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Huge Sansui score today.

I expect I will be doing exactly that. I need to make awure the deck is in top operating condition first, so playback speed, azimuth and the like are dialed in for best possible transfer quality. With two identical decks, I could just do a direct dub.

What is the thinking here, am I better to make a good tape to tape copy and stay in the analog domain, or do a digital transfer? I'm inclined to do the latter for a more reliable archival copy and less loss of quality. But I know a lot of serious tapeheads don't seem to care for digital to tape dubs, even if the original source to digital was tape (or vinyl). Purist or practical, what is the consensus?
 
Lol, true!

I'd use a good 4 channel ADC converter/interface into the PC, for lengevity & accuracy. And dub tapes too, to use on the R2R's!

I've needledropped some of my LP's to save wear & tear on the original vinyl: it's also easier to run playlists via media server when I'm lazy or too busy to dig thru records
 
Sansuiman said:
Ok, here are a couple of mediocre pics to whet the appetite. First, the QD-5500 on it's back, powered up. This deck is an absolute beast.

Second is the Sony CD changer. The lens over the display has shifted downard slightly, will have to work that loose and reattach correctly. This unit needs a thorough cleaning.

Third is all the pre-recorded tapes I picked up. I believe these are all discrete 4 channel recordings. There are a few tapes of dubs (mostly self made compilations, I guess you'd call them proto mix-tapes) not pictured. I'll get some of the QRX-5500 up in a subsequent post.

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Wow, very nice! So now you have your QRX-5500 and you can compare to the QRX-9001 to see what difference you hear in the synthexized quad sound.

I've specifically stayed away from two formats just to limit the "rabbit hole": reel to reel tape and 8-track. Not hard to stay a way from 8-track, though it does have it's adherents (and there was quad 8-track.) The main thing that keeps me out of reel to reel is the cost of the tapes and challenge of finding them. I agree, super cool to play music on one of those machines. :naughty: I just have to have limits!
 
Congrats on finding some good equipment at a good price. Sometimes you just fall in it. I found a couple things about a year ago at good prices but I don't expect that to happen very often and maybe not ever again.
 
I've found that most of my best scores were pure chance, when I wasn't even actively looking for a certain piece of gear. In fact, some of my most prized pickups (a quad of SP-5500, a pair of SP-300, a pair of SP-5000 and a BA-150 JDM power amp in particular) were from individuals who contacted me offering them for sale.

This deal just fell into place after almost missing out because I wasn't watching local CL postings daily, as I used to. Had someone else ahead of me who flaked out, so I just got lucky.
 
Sansuiman said:
Funny, I wasn't even waiting for this deal. It just kind of fell in my lap. But hey, I'll take it.
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Sansuiman said:
I've found that most of my best scores were pure chance, when I wasn't even actively looking for a certain piece of gear. In fact, some of my most prized pickups (a quad of SP-5500, a pair of SP-300, a pair of SP-5000 and a BA-150 JDM power amp in particular) were from individuals who contacted me offering them for sale.

This deal just fell into place after almost missing out because I wasn't watching local CL postings daily, as I used to. Had someone else ahead of me who flaked out, so I just got lucky.
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"Some guys have all the luck!!" :)

:thumbsup:

Really nice RtoR 'music score' too!! Bet they sound wonderful.
 
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Just spent some time reading up on that QD-5500, and the genre. That is one VERY interesting Rabbit Hole.

Do you have a dust cover or remote?
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Would awesome to watch and listen to that "Machine" spin "Welcome to the Machine"
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No dustcover or wired remote, regrettably. I'll probably have a dust cover made at some point. The remote could be built, it attaches with an 11 pin amphenol type plug and socket (much like tone cabinet/Leslie connections on old Hammond organs).

I have an SRC-1 that works with my SD-7000 2 channel deck, it is very similar but not directly compatible. I do have the service handbook, which is nice to have found an original of. Very detailed, makes the typical service manual look like an afterthought.
 
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Sansuiman said:
No dustcover or wired remote, regrettably. Ill probably have a dust cover made at some point. The remote could be built, it attaches with an 11 pin amphenol type plug and socket (much like tone cabinet/Leslie connections on old Hammond organs).

I have an SRC-1 that works with my SD-7000 2 channel deck, it is very similar but not directly compatible. I do have the service handbook, which is nice to have found an original of. Very detailed, makes the typical service manual look like an afterthought.
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Yeah the cover looks like a pretty easy piece to make/have made. You could probably build a wooden two piece mold and press out a bunch (among your other projects). I might need to help with this one. I am intrigued by this machine. May track one down.

Thought the same about the handbook - studied most of it over the last hour or so - that machine is not for the casual listener - could spend some serious time having fun with everything it can do - recording your own music, playing music, 2ch, 4ch, mono, various inputs, forward, reverse - tons of opportunities for creativity.

Have you (or anyone else here) recorded any R2R to R2R quad tapes? Are the copies as good as the originals? The cost for original quad tapes is a pretty significant barrier to getting into this branch of the hobby.
 
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I've recorded stereo, but no 4 CH yet on open reel. Well, except for a brief test on my first QD-5500 to verify recording was working on all 4 channels. The one downside to these decks is they have slow (3 3/4 IPS) and mid (7 1/2 IPS) record and playback speeds only.

The best recordings are made at high speed (15 IPS) which isn't available on the QD-5500. Then again, most commercial pre-recorded stuff in 4 channel open reel is slow speed, to maximize the running time of a 7 inch reel of tape. Much like the 2/4/6 hour speed settings of VHS decks back in the day, slower record and playback rendered more usable time per tape, but lower quality recording and playback.

Boutique tapes (small run, VERY pricey) of jazz and classical are sometimes recorded at 15 IPS, but those are not common and have a limited target audience anyway. Well, even more so than open reel as a format does to begine with. Basically a fraction of an already vanishingly small market.

The Sansui decks only supported 7" reels (10" reels were NAB standard and were supported by some consumer decks by Akai, Pioneer, Teac, and Technics, among others). This limits recording time per reel, as with quad there is only one "side" per tape. With stereo, there are two sides that playback at opposing directions, since 2 of the 4 tracks on the tape comprise a stereo signal for each direction of playback.

As to the dust cover, I figure to have a acrylic plastic fabricator make one up, easier than me molding one myself (I have so much free time, ha) and there are already outfits around that do this work well for turntable replacement dust covers. The factory covers are really kind of cheap, thin, easily broken plastic anyway, so I won't be paying ebay price to buy one.
 
Heh, I saw those. There are two on ebay right now, one merely too expensive, and the other is outright obscene. IMHO, anyway.
 
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