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Visit to Tape Aficionado and Audiophile: John Brooks

amirm

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We are blessed in the pacific northwest (US) with a very friendly audiophile group and society. The format of the regular meetings is usually inviting someone from the industry to give a talk/play music. Such was the case with a company that specializes in Technics Reel-to-Reel refurbishing. Alas that demo did not in my opinion go off very well due to poor choice of material and recording ("hot" captures of CD on old CD player).

Something nice did come out of it which was meeting fellow audiophile and tape lover, John Brooks. As with me, John has Otari tape deck(s) but similarity ends there in that he has much deeper investment in the format as you will read shortly.

For now, just a bit of background on why I love tape so much. The interest dates back to early 1970s when I was probably 12 to 14 years old and had gotten the audiophile bug. Thought I was doing well with the (cheap) gear I had until I visited the home of a friend of mine and saw what his older brother had. It was there that I saw and heard the most amazing sound coming out of a Sony 777 reel-to-reel deck. I still remember what it cost then: $1,000. I pestered my dad to buy me for months but it was not going to happen. Fast forward decades later and I had to have one and courtesy of Ki Choi -- tape God -- and I acquired an Otari B5050. I then bought a few tapes and some kind souls gave me a couple and that has been my investment to date.

Well, John is in another league altogether. He was kind enough to invite me to his house and put up with me driving into his neighbour's house like a fool sitting there for 5 minutes for him to arrive! :D What went on was an incredible "tape night" that lasted two to three hours.

Here is John's system:

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And with him in it (my apologies for only have a shot of him from back side :) ):

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As you see John doesn't have one Otari deck but two! They each beautifully flank the sides of his equipment rack. The decks are the Otari MTR-15 which is a "mastering deck" with oodles of more features than mine.

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The main amplification is VAC:

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As it almost always happens with Murphy and demos, when John tried to power up the amp it would not. He swore it was working prior to me coming but here we were dead in the water. John being a DIY electronic person pulled out a trusty analog meter out and we set out to check the fuses in the outboard power supply. He was doing the pulling and re-insertion of multiple fuses and I was doing the test. We tested a couple of good fuses and then got to one that was reading OK but just when I was putting it away it seemed to act open. I almost did not catch it but thought I should re-test and wouldn't you know it: the fuse looked perfectly OK but if you pressed on the ends, it would alternate between making a connection and not!

These were aftermarket audiophile fuses and fortunately John had a spare. We put that in and stars aligned and the amp powered up.

Turns out John is a masterful "tape jockey." He would play something for me and while I was listening he would cue up the next tape on the other deck and advance it to the specific track. So I was hearing music non-stop and none of the long gaps of waiting for tape to rewind and such. John did this all night, impressing me to no end with his hard work and hospitality.

John is also far more organized than me with set of notes for all of this tapes on what is in them and what to play. He keeps them in this folder that you see above his rack of tapes:

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John's approach to collecting tapes (and decks) has been to search the classifieds high and low to find and mine these tapes. He told me story after story of how he found these, often having to buy or sift through a ton of tapes to find the right ones.

Every tape sounded wonderful, accompanied with a great story from John on who the artist was and how he had come about finding the tape. His system was true to source in that every tape sounded different as it should. The system did not impose its constant signature on everything you play as some systems do.

I was too involved in listening to take any notes. Sorry about that :). But did take pictures of what was being played here and there:

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I could not be more thankful of John's hospitality and wonderful joy he provided in playing all of these tapes for me and the conversation during the same. If there is someone in the pacific northwest that has interest in tape, I highly recommend meeting John and and hopefully get the same invite I got to hear and experience the same.
 

Thomas savage

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Though generationly I missed out on tape as a medium for music iv always love the aspect of ' getting to see the workings' and open mechanisms. There is something reassuring about it, something essentially human in a relatable way unlike the technology of today that's always hidden and shows no sign of process or procedure.

Taking time , looking after things and just being involved in the way you must be when using tape machines are qualities long lost in many ways and certainly that's to our detriment.

So it's wonderful to see such a celebration of those things in johns home , a labour of love and the dedication and respect that's clearly evident.

Thanks for posting it:)

A side note, audiophile fuses in my experience are always more vunrable than standard off the shelf jobs so require a higher amp rating than your equipment specifies..
 

Sal1950

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A side note, audiophile fuses in my experience are always more vunrable than standard off the shelf jobs so require a higher amp rating than your equipment specifies..
Isn't that true about many of the audiophile things. We've had this discussion lots of time here. No matter their SQ value, the fact of low volume, minimally QC and all that, results in expensive products that have iffy reliability.
 

Sal1950

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Here's a tape temple. ;)
R&T.jpg
 

watchnerd

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Were the tapes with hand-written notes master tapes?

They sure looked like the old master tapes I've seen...
 
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amirm

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Isn't that true about many of the audiophile things. We've had this discussion lots of time here. No matter their SQ value, the fact of low volume, minimally QC and all that, results in expensive products that have iffy reliability.
Yeh, pretty disappointing to see intermittent connection in a fuse that is sold at high premium. In decades of testing and replacing fuses I had never seen one act this way.
 

watchnerd

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I think so.

Yeah, looking more closely that last photo has the word "Master" handwritten and then the typewriter-made label says "Property of First American Records".

They were a Seattle-based label.

Would love to know the backstory behind how he got them.
 

Sal1950

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Yeh, pretty disappointing to see intermittent connection in a fuse that is sold at high premium. In decades of testing and replacing fuses I had never seen one act this way.
Weird that it could survive more than once or twice switching the power like that. :eek:
 

watchnerd

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I just read some of the labels ..,
I would of loved this
View attachment 5437

Imo no one played better together than Muligan and Webster

I thought the same thing.

@amirm do you know if he has digitized these tapes? He seems to be sitting on some extremely rare treasures. It would be a shame if that heritage was lost in a fire or something.
 

Blumlein 88

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The place I purchased my Studer Revox was an estate sale. I walked into a back room, and though small 3 walls were shelves of reel tape floor to 11 foot ceiling. At the time, you literally almost couldn't give it away. The B77 Revox had been gone thru and reconditioned just before the owner's passing. I purchased the Revox, all the tapes (literally half filled up an in-law's pickup truck) and a couple German mikes for $200. I think if I had waited and driven a harder bargain I could have it for moving it all out. Many of the tapes were FM broadcasts of classical music. Some were various rock bands apparently during practice sessions in the nearest large city venue. I assume recorded with those mikes. Three Dog Night, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Black Oak Arkansas, Sly and the Family Stone,and dozens of others. Not sure how the guy got permission to do that. There were sometimes meager notes, often nothing. Some were recordings of classical musicians with the nearest symphony apparently also in practice sessions. I never listened to more than maybe 10% of them.

Oddly, this experience caused me to pare down my gear and my recordings. Had I listened to all these tapes, say 3 per day, it would have taken more than a decade. Instead I listened to the 1 in 10 over about 15 years. Kind of sad thinking of the original owner, and kind of good. I think he might have been pleased they went to someone who could appreciate at least a little of what he did. Had I not happened along I can see the estate liquidation people sending it to the dump. Also sad, I know he pursued this to capture these recordings, and likely listened to few if any of them again. He couldn't for there were too many. Maybe he listened once or maybe never listened to many after he recorded them.

In time, I sold the machine, and sold the tapes most unlistened to by me. There was by then an uptake in collectors who just wanted the bulk tape and this fellow had used the most premium tapes available. I recouped my investment several times over.

Now I love mechanical gear (hey I have an ME's background) and quality. Just having such machines is a pleasure to someone like me. Yet, too much reverence to me at least can become a trap. So in terms of my musical interest I decided I didn't use the gear enough and it should pass to someone who might use it more. Since then I try not to become a nostalgic audiophile. I admire those who do with some reverence, and gusto and custodian of history attitude. I just decided it wasn't best for me.

Heck guys, digital is so good, so cheap and so easy it is like miracles and magic.
 

Sal1950

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So in terms of my musical interest I decided I didn't use the gear enough and it should pass to someone who might use it more. Since then I try not to become a nostalgic audiophile. I admire those who do with some reverence, and gusto and custodian of history attitude.
Same here. Still wish I had the physical room to build a second "nostalgia" Something along the lines of the Dyna ST70 I sold (only this one tweaked with updated caps and like). Maybe driving a old pair of Klipsch Heresys and even a AR-XB table. Just a dream. no room unless I buy a new house and that ain't happening, I'm here for the duration. LOL
 

Sal1950

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My turntable is my nostalgia system:

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That is a super sweet TT! But nostalgia should be more like this. ;)
I badly lusted after one back in the day, must be the wood.
Modern TT don't have an exclusive on massive platters.
Owner got it for $30 at a yard sale in 2008, mint condition as seen.
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