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RMAF 2016: United Home Audio (tape), Classic Audio, Purist Audio, Atma-sphere Music, Tri-planar

amirm

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amirm

amirm

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This was a special "tape" session in the above suite to listen to tapes. It started at 8:30pm and I dragged my tired feet to it due to my interest in Reel to Reel tapes. UHA had announced a new outboard power supply (the white box in the rack), leaving the deck with just motors and heads. The retail cost is $20,000 for the package.

UHA refurbishes Tascam tape decks and sells them starting at $6,000.

The evening was informative in the context of speaking to Greg about his work. The audio performance however, was disappointing as you see below.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Next was a sampler that Greg had created. Looked forward to the variety of music from above. Some tracks were demo/practice runs that never made it commercially.

On The Soles Of Her Shoes by Paul Simon. http://shz.am/t236973


Fun track.
 
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amirm

amirm

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Some Other Time by The Alan Parsons Project. http://shz.am/t386243

Very nice track but super loud pop/click between tracks. Asked Greg why he said the playback machine did not have mute??? No tape deck I know generates such pops. He said earlier that he had removed capacitor coupling of the head pre-amplifier by using some modules that D'Agostino uses his amps. Sure sounded like DC going into speakers making me feel sorry for them!
 
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amirm

amirm

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Burning Down The House by Talking Heads. http://shz.am/t279062

I was pretty disappointed by now. Nothing I heard sounded exceptional. Went to look at the deck and was quite surprised to see very low playback levels. The meters would barely come to mid-level. Most everyone, including the tapes I have, take advantage of high saturation point of latest tapes to record at much "hotter" levels. Greg said that he liked recording at low level and then turning them up at playback! Really? For analog systems, you want to record as high as you can above their relatively high noise level, not the other way around.

I heard no magic in the new outboard box. My Otari tape deck on my system runs circles around anything I heard in that suite. Was not a fan of the speakers either. Dragged my tired feet back to the hotel at 10:30pm. Lousy ending to an otherwise good day.
 

c1ferrari

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Burning Down The House by Talking Heads. http://shz.am/t279062

I was pretty disappointed by now. Nothing I heard sounded exceptional. Went to look at the deck and was quite surprised to see very low playback levels. The meters would barely come to mid-level. Most everyone, including the tapes I have, take advantage of high saturation point of latest tapes to record at much "hotter" levels. Greg said that he liked recording at low level and then turning them up at playback! Really? For analog systems, you want to record as high as you can above their relatively high noise level, not the other way around.

I heard no magic in the new outboard box. My Otari tape deck on my system runs circles around anything I heard in that suite. Was not a fan of the speakers either. Dragged my tired feet back to the hotel at 10:30pm. Lousy ending to an otherwise good day.

Hi Amir,

Hmm...interesting. I'm surprised the meters were operating at all given outboard electronics.
What do you think?

Sam
 
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amirm

amirm

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Hi Sam. I think I might be confused. :) I definitely saw the meters dancing. He did talk about direct coupling in his headphone amplifier. Maybe that is internal to the unit???

His web site is a disaster so I can't get the answer there either.
 

Sal1950

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Not exactly Hi End but I still miss my Pioneer 707 R-R, tape decks always looked so cool running in a system.
Just peaked around for a photo and ebay came up. WOW, can't believe what these 30 yo decks are bringing now.
About twice what I got for mine when I sold it back in the mid 90s..
Can still hear the loud clack when the tape ran out, and the slap, slap, slat till the reel stopped..
The smell of the tape when you open the box.
Aye the ole days. :)
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Sal1950

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That pioneer was one of my favorites. Still is but I don't think it plays 15 is speed. I think John has one?
Correct, 3 3/4 and 7 1/2 only. Not too bad a handicap on a 7" reel recorder but a few years later I considered upgrading to the new 10" RT 909 but backed out. Why they didn't have 15ips on the big reel piece was a deal breaker for me.
 

DonH56

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I have an RT-707, tried to sell it a few years ago but buyer decided he didn't want it. It was a back-up for a while and I used it to haul around when I didnt want to deal with the big Studer. And yah, only goes to 7" and 7.5 ips... Still a very good sounding unit and all the main adjustments were easy to find.
 

JS Hoover

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I find it odd, to say the least(?), how: Greg's outfit doesn't seem to have any customer reviews anywhere...nor, no employee documentation of where/who is fabricating these modified units.
 
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