I wasn't trying to "plug" our NextGen A80R/C repro cards in this forum; I will gladly leave that to user comments from our customers.
My interest is strictly as audiophile and engineer (I have 10 US Patents in Wireless and Ultra-Wideband Data Acquisition), and advancing the State of the Art in analog tape electronics:
I like to see the measurement data behind various audiophile sonic performance claims - and this applies equally whether the measurement data does or does not appear to support certain sonic claims - for every audiophile's benefit; how else can we learn from, validate, and assess what the measurements can tell us - and what they cannot tell us - about actual sonic performance: which measurements and measurement results are really important to excellent sonic performance, which less so, and which measurements/measurement results appear either weakly related, or unrelated to performance (i.e. neither causitive or correlation).
And finally, it might provide some insight on what other equipment- or human auditory- measurements might further illuminate what is being heard.
Mike: from what I understand, you have a highly-regarded reputation as an audiophile with much experience, excellent equipment, and listening room setup - so I expect your comments regarding sound need be taken seriously. All the more reason to have the measurements along with the comments.
If the AK hot-rodded ATR-102/MR70 is as good as you suggest sonically, a comparison set of measurements to those we have published (record/repro Impulse response, group delay characteristics with frequency, magnitude frequency response, THD versus fluxivity, and coherence function at a minimum) should be informative if not enlightening, and might well benefit audiophiles today and in the future with further improvements in top-end electronics and possibly transducers including loudspeakers.
Our NextGen outboard standalone tape (Record, Repro, and Bias/Erase Oscillator) electronics will be ready soon, so perhaps we will have the opportunity by this summer to try some side-by-side comparisons, either with the Ampex or another transport. I look forward to the opportunity.
Jeff