's a toss-up for me between vinyl and rxr.
A nicely transfered 7.5/30 ips reel tape can usually beat the pants off those shiny black discs and always sounds better than CD.
I still remember being blown away by how good rxr sounded, when one of my older friends would give some serious quad stuff a spin, back in the day. It was the de facto audiophile standard, then. 
Of course, it was also fun to make mix tapes at 3.75, that were a little lossy, but not terrible. You could pack an incredible ammount of music onto them. 1.7/8 ips was the speed of sheer desperation. It didn't sound totally crappy, but it wasn't anything to get excited about.
When I was a kid, the most fun thing about it was messing around with the speed on home recordings. I must have been ten years old, or thereabouts, when I cooked up the very politically incorrect "Retarded Chairs" sketch, parodying the game show "Musical Chairs". I did all the dialogue at 3.75 ips, in sort of a Donald Duck voice, speaking as rapidly as my little mouth could. Then, I slowed the thing down to 1.7/8.
Convulsed me and my little buddies, until we started choking! 
Wish I had saved the tape. 
Peace!
Retro Art Lewis
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Joe_Stax
Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 354
Location: deep inside your radio
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| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:04 am Post subject: |
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I spotted this today, and since Rockin' Art mentioned reel to reel... (from http://www.retrothing.com/)
| Quote: | | The Tape Project: Reel-to-Reel Audiophile Albums |
| Quote: | The Tape Project was founded to bring "master tape sound" into the living room. Each release is recorded onto 1/4" half track analog reel-to-reel tape at 15 inches per second. They claim, "You just aren't going to get any closer to the original master, short of buying a record label or two."
The current catalog consists of 10 hand-picked albums, including Sonny Rollins' seminal Saxophone Colossus (1956), Bill Evans' Waltz for Debby (1961), along The Robert Cray Band and Malcolm Arnold conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. There's even a brand new album by Jacqui Naylor that was mastered exclusively for The Tape Project.
The process starts by creating a 1" duplication master from the original analog master tape, which is then dubbed to a bank of finely tweaked Ampex ATR-100 decks. The result is the highest-quality "home format" analog copy possible.
The Tape Project is the brainchild of Dan Schmalle, who is also the driving force behind Bottlehead Corp, who manufacture a range of well respected tube amplifiers and modifies tape decks with the CCIR/IEC1 playback equalization required to play these tapes.
I'll let them explain: "We ended up choosing the Technics RS-1500 as our starting point. They are attractive looking machines, they offer the versatility of both 1/4 track and 1/2 track playback heads and three tape speeds, and most importantly they have what we feel is a superior tape transport path, the isolated loop. The RS1500 uses a servo reel control system combined with dual pinch rollers on a single capstan to maintain constant tension on the tape. This results in very stable, low flutter playback.
The one possible shortcoming of the RS 1500 is its lack of IEC playback equalization. In actual practice this is not such a big issue, because the quality of the playback electronics in all of these late 20th century prosumer grade machines is dismal. The only way to get the full benefit of the sonic quality of Tape Project Tapes is to use better outboard playback (repro) electronics anyway." |
| Quote: | The project gurus suggest twinning your modified RS-1500 tape deck with the $4000 Bottlehead Repro tape preamplifier, along with whatever high-end audiophile amplifier and speakers you have lurking in your mansion's listening room. A charter subscription includes all 10 albums from the 2007 catalog and retails for $2000, including shipping within the USA and Canada. They also offer a Selective Subscription that allows you to choose any six of the ten titles for $1200.
There's no word on the titles lined up for the 2008 catalog, since the team is still working hard to fulfill their current order backlog. |
For more info, and some boss pics: http://www.tapeproject.com/
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One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz. |
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Joe_Stax
Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 354
Location: deep inside your radio
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:15 am Post subject: |
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More reel to reel madness for RAL!
Check out Tom Polk's
Portable
Tape Recorder Collection at:
http://www.tompolk.com/recorders/recorders.html
Where you'll see the likes of
and many more!
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Astrakhan
Joined: 20 Jun 2007
Posts: 135
Location: nowhere, man
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:34 am Post subject: |
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It reminds me of the ones that Jim Phelps got his assignments on. This tape will self destruct in five seconds!
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Joe_Stax
Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 354
Location: deep inside your radio
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| Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:42 am Post subject: |
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You mean:
 ?
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Astrakhan
Joined: 20 Jun 2007
Posts: 135
Location: nowhere, man
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| Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:20 pm Post subject: |
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Exactly!
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JimENight
Site Admin
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 183
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| Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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I'll never forget one day my freshman year in college, when CDs were just starting to become commercially available, I started mouthing off about how they were supposed to be superior in audio quality... & one time the senior RA on my dorm floor spun around and got in my face to say that nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever sound better than reel-to-reel tape!
Seems I had some growing up to do.
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