Are any of the local audiophiles visiting you
Ron’s New System
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Are any of the local audiophiles visiting you
I am playing tapes, o ye of little faith!
For the the record book, the first tape played was Soular Energy.
It sounds amazing!
It sounds amazing!
Sadly, that is not going to happen. I had to sell in 2020 the mint condition Mariah Carey machine.
Man oh man, this machine is a class act! Of course I’m allowed to push only about six out of 53 buttons.
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As one of Ron's local audiophile friends, "Send in the Clowns" sounds like an invitation to drop by.
Whatever Charlie did I think it was very good. There’s no valid comparison here but I really was expecting a slightly grainer, more electronic-y sound. There are an awful lot of solid-state circuits in the stock audio electronics of an A820. The sound is rich with good tone, it is very dynamic and, it is, I think, very organic.
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Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Now you just need to get a couple Carbon take up reels from RXReels... love mine!
Ron, I am looking forward to visiting in a couple weeks and hearing this temporary system. I will then visit Keith and Jeff as well. It should be fun.
I also have an old Denon direct drive turntable but have not compared it to the AS 2000. You will have that opportunity and I suspect it’ll be quite interesting.
I like the system video you sent of the new tape machine playing on your system. It’s great to see the system coming along.
I also have an old Denon direct drive turntable but have not compared it to the AS 2000. You will have that opportunity and I suspect it’ll be quite interesting.
I like the system video you sent of the new tape machine playing on your system. It’s great to see the system coming along.
I’ve played Night on Bald Mountain, Soular Energy, Mozart Jupiter Symphony 41, The Eagles and — I just couldn’t wait — Send in the Clowns at 30ips.
Send in the Clowns was transcendent. Yep, it was more transparent and more present and in-the-room alive than I have ever heard it before. The piano was the most realistic-sounding I have ever heard reproduced by this track.
It was right up there with my first religious experience of an audio nature — Symphonie Fantastique on Michael Kay’s Goldmund Reference/Jadis JA-200s/ IRS V System in 1987.
The delta between the tape and the Classic Records reissue is not huge. I think Bernie and Michael did a fantastic job on the reissue. But the tape is more alive, and achieves a greater suspension of disbelief. And, for the first time, the piano sounds somewhat weighty and realistic.
Waiting eight years to hear music in this room again; waiting five years to see this incredible tape machine again; waiting five years to play Send in the Clowns on tape — and to have it sound this amazing — was such a milestone for me that when it was over I burst into tears. Sound quality like I just experienced from this tape is what this hobby is all about.
And this is without the Pendragons.
I am declaring the tape project — limited strictly to the subset of special tapes I have from one source or another — a sonic success.
Send in the Clowns was transcendent. Yep, it was more transparent and more present and in-the-room alive than I have ever heard it before. The piano was the most realistic-sounding I have ever heard reproduced by this track.
It was right up there with my first religious experience of an audio nature — Symphonie Fantastique on Michael Kay’s Goldmund Reference/Jadis JA-200s/ IRS V System in 1987.
The delta between the tape and the Classic Records reissue is not huge. I think Bernie and Michael did a fantastic job on the reissue. But the tape is more alive, and achieves a greater suspension of disbelief. And, for the first time, the piano sounds somewhat weighty and realistic.
Waiting eight years to hear music in this room again; waiting five years to see this incredible tape machine again; waiting five years to play Send in the Clowns on tape — and to have it sound this amazing — was such a milestone for me that when it was over I burst into tears. Sound quality like I just experienced from this tape is what this hobby is all about.
And this is without the Pendragons.
I am declaring the tape project — limited strictly to the subset of special tapes I have from one source or another — a sonic success.
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Yes, Ron, after the solid state preamplifier shown bellow, you still have another three cheap and basic NE5532 double integrated circuits with 100% feedback each ... The A80 used only discrete transistors, not ICs. And yet they sound great. In fact, many of the great sounding LP's were mastered using a similar kind of electronics. Studios used standard electronics, not audiophile external tape amplifiers.
Admire your passion for open reel. A format I’ve never owned. Perhaps I should dip my toes in it. Although software is an issue. At least with vinyl, there’s tons of used records. Are used open reel tapes easily available?
A good question, but I would never buy used reel tapes, unless I knew the owner and his playing machine pretty well. If the heads or any parts in the tape path are magnetized the tape could have severe high frequency loss. A poor or poorly adjusted drive system can also ruin a tape.
Tapes are more fragile than LP's and hard to diagnose.
I take it there’s no equivalent of the Nakamichi Dragon cassette player that automatically aligns the heads to tapes made on other machines.
Yes, open reel tapes are easily available. I feel strongly that that is the wrong question. Just because it’s on tape doesn’t tell us anything whatsoever about the sound quality.
The right question is “are open reel tapes of great provenance and low generation easily available.” I think the answer to that is no.
I haven’t played any of Chad’s tapes yet; that is my next category to inaugurate. It will be very interesting to see (ah, hear) how they sound. Hopefully Chad’s tapes make great sound on tape easily available.
I sincerely believe once Ron gets his Pendragon's up running and VTL's firing away..., listening to MJ's Thriller, Ron will be doing the moonwalk in no time! Regardless of Triode or Tetrode mode ... you go Ron!
Woof!
RJ
Woof!
RJ