Peter Kaufman – March 19, 2013 at 1:37 pm
As an addendum to my earlier writing, I failed to mention that all my remarks referred to UltraAnalogue tapes employing the 396 nW/m record level rather than the older and dynamically inferior – by some 4 dB – standard of 250 nW/m. This increase in recording level engenders several audible advantages, among which are a lowered noise floor, revealing more of music’s subtle harmonics and timbre, and a greater sense of “hearing into” the performance venue. It cannot be emphasized enough to point out this is a highly significant improvement, roughly akin to the added benefits of, say, going from 33 rpm to 45 rpm in an LP format, all things being equal. However, there really being no “free lunch,” a caveat is in order. If you’re using a truly professional deck (e.g., Studer, Nagra, Telefunken, et al.), you’re home free. On the other hand, if you have one of the “prosumer” recorders out there (e.g., Technics 1500, ReVox A77 or A700, et al.), be forewarned: their electronic stages are of older generation, early ’70′s solid state and will often overload and hideously distort during some of the hotter portions of 396 tapes and even some 250′s. The answer? Short of obtaining a full-blown professional deck, you can acquire an outboard tape preamp (repro), after having the deck’s tape head output hard-wired. As an example, I recently purchased a completely rebuilt and modified Technics 1506 retrofitted with a Flux Magnetics output head from J-Corder, then purchased Bottlehead’s top-of-the-line repro, and voilà : performance closely rivaling some of those vaunted professional decks! In closing, it should be mentioned that the Bottlehead unit is factory set at the 396 nW/m level and has handled everything thrown at it with utmost aplomb!