Oh, and Dunc … yes we had Revox cassette machines too … so the clients could take copies to listen in their cars. Compared to the R2R masters the sound quality played through the studio system was pretty risible.
Hi
As said was hoping that recording from the vivaldi would have been even better than what i was getting before with the rossini, but it looks like the vivaldi is just to far infront of what my tape decks can do now and so its showing up the gap much more obviously than before.
Shame really but thats how it is
I use my cassette player to record concerts and other broadcasts from BBC Radio 3. I can’t see a tuner in your system pictures, but surely you can receive internet radio through your streamer. I think recording from the radio is where cassettes still have a purpose.
As an owner of five Nakamichi cassette decks (including a Dragon), a Sony EL-7 Elcaset, a Revox B77, a Teac A-6300, three Tascam DAT decks, a Tascam SS-R200 compact flash/sd card recorder and a Sony MDS-JA333ES minidisc recorder, I read through this thread with some interest.
As you can see, I have ventured into virtually all the available recording formats.
The cassette decks aren’t used much for recording these days. The Elcaset and the two reel to reel decks are mainly used for recording from LPs, to preserve the analogue chain. The ReVox is a half track, two speed deck (3 3/4 ips and 7 1/2 ips) and the Teac is quarter track, same speeds as the ReVox and has reverse playback. Whilst 15 ips would clearly be better than a slower speed, the cost in tapes would end up being pretty astronomical.
One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned with Elcaset, is that whilst the tape is the same width as reel to reel, it is apparently thinner.
I mainly record from BBC Radio 3, and the reason I got into DAT in the first place was that the long record times with DAT (using computer tapes) enabled me to record long concerts and operas without interruption. The Tascam SS-R200 now serves the same purpose, and the recordings are easy to edit and transfer to a computer. It is connected directly to my NDX 2 via the digital output on the latter.
I also record from Qobuz onto the Sony Minidisc, but this is to make minidiscs for my car player.
I think that if the OP wants to record from Qobuz in case an album gets deleted, other than buying the download as has been suggested, the best solution might be to invest in a solid-state recorder like the Tascam. DAT recorders will sound as good but can be temperamental.
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You have lots of different decks mate well done on that.
I think i might keep one, but then its hard to pick one over the other as both have reasons to stay and go.
But as for recording anything going forward then thats just going to be for fun i feel as the quality is just not there and for that reason very little point in recording it in the first place
God - this takes me back to the 1970’s.
We owned a Ferrograph R2R (2 track) and I loved it. It was a visual and manual delight - loading the tape, watching it spin, being able to control the FF speed. Fantastic.
I kept it until the late ‘80s when it’s flutter was unbearable and spares were scarce. I actually gave it away to someone who wanted to take it apart for spares for another model.
Elcaset. Wow - a name spoken of in hushed tones amongst the hifi enthusiasts in my company. Never seen or heard one.
I’m afraid my cassette desk in boxed away along with my much missed minidisc player, but streaming knocks them both off the pedestal they once enjoyed. Plus I haven’t got the room to keep it all out. Thanks for the memories everyone !
As someone with several motorcycles and a car which are more than 50 years old I do understand the appreciation for ancient technology. But at the risk of stating the obvious I can see no logic in taking a modern digital source which you seem to enjoy musically and attempting to transfer it to what I assume are analogue recording devices when a very basic computer would record it exactly as received from Quobuz or any other digital source.
If your source was a vinyl disc cut using an analogue signal path that would be a different matter and I have several prized LPs which were mixed in analogue recording studios prior to the digital take over.
The pictures of those magnificent tape systems are fabulous but I wouldn’t particularly want to own them even if I could afford it!
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There a certain joy you can get from messing about with tape and recording and this for me takes me back to my teenage days and Sunday night top 40.
I dont want to connect a pc to my hifi thanks.
I have managed to get the dragon to sound better as i just set the bais up a bit so its slightly over bright rather then dead on 0, this has helped keep the details once recorded, still not the same but its closer and i can live with it more. I didn’t give this a thought at all until i mentioned the issue i was having and was given this advice.
The elcaset i can’t do this on.
Qobuz has a subscription called “Sublime” that allows you to purchase and download Hi Res files at up to 60% off normal RRP.
Not sure if you have a server or a way of storing and playing downloaded digital files but this would give you the best SQ and you’d always have a the files on your hard drive for future use even if Qobuz discontinued them for streaming.
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Hi been using sublime for a few years now and find it great
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Of course you can. Just look inside the box.
Strange thread about tech I worked with every day. A mastering recorder is not some special tech - it was whatever someone made a master with. In european larger studios it was usually a studer a80 until the digital sony 1630/f1 took over. brenell
I had fully working studer b67 and telefunken m15a at home until recently when i gave them away to two studios. the b67 was going to used as fx unit to get ”tape sound” (it had a lovely dark tone). the m15a was a big 50kg german stereo machine, it was a radio machine which meant it was ”oxide out” (tape was on the reels with the oxide on the outside, this meant the oxide touched parts of the drive mechanism less and kept the audio quality longer). the studio was going to have it as a talking piece in the lounge, poor m15 …
for a while it was poular to used old analog stereo machines as fx on tihe master bus. not for storage. and until manufacturers learned about dithering it was a common practice to have an analog summing box. you took out the 16 or 32 tracks from the digital mixer to just do the summing to 2 tracks in an external box and the immediately convert the output to digital. i had the neve 16/2 summing unit in my personal toolbox. then paul frindle and his team made the sony oxford r3 digital console and gave everyone (protools) a lesson on the importance of dithering and summing boxes started to fade away.
For a while a digital record was the ones denon recorded digitally but released on LPs.
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Could be the source? ive had two Dragons and a CR7 both bit for bit copies from any format(the CR7 shaves it for sound…just)
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