Capital Pre-recorded Tapes.

[KentTeffeteller]

Audio Fidelity (the original AF company) was founded in the early 1950's by a chap named Sidney Frey. His firm along with Westrex collaborated 45/45 single groove Stereo LP discs in November, 1957 and made Stereo viable for the mass public. His recordings were generally excellent technically. Musically they are a mixed bag. I am fond of the Dukes Of Dixieland and Al Hirt recordings and Louis Armstrong recordings. He first issued 2 track tapes at 7 1/2 IPS and then later released 7 1/2 IPS 4 track tapes of superb quality. A note in general about pre-recorded reel tapes. The pre-1966 tapes were duplicated at 4 X speeds. Later tapes were also commonly duplicated at 8 and 16 X speeds and often at 3 3/4 IPS speed reducing their quality. Most rock tapes were duped at the higher speeds though many of the late issues outside of record clubs were still very good.

 

[ShaneR2R]

Audio Fidelity (the original AF company) was founded in the early 1950's by a chap named Sidney Frey. His firm along with Westrex collaborated 45/45 single groove Stereo LP discs in November, 1957 and made Stereo viable for the mass public. His recordings were generally excellent technically. Musically they are a mixed bag. I am fond of the Dukes Of Dixieland and Al Hirt recordings and Louis Armstrong recordings. He first issued 2 track tapes at 7 1/2 IPS and then later released 7 1/2 IPS 4 track tapes of superb quality. A note in general about pre-recorded reel tapes. The pre-1966 tapes were duplicated at 4 X speeds. Later tapes were also commonly duplicated at 8 and 16 X speeds and often at 3 3/4 IPS speed reducing their quality. Most rock tapes were duped at the higher speeds though many of the late issues outside of record clubs were still very good.

Thank you for this information!! I did not know any of this. It's interesting to me that so much of the music released on R2R is of the easy listening type. There doesn't seem to be as much rock-n-roll on R2R and when you do locate one they are usually recorded at 3 3/4ips. I avoid the 3 3/4ips speeds in search of the higher 7 1/2ips tapes. To date all the R2R tapes that I have purchased are recorded at 7 1/2ips and sound superb! The Capital and Reprise have a great sound. The interesting thing about the Frank Sinatra R2R that I have is the way the music is mixed. It's almost like you are listening to the recording straight from the studio before a lot of the mixing was done. What I mean by this is it has a slight raw edge to it, not in a bad way but in a weird sort of way. Something I have not noticed when listening to his music on remastered CD's. The quality of the mixes are great on this R2R, which happens to be, September of my years, but something is different with the overall sound. It may just be I have never heard Sinatra so dynamic sounding, and the result is the clarity from the R2R tape itself. Even the LP's I have heard sound much different, maybe not as bright. I am quite impressed, and as I dive into this whole pre-recorded R2R stuff I feel like I have discovered a whole different dimension of sound quality.

 

[pacha]

RCA tapes

Hello,
I have several hundred RCA tapes, mostly 2 track 7.5 ips and some 4 track 7.5 ips. Many are outstanding but some not so. I don't know if they are bad from being abused or just bad recordings. I don't have any 3 3/4 ips as I'm not fond of the sound quality.
Regards,
Pacha

 

[hamsterdam]

Some tapes are good some are bad...of course 3 3/4 does not sound as good as 7 1/2...but they do not cost as much $$. I have a nice Beatles White Album factory that sounds good to me at 3 3/4.....the two reel 7 1/2 ips version I am sure is great but cost 4 times as much $$. Do not let generalizations about speed and quality stop you from enjoying some good tapes and music. Factory reels are all a gamble...the newest ones are around 30 years old...

Just for reference, cassette tapes record at 1.75" ..so 3.75", well recorded 1/4" tape will sound better than virtually any cassette, probably all cassettes. I put that disclaimer in for those using; old, spent tape, magnetized heads, dirty heads, or anything that would impact the results in either or both instances. If the price were good enough, I'd take a flyer on a 3.75" ips. All things being equal...I'll take a top end ReVox over a Dragon, every day, also Tascam, Tandberg, Telefunken, Otari, Technics,Teac and Studer produce astounding recordings. Some of those, esp. in the higher end, will not have 3.75 ips, those are typically 7.5ips & 15 ips. The latter were for the audiophile, with dual capstans, direct drive motors, which probably helps steady the reels at 15ips...

My conundrum is finding a tech for my Pioneer QA-800A Integrated Quad Amp.looking forward to that.

 

[mcgjohn]

I bought a pre-recorded reel tape produced by Capital, entitled Jackie Gleason How sweet it is, and I am just blown away by the sound. I have 2 of these Capital tapes now, the other is by the Kingston Trio, it had never been opened. Is it just me or do these Capital reel tapes from the early to mid 60's sound great? Both tapes are recorded at 71/2 ips, and Capital used a Biosonic process with full dimensional sound. Well I think what ever this process is works Ha Ha! I record most of my tapes from CD and LP and the results are always good, but there seems to be something even better about these pre-recorded Capital tapes. To my ear I don't seem to hear much compression if any at all. What do others think about these pre-recorded tapes? I believe the ones I have are acetate but I don't know for sure. They are in great shape, play great, and seem to be strong yet. My Teac A2300s is very gentle on the old tapes. Time to look for more of these tapes, even though most of this music is not what I listen to on a daily basis, I need some rock reel to reels Ha Ha! But hey these reels are fun anyways.

yes some of the Capitol tapes are quite good. too bad Capitol pressing plants could not make vinyl that sounded even close to the tapes.