Vinyl Vs CD!

Swwetnighter; The Reel- Reel is a huge machine using reel tape (like the casette tapes) just fit onto a reel around 20 centimeters in diameter. AKAI and TEAK was the most popular and yes I do own an AKAI 4000. I used to record up to 6 hours on the reel to reel, but now it just looks good on the shelf.

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Lunar

Hi Sweetnighter

If your considering reel-reel machine..i'd advise you to go for a machine with 10.5" reels & a speed of 7.5 & 15ips(Inch per second).Some cheaper machines use 3 3/4" per second but the slower the speed the more poor the playback/record.i'd use 7.5ips as a minimum,but remember the faster the speed the quicker the tapes gonna get used up.The slow speed is the reason most cassette machines fell face down as they use a speed of 1 7/8" per sec,with exception to Nakamichi who as everyone knows mastered the art & the machines in general,head tilt & all that, but saying that having to turn a tape over on a cassetee machine every say 30 mins or 45 min becomes a pain,but as always there was an exception like Nakamichi that actually spun the tape over for youi with there '202'/'505' machines...There's a preference too with 1/2" tape over 1/4" tape also but theres cost to consider with that..Most big multitrackers use 1" + tape  but these are impracticle in a houshold enviroment as well as financially.

Reel to reels are great for recording concept albums such as 'Close to the edge' Just imagine listerning to the full album straight trough without a break,just like listerning to a CD but without the ear polution.

Please bear in mind if considering a second hand machines.there was a lot of bad models,heads may be worn by now as well as drive belts.Akai at the time produced models with the 'GX' prefix these were glass ferrite heads which were virtually indestructable.Please note also that the tapes these days are expensive.

I use Studer/Revox 'PR99,Mk3' machine which was semi-pro at the time,very reliable & sound fab.The most famous Revox machine for general use were the 'A77' & later 'B77' these were workhorses to speak & probablty the dogs b****x at the time but in my view the bigger Teac machines did sound better.

Tape to buy has to be the Ampex now called Quantegy..others to consider are the top Agfa brands.

Bye

For me it's a tough call..

The system is:

Marantz CD63SE Cd player (granted, a bit long in the tooth but a nice, comfortable and warm player - though I'm eyeing a pristine second-hand Copland)

Linn LP12, with a standard Basik arm newly fitted with a Sumiko Blue Point MC cartridge into a

Musical Fidelity XLPS pre-amp

and then

Myryad MP100 pre-amp

Myryad MA240 power amp into

some fairly tired old TDL RTL3 speakers (soon to be replaced with some System Audio 1230s) and fairly ordinary cabling

The comparison tests are interesting.

I was for example listening to David Sylvian's 'When Poets Dreamed of Angels' from 'Secrets of the Beehive' last night first on vinyl and then on CD

the vinyl was immediately warmer, felt more complete and ultimately much more involving than the spacier, slightly more brittle CD version, the spanish guitars sounded rounder, more natural.

having said that I then listened to Supertramp's 'School' from 'Crime of the Century' and the difference was much more diffcult to pinpoint. Both sounded full, well articulated and there was plenty of air and depth in the mix - instruments seemed to be placed similarly and there was a similar degree of involvement in the experience.

I take the point about digital fatigue and definitely feel that this is not a red herring. Listening to vinyl is a more comfortable, comforting experience.

However, against that -

a bottom of the line Linn LP12 with a Blue Point or similar (a Linn Adikt MM retails at about €350) and a 'cheap' pre-amp like the Musical Fidelity will set you back in the region of €2000 regardless of the main amplification you then go through.

Any half decent modern CD player will give you 98% per cent of that listening experience for under €500 and while the performance may lack something of the warmth you are getting a lot more headroom in the frequency range, abit more detail (though it may be sometimes harsh) and none of the deterioration in signal you get from records as they wear.

It's a no-brainer. If you have mountains of cash to spend on Clearaudio References, fully tooled up Linns or top-of-the-line Michells then fine, go right ahead and blow it all on six grand cartridges and so forth but for most people reasonably priced CD players offer the bulk of the performance plus a few extras for a fraction of the price and without the pops, scratches and fizz of old vinyl.

Me I'll go with both - cause I'm a sad loser who has too much vinyl to replace and I love my old Linn to death. Next on the list (a Lingo power supply and a better arm!)

Upgrade-itis strikes