Believe it or not, my vinyl can sound better than tape in areas of vocal, tonal density, shading, and sense of existance. This is because of grounding.
Tang
Dear Tang,
+1......but maybe not 'only' grounding.
I have written before about one of what my wife calls my 'drug dealers' who is a 'tape seller'. he specializes in grey market classical tapes and sells them around to tape lovers. he acquires large collections, and he has visited me quite a few times to learn about the quality of his acquisitions, especially pop and rock which he does not know, but also classical. he wants to know how they might compare directly to my vinyl so he knows how 'dear' they might, in fact, be. so we might compare a dozen or even 20 tapes in a session to my vinyl versions. these are 15ips, 1/4" tapes mostly, a few 1/2".
and in these sessions, about 2/3rds of the time my vinyl is better (than the tapes he brings) for various reasons; commonly there is simply more texture and life in the vinyl. in my system there is no place to hide.
and when I purchase tapes, this is exactly what I do first. is it better than my vinyl? and there is no doubt that grounding matters, but also the Herzan and my continual attention to pushing the vinyl to higher levels. the tape has been static (at a very high level with a 'perfect' A-820 and King Cello) since 2008 (which does provide a useful reference point). the only tweak I've added to the RTR decks is the new Furutech NCF plugs and outlets to the power grid for both A-820's and the King Cello which was quite profound......2 years ago.
it's always a question.
i'd say 10% of my own (out of my 150 + titles) tapes are not as good as my vinyl version, and another 10% are only equivalent. but 80% are better, and sometimes much better. we will see how that changes with the arrival of the American Sounds tt.
This is a very strong and deep statement that can affect our relation with this hobby. Why can't tape be "grounded"?
tape certainly can be grounded. there is no reason it would not have a like effect to other sources. i have not done it, but at some point I will.
it's not commonly grounded likely due to the size of RTR decks, their location in systems, the frequency of listening to tape with much less media to choose from lowers it's tweak priority in the budget. and it's so amazing 'nude' we just don't feel compelled to mess with it.
and my focus is always more toward whole system performance than sources. so focusing on the room, speakers, amps and preamp to my view takes the whole to the highest level. it's much harder and not as cool as playing with sources, but it delivers the music. so the grounding of these parts (like the tide) raises all ships.
I know replacing the wheeled rack below my Studer A-820's with a solid, spiked, base would boost performance, but I have not got around to doing that either. I will do that too at some point.
