Is United Home Audio the BEST tape deck there is? Other than $$$, why choose another tape deck?
- Thread starter caesar
- Start date
Yes, Leif. I would be delighted to discuss with you! (but not on a thread about UHA tape decks).
there s only one Leif, the Norwegian version that discovered America 400 years ahead of Colombus.....
Caesar, there certainly are various ways to skin a cat and that applies not just to R2R playback and recording, it applies to every aspect of audio equipment in 2017.
(Humm... can you say such things about cats these days, don't get me wrong I'm 100% for ethical treatment of animals and no cats were harmed as a result of this post, :b).
Every audio designer has a point of view and design objectives, since not many people know about the specifics employed in a UHA deck and you asked the question, I will cover just a few points on the UHA decks rather than let people speculate willy nilly.
When picking a tape deck to start a viable and sustainable business with, I had to be secure with real life reliability, otherwise how can you provide a product with warranty.
Besides who likes sitting down in the evening with a nice adult beverage all ready for a great listening session pressing play and something ain't working correctly?
First let me offer a pragmatic example regarding this particular Tascam deck that has all DC motors:
Ten years ago I bought 10 reel motors from Tascam, all 10 are still sitting on the shelf at this time, says something no?
My goal has always been to control every aspect of R2R playback, (and recording for that matter) without the unknowns of a 40 - 50 year old transport, heads and head amp.
During many years of trial and error the various parts were chosen, the tape heads, the shielded head wire, the design and configuration of the head amps, the power delivery, the internal wiring and even the output connectors were all chosen because of the symmetry they brought to the party. The goal was that everything worked together with the least amount of superfluous circuitry possible all run via a reliable modern transport free of costly complexities.
If one was going to play the New-Gen Master Tape Copies (15ips, with IEC eq) why have playback for 3.75, 7.5, and 30ips speeds, why have NAB & AES switches and circuitry everywhere.
Again design objectives... UHA decks were not designed to be the Swiss Army knife in a studio, just play back (or recording) of what the customer chooses in his custom designed deck.
Specifics:
Transport:
1.) The transport was chosen because of reliability and also because of the speed stable bulletproof DC motors.
2.) The transport has modern control, no eproms to loose, all computer servo logic.
3.) Servo tape tension control of the tape path providing great speed stability along with the DC motors.
Head Amps:
1.) The location provided to the head amps in the chassis is only 3 inches from the tape head providing the shortest wire possible. Shorter the wire = less issues.
2.) Head amps are all custom designed even in the Phase1 nothing stock whatsoever in the head amp.
3.) Fully discrete dial mono output featuring cost no object parts and custom designed gain and eq stages and no capacitors in the output, something unique to the UHA decks.
POWER:
The DC motors allowed the deck to run 100% on DC power, when one buys the optional Outboard Power Supply.
The OPS converts the AC from the wall to DC power via banks of DC conversion devices all set up independently that drive the motors, logic circuits, lights, VU meters and the head amps.
Custom designed voltage regulators were designed to work specifically with the new gain and eq stages, also there were power filtering caps fitted to each gain and eq stage.
The audio circuit is run by a separate toroidal power transformer and separate DC conversion devices, the motors, logic controls, lights, VU meters and all run on a completely different transformer for discrete separation of duties.
But a huge issue that cannot be discounted, it changes everything when you have zero AC power in the deck.
Anyway this should offer some facts to look over regarding the UHA decks and why they are the way they are. If you have further questions please feel free to call so I don't have to type, type, type.
Please note:
This info is not meant to take anything away from whatever deck you may own or like!
Rather, I feel that if you ain't listening to tape you aren't hearing the full potential of your system, whatever deck you choose you are a winner just because you have tape in your system!
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sonics will be most impacted by the choice of repro amp. UHA has their own custom design inboard, Doshie and King/Cello outboard. I have compared the King/Cello which is excellent with my UHA. I prefer the UHA.
I don’t understand why people keep comparing the UHA tape deck to a Studer A80/820 or ATR 102 it’s like comparing a car to a pickup truck, if you like tinkering, tweaking upgrading or fixing up your tape deck then a UHA is not the deck for you, the UHA is easy to use set up the way you want with a warranty, but if you tweak it or take it apart you would void your warranty, it’s not the deck for the DIY audiophile hobbyist, I have a stock Tascam BR-20 and I think it sound great just the way it is (some will disagree) and if it can be proved to me it would sound better with outboard preamps I would do it, but if you just want to play tapes from Tape project and others the UHA deck I think would be the one to get, Greg you should also mention the great digital counter readout that the Tascam BR-20 (UHA) has with track memory storage and auto play that tape decks like Technics and most other older deck don’t have. PS I would love to own a Studer or Ampex to tinker with.
Hi Caesar,
I haven't heard UHA decks/electronics in the same system and room with any Studer; however, I would submit the fundamental basis of any difference between an A-820 and other decks...including other Studers...is the transport.
isn´t this discussion rather pointless?
UHA buyers wouldn´t consider messing about with big Studers
and Studer owners wouldn´t for the sake of their life give up their love affair with theese mechanical beast/beauties
different priorities, different markets
best
Leif
UHA buyers wouldn´t consider messing about with big Studers
and Studer owners wouldn´t for the sake of their life give up their love affair with theese mechanical beast/beauties
different priorities, different markets
best
Leif
[QUOTE. . .
I haven't heard UHA decks/electronics in the same system and room with any Studer; . . . [/QUOTE]
Literally no one has heard both machines in the same system.
I haven't heard UHA decks/electronics in the same system and room with any Studer; . . . [/QUOTE]
Literally no one has heard both machines in the same system.
I watched Greg set up a United Home Audio Ultima 2 with outboard power supply at a client's home. The Ultima 2 uses DC to power the transport motors and features all discrete component circuitry for the audio electronics (no op-amps anywhere).
Playing Chad's tapes the sound was amazing -- better to my ears than LP.
Playing Chad's tapes the sound was amazing -- better to my ears than LP.
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