I am probably an idiot. Bought another reel to reel when I hate them!

rob aylestone

rob aylestone

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My record with reel to reels is bad. My tascam 34 is in bits as it went bang and smoked, and the A77 just still sounds ‘weak’. The old 36 is not bad, and the B77 is a slow speed one. None get used because my zooms and interfaces sound better. So why have i just ordered a PR99 that is vague in description? Ebay seller had one that has a working transport in a video and in lovely condition, but i suspect has no audio. The seller claims to be unable to test, but his user name is suggestive of an audio guy? So i didn't buy at the already cheap price, but then got an offer of an extra 100 off, so i bought it.

So lets have a bit of fun with my totally crazy purchase. Still a lot of money, but cheap compared to a perfect one!
 
One dead channel, but that's no problem. I hear that listening in mono is the latest thing, so you only need one channel after all.
 
Well - it has arrived and ...........................
 

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Tape counter doesn't work.
Right hand spool a bit noisy.
Everything else is perfect and pressing the source/tape switch produces hardly any change at all in sound. Unlike any of the others I have. I am very pleased!
 
That's good to hear that the source/tape is very similar. For me, it's the proper way to evaluate performance.

I've seen lots of the "digital vs tape" comparisons, and it's always an after the fact comparison. Record something on 2 or 3 different systems and then go back and pick which one you like. I don't know that I've ever seen a comparison done where they are each compared to the original source coming out of the board.

I always heard some difference between the tape monitor and the direct feed. Some might say that tape is making it sound better, but that's like saying hitting the Loudness button on our old receivers made it sound better. It's changing the source. A little bass boost and a touch of top end roll off makes it sound fuller and smoother. As I understand things, that's exactly what EQ does, isn't it?

The times I've compared the sound from the digital recordings comparing direct monitoring and looped back have all sounded the same, which I always thought was the goal.
 
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