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N00b Question - Why get a reel to reel?

04blackmaxx

04blackmaxx

Well-Known Member
I like how they look, they are extremely cool to watch in action. I have a turntable and CD player and was wondering if there is any benefits to using reel to reel tape for playback that exceeds those of vinyl or cd? Extremely stupid question also...I cant buy very many reel to reel tapes and the ones on ebay are few and far between and expensive, so is this about recording to the reel to reel from the cd or vinyl and if that's the case why would I bother if I already have it on those formats? Can the sound be improved? In need to guidance on how it all works.
 
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Realistically, IMO, no, there's no good reason. If you happen to have, or have access to, a collection of high-quality recorded material (e.g., two-track 'safety' copies of master tapes, or carefully-made commercial pre-recorded tapes) or if you wish to do live recording, a good quality reel to reel "prosumer" deck (e.g., the better TEAC or TASCAM decks, OTARIs, ReVox A77 or B77, a few models from Sony, Technics, and Pioneer, and a few others such as Tandberg and Crown) could be a good investment. Hardware and software will not be inexpensive.

Otherwise, having one can be a fun toy. In that case, aim low.
 
N00b Question - Why get a reel to reel?
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Well, in the last week I have gone from never having owned one, to having FIVE right now, so I'm guessing temporary insanity may be near the top of the list :)
 
A wise man once stated that the only reasons to get a tape machine were:
"I like how they look, they are extremely cool to watch in action."

If you're happy with CD playback, then that medium is faster/easier/cheaper to archive, re-arrange, or present your music with than tape. You can even skip the CD part and go straight to files.

If you like electromechanical elegance (or absurdity) then tapes will push that button.

Tape stock is not as easy to get as it once was, either.

Chip
 
My excuse was that brief, though not cheap, stroll down memory lane. I had owned a Pioneer RT-909 and a Teac A-6300 back in the 80's, so I bought them again. Inability to lift them by myself (bad back) when I wanted to move them caused me to sell both.
 
Reel to reels, back in the day (I'm talking late 70's here) allowed me to put together my music, in my order, with just the songs I wanted. Unlike today, there were no playlists created with a click of a button, no instantaneous playing of virtually any song via Spotify or Pandora...it was either radio or vinyl.

In other words, reel to reels gave me control I didn't otherwise have.

Cassettes didn't offer me the amount of playing time that a 10" reel could provide, so adding a reel to reel to my system was as important to me as any other of my components. :music:

Jeff
 
04blackmaxx said:
I like how they look, they are extremely cool to watch in action. I have a turntable and CD player and was wondering if there is any benefits to using reel to reel tape for playback that exceeds those of vinyl or cd? Extremely stupid question also...I cant buy very many reel to reel tapes and the ones on ebay are few and far between and expensive, so is this about recording to the reel to reel from the cd or vinyl and if that's the case why would I bother if I already have it on those formats? Can the sound be improved? In need to guidance on how it all works.
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Why? Cause chicks dig R2R decks...

stock-photo--retro-open-reel-tape-recorder-beautiful-brunette-dj-hearing-music-gray-walpaper-69560947.jpg
 
I haven't found a good reason yet. I picked up a really nice Revox A77 at a thrift shop for about $70. It could use some attention, but records and plays pretty well. I bought a few RMG tapes too. I have played around with it and my son has used it to record some guitar tracks with friends. Mostly it just sits there and looks kind of cool.

 
It's a fun experience to actually handle a physical format, especially reel to reel. I went that reely-crazy I got a TEAC X-300R to fix up and am picking up an Akai GX-600DB at the end of this week for just 20 euros. Might need some work, but for that price...:banana:
It's just fun to see those meters jump, see the tape rolling, and it's quite a gorgeous piece of technology IMO.
 
For me, the coolness factor is one thing, but your favorite vinyl on rtr is one sublime experience. Just that little bit of warm tape compression makes things lovely.
 
By the way, blackmaxx, the questions you have posed come up here in the Tape Dep't with regularity. If you spend an hour or so going over past threads, you'll find a wealth of answers/opinions on these very topics, and will no doubt see some patterns begin to emerge that are in alignment with what you are most interested in doing. Although you could do a search, it might be simpler just to scroll backwards chronologically and investigate each "Newbie wondering how to get into r-tr" post. Lots of passionate and experienced people here who are very generous with their time and advice.
 
Tape on reels has offered the highest possible sound quality available of any format for about 70 years.
It is only very recently that high sample rate and long word digital recordings have been able to catch up.
 
Well-made 7.5ips factory-recorded tapes present the most sublime sound quality of any commercial format, outside of, possibly, the hi-res digital referenced by steerpike2. Unfortunately, unless you get lucky and find them at garage or estate sales, they won't come cheap. 3.75ips usually gives you a slight edge over vinyl, but the tapes were about 50% more expensive than an LP when new. 7.5ips was about double - and then a good tape deck was extremely expensive.

That said, even non-audiphiles might comment on how good that taped media sounds. My mother even remarked on it when we were listening to some music a few months ago.
 
Barncats said:
By the way, blackmaxx, the questions you have posed come up here in the Tape Dep't with regularity. If you spend an hour or so going over past threads, you'll find a wealth of answers/opinions on these very topics, and will no doubt see some patterns begin to emerge that are in alignment with what you are most interested in doing. Although you could do a search, it might be simpler just to scroll backwards chronologically and investigate each "Newbie wondering how to get into r-tr" post. Lots of passionate and experienced people here who are very generous with their time and advice.
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But then all of us tape junkies would not have as many opportunities to assert the positive qualities of tape, logic be dammed :D
 
I bought my first deck in the late 70's for the purpose of figuring-out guitar riffs, especially really fast ones. Record at 7.5 IPS, play back at 3.75 IPS and you can figure-out the notes (One octive lower of course).

I also didn't have a lot of coin, so recording any song I didn't have the record of off FM was free :)

Lastly as others have said, mix tapes were/are great, along with the long playback time so you didnt have to flip LP's all night.

There, now I've really dated myself :D

Glenn
 
Nostalgia. And they do look cool and uniquely different while running.
Today there is no practical need for a Reel to Reel. And yet, there is this tactile experience to using one to record and play back music that the modern formats just can't match.
 
Out of all of my audio equipment, the big open reel decks (and there are very, very few that are both good and relatively small: the old tube-era Tandbergs, the Pioneer RT-700/707 and TEAC X-3/300 series come to mind, even if the TEACs and their Realistic brothers have a known weak point) are always what people comment on.

What they lack in modern practicality (though there are studios that still use the big tape machines for mastering purposes), they more than make up for in "wow" factor.
 
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