added a 3rd Studer A-820 Mk2 with both 1/4" and 1/2" heads, guides and hubs

[Foxbat]

what will the FM heads do compared to the Studer butterfly heads?

Not to beat a dead horse, but tonight I had another chance to compare the FM head with the Studer butterfly one. The comparison has some validity as both were played through nearly identical head preamps. I played the very good Cafe Blues tape, the second one.

The difference was striking - there was much more space and air with the FM head. The sounds just floated much freer in space with that head.

I was told their production is on hold at the moment, hopefully to resume in some near future... I truly wish they become available again. There's something magical about them.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Thxs from a hip hip joint hospitalbed

 

[Foxbat]

Two older guys in our shooting squad had both their hips replaced - I was really shocked how quickly they were back into action. Just stay away from narcotics, you will be fine.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I don't see what the recording has to do with it. If you have a prerecorded tape you want to be able to play it back with the high fidelity (whatever that really means).

Its about having trust in something .
I bought a MTSL tape and Ultra analogue tapes and was not happy with the recorded sound , why would i even bother with a MTSL aftermarket sound card .
If they cant get the recording to a stock studer level why even bother

Ps i have some ultra analogue tapes which sound fine Winona Zelenka / cello for example .
Some exhibited some background motor noise
Also the artists that Ultra analogue works with are not worldclass acts like Hugh masekela/ luciano pavarotti off course and they come with a different price tag .

Foxbat :
Now if you can design a tape pre ( record and reproduce ) and have as much succes as studer has had , i m all for it
Like i said before many regard the Golden Age of analogue as being the 50 60 70 s ,.. the studer/ telefunken / Ampex era

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Foxbat, as a designer would it be possible to design a tape CCIR pre with enough gain as a pue passive transformerbased LCR design?.
LCR RIAA s are mostly connected på aktive gain stage in front and aktive buffer stage after
Asking just as a principle...
Best
Leif all good hip getting restless

 

[andromedaaudio]

All the best leif

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Soon out of bed to test

 

[Tango]

Soon out of bed to test

The new hip is synthetic? So you r not 100% natural now.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

The new hip is synthetic? So you r not 100% natural now.

I heard reliably that he gave the doctor hell for using a titanium implant not a beryllium one.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

The new hip is synthetic? So you r not 100% natural now.

Stainless Steel and some hightech plastic cup. Already had ss stent in heart

 

[dcc]

Its about having trust in something .
I bought a MTSL tape and Ultra analogue tapes and was not happy with the recorded sound , why would i even bother with a MTSL aftermarket sound card .
If they cant get the recording to a stock studer level why even bother

Ps i have some ultra analogue tapes which sound fine Winona Zelenka / cello for example .
Some exhibited some background motor noise
Also the artists that Ultra analogue works with are not worldclass acts like Hugh masekela/ luciano pavarotti off course and they come with a different price tag .

Foxbat :
Now if you can design a tape pre ( record and reproduce ) and have as much succes as studer has had , i m all for it
Like i said before many regard the Golden Age of analogue as being the 50 60 70 s ,.. the studer/ telefunken / Ampex age.

Disclaimer : There is also the chance that im completely deaf and my speakers / system is totally crap .

MTSL distributes tapes recorded by Kostas Metexas with a Stellavox tape recorder and not with a modified A80 RC.

 

[andromedaaudio]

MTSL distributes tapes recorded by Kostas Metexas with a Stellavox tape recorder and not with a modified A80 RC.

Yez my tape says its a stellavox recording
And its a mtsl recording.
One of the worst recordings i have i m sorry to say so

As he modifies tapemachines i can only assume it was modified to his standards.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Yez my tape says its a stellavox recording
And its a mtsl recording.
One of the worst recordings i have i m sorry to say so

As he modifies tapemachines i can only assume it was modified to

You base to much on assumptions
Has no value to anyone
I' ve installed/done many of his mods(more than 10 A80R and RC) and all have been major improvements on std
With respect to noise, distortion etc
Hence improved sound quality as well

 

[Foxbat]

Foxbat :
Now if you can design a tape pre ( record and reproduce ) and have as much succes as studer has had , i m all for it
Like i said before many regard the Golden Age of analogue as being the 50 60 70 s ,.. the studer/ telefunken / Ampex

I completely disagree with that notion, as today we know how to design better circuits. If you look closely, the state of the art of the sixties was not exactly advanced in many areas.

This is not about being cocky. The simple fact is - the development of tape electronics stopped 40-50 years ago. We can only guess what it would look like now, had it continued. The real areas of advancement and state of the art since then has been the instrumentation.

 

[Foxbat]

Foxbat, as a designer would it be possible to design a tape CCIR pre with enough gain as a pue passive transformerbased LCR design?.
LCR RIAA s are mostly connected på aktive gain stage in front and aktive buffer stage after
Asking just as a principle...
Best
Leif all good hip getting restless

I don't think so, as you need some power from the source for a transformer to work well.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

I don't think so, as you need some power from the source for a transformer to work well.

Understand
But the eq itself should be doable as LCR. Isn't your modded Phone like that. RIAA to CCIR ?

 

[Foxbat]

EQ is not a problem, and all you need is the RC network, and yes, many people feel passive is the way to go. There's hardly any Black Magic to a preamp design, it is just different people have their preferences, much like many recipes exist for the same apple pie. I love the one my wife used to make.

One fairly major road fork is to whether use any global feedback, as used to be common in the 60-s and 70-s, or do it without, which is more complicated, but in my view leads to better sound. Another one - if you are doing a tube design - whether to use some pentodes or to stay with triodes only.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Menno had a very interesting lecture on global and trans feedback at ETF in Belleme, Normandie a few weeks ago

 

[dcc]

Yez my tape says its a stellavox recording
And its a mtsl recording.
One of the worst recordings i have i m sorry to say so

As he modifies tapemachines i can only assume it was modified to his standards.

Well your assumption is wrong.

Kostas Metaxas is not Todor Dimitrov who is behind the MTSL mods. Todor is just the distributor of Kostas’ tapes.

I guess you never handled MTSL cards. I actually have them and they are way better than the stock ones though my technician has come with an even better solution hence I don’t use the MTSL cards that often.

 

[Foxbat]

Menno had a very interesting lecture on global and trans feedback at ETF in Belleme, Normandie a few weeks ago

Menno is a known quantity and a very smart guy - I have been using his toroidal output transformers from the day one. And reading one of his recent articles, I find a lot of agreement, that has been also my position for decades:

"Through the years, many tube amplifier designs were born in my labs. It appeared to be a long and never-ending search for the real sound. In my youth, I started with standard designs, such as 2xEL84-PP with a switch to select none or strong global feedback. Now, after many years, I present an approach where local feedback is dominant. The scientific opinion is that global and local feedback theoretically are the same. My tube amplifier practice shows that this is certainly not the case.

There is for instance a major difference if the output transformer is inside or outside the feedback loop. To briefly summarize my observations on tube amps: Global kills details while local keeps those alive. Therefore, my present design strategy is: per amplifier section, first cure its “faults” by means of local feedback. This article shows how to do that. One extra remark: No feedback at all keeps details alive, however, it can sound uncontrolled. Local feedback keeps all the details alive and sounds clean and controlled."