How accurate was that medium? Did it require any kind of re-equailization process to record to that medium? Was it just the bulk and the difficulty working with that medium that put it away to rest. I remember reading Stereophile in that and other mags the late 70s early 80s that really thought of all the media at that time, it was state of the art.
That medium was and is very accurate. Here are the reel to reel recorders that I used professionally for many years, to produce LPs and above all do the outside broadcast work of concerts for the local public radio station.
Here is my 1974 Revox A 700 which was my workhorse.
http://mdcarter.smugmug.com/gallery/2424008#127077469
Here are two other recorders. The silver colored machine at the top is a bespoke Brenell 610 and is the very rare version with a parabolic head path. This was beloved by many BBC engineers. They are now very rare.
Here is a look at 3 Revox A 77s The one below the Brenell is an early Mk 1. It did a total restoration from a complete wreck purchased on eBay. It is a two track high speed, and identical to the machines used to make the early Beatles's albums at Abbey Road. The machine on the right above the turntable case is a Mk 4, and is a four track. It was bought on eBay, basically in very good condition with little use, however it was not working due to two serious faults. The machine on the left above the the turntable case is a Mk 2 two track high speed. It is another complete restoration from a wreck bought on eBay.
http://mdcarter.smugmug.com/gallery/2424008#127077366
In terms of quality, are they any good? The half tracks running at 15 ips especially with professional noise reduction, exceed CD spec. and are comparable to SACD.
So what are the problems.
First cost. A 10 1/2 inch reel of master tape loaded on a two track machine running at 15 ips gives you 30 minutes of program. The cost is about $1 a minute. Tapes for these machines are no longer in production. Although ATR say they will add tapes for machines like this to their line.
To get the results I speak of you have to record your own tapes, like I did, or buy expensive and scarce real time copies. Commercial high speed copies considerably reduce fidelity due to HF tape saturation issues.
Now in terms of stereo tapes, the earliest in the early 50s were staggered head two tracks. There was a time delay between left and right tracks because of the head spacing. The trouble was there was no agreed head spacing standard! So you had to play tapes on a certain machine, that had the right head spacing. I have a few of these tapes in my collection and can resynchronize the tracks in WaveLab. By the late fifties the stacked stereo heads were around. Harry Belock under the Everest label produced some outstanding stereo two tacks. These were real time copies. I have a few of these in my collection. The fidelity is unbelievable, even by current standards. In terms of fidelity these early two tracks are about the best of the commercial reel to reel tapes.
In 1959 RCA invented the stacked four track head. This divided the tape so that tracks 1 and 3 were left and right side one and track 2 and 4 were left and right side two. The quality was never as good as the two tracks, but the playing time was doubled. The Dolby B four tracks however give the two tracks a run for their money. I own quite a few of these. Barclay Crocker even issued some with dbx II noise reduction, and I have few of these also. Recording speeds of these prerecorded tapes was usually 7.5 ips. There were some 3.75 ips, but these are poor quality.
In terms of quality the good half tracks are the equal of the LP. The four tracks without noise reduction are below good LP standard. The Dolby and dbx II tapes are comparable to the LP. I think they were all superior to prerecorded compact cassettes.
The other problem was that reel to reel machines require a lot of maintenance to keep them in optimal performance. This requires investment in laboratory alignment tapes, and significant test equipment.
As far as equalization, you did need a curve. It boosts the highs on record and the reverse on playback. This was to optimize signal to noise ratio. The curve was different for different speeds. In the US the curves were to NAB standard. In Europe CCIR and then IEEC DIN.
In the professional world reel to reel still lives on. Michael Spitz, founder and CEO of ATR services, does wonderful restoration and rebuilds of mainly Ampex machines, and some Studers, all with updated electronics. He sells to studios all over the world and has a large list of clients. His web site is fascinating, if you are curious. He is now manufacturing the finest magnetic tape that ever saw the light of day.
http://www.atrservice.com/
If any one needs any more of this info, that likely will not be of interest to many on these forums, just ask.
