A friend of mine has a Studer 810 he wants to sell me cheap. I am kind of torn between the great transport and the not so great electronics. I don't think I'm hurting any feelings here,because most don't use the stock electronics anyway. I will probably never purchase a outboard tape preamp. What am I missing,should I buy it for the transport ?
A friend of mine has a Studer 810 he wants to sell me cheap. I am kind of torn between the great transport and the not so great electronics. I don't think I'm hurting any feelings here,because most don't use the stock electronics anyway. I will probably never purchase a outboard tape preamp. What am I missing,should I buy it for the transport ?
A friend of mine has a Studer 810 he wants to sell me cheap. I am kind of torn between the great transport and the not so great electronics. I don't think I'm hurting any feelings here,because most don't use the stock electronics anyway. I will probably never purchase a outboard tape preamp. What am I missing,should I buy it for the transport ?
If your friend wants to sell it cheap your brain should say YES if the machine is in real good condition. Remember you can get an excellent tube tape preamplifier for as low as usd 800. http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php/products/eros-tape-head-preamplifier-kit I think that for a little extra you can get it assembled and ready to play.
Roger
Depend how much $ for that, the mechanism is better than Ampex, you can set a selector switch and connector from head to fit your Ampex 351 tube preamp to see has enough gain, if not, add a input transformer for adjust, you will be surprised for compare both side by side
tony ma
Roger
Depend how much $ for that, the mechanism is better than Ampex, you can set a selector switch and connector from head to fit your Ampex 351 tube preamp to see has enough gain, if not, add a input transformer for adjust, you will be surprised for compare both side by side
tony ma
Thanks for all the input guys. Hi tony,your answer I like best,mating a A810 to a tube ampex would certainly be cool. I do like the Studer transport very much.
The Studer is a great transport, like the equivalent of a great "turntable" for LP. Then you just need a great tape amp, like a great phono stage to bring it all to life!
There's so much low level information on these tapes, a sensitive tape head amp will retrieve much more magic.....you will be surprised.
It's hard to describe, one just has to hear the comparison. My Studer tech Roger brought his totally refurbed relapped Studer A810 to my place for a comparison with Tony's WE437a based tape amp.....Roger was shocked at the differences. That is nothing against the Studer, it cannot hope to compete with an all out outboard unit, the size of an power amp!
I'm not saying it's not better. What I am saying is to get a "significant" difference, you'll need to spend at least $5k on an outboard pre. The less expensive units won't cut it.
I'm not sure on that....Tony's "simple" mod on his A810 sounded pretty good. Tony, maybe you can talk a bit about it. It's like all things audio.....for the absolute best, it's crazy. I'm sure for under 5K it could sound pretty good..
I think Tony is working on something, but I'll let him respond..
I've had 3 customers who have just received the deHavilland tape amp & are quite happy with it...I think it's around $2.3K It's tube based, looks like good value.
I've heard most of the tube version tape head preamps and most were noisy in my system until I heard Nick's unit and my search stopped there. IMO it is very difficult to best the sound quality and build of this unit
I've heard most of the tube version tape head preamps and most were noisy in my system until I heard Nick's unit and my search stopped there. IMO it is very difficult to best the sound quality and build of this unit
I talk about the "noise" all the time..'I hear the noise, not by hearing it's presence, but only when it is removed."'-
This to me is the essence of high level reproduction. The only true way to get a full grip on how it effects sonic performance especially on tape is to compare and hear. I listened to my latest gen 440 playback card last night and the naturalness and clarity was just stunning. I'm going to pass on the Studer....right now even though deals are deals...I get so much satisfaction learning,listening and doing what I love and I don't need another project right now I have plenty as everyone knows.
But this thread is turning quite interesting. I think we are pushing the "tape" envelope on sound here. Not many feel the need,but the Nick Doshi's,Tony Ma's and Fred Thal's are what this hobby needs.
Me again, I think I know a bit of sound quality of pasts in a amp, different quality will be for different price, if you can build your own then you can pick the right one from the beginning or modify some parts of the commercial one but first to think of the total system's value, how to pay less and get big return? in Roger's case, he already got a Ampex 351 tube tape preamp that he can play between Ampex and Studer's transport with same amp, or Studer's stock (transistor) and tube out side amp, he will has a lot of fun and do not pay much, my first R2R modification is a PR99 (posted) only change coupling caps and a direct output has a big improvement and a tube with cap output unit for A810 got a big surprise too cost only less than $500. DeHavilland quite price mach to A810 although it's quality not the best yet but can later to change some of the caps or better tubes to have better sound , if you can't do that by yourself you can ask some tech to do for you, anyway you have to make the connection from the head if you can't do that too, in my experience most outboard amp can sound better than stock because of bypassed all the stock switches and volume controls that made for recording and editing
tony ma
I think Tony is working on something, but I'll let him respond..
I've had 3 customers who have just received the deHavilland tape amp & are quite happy with it...I think it's around $2.3K It's tube based, looks like good value.
my tube unit also pick up radio signal at night time because in my area there are a very strong radio signal from US at night time only nothing in day time, I am not too care with RFI which means the sensitive of the gear and can give you more detail and emotion. it will not border when the music on
tony ma
my tube unit also pick up radio signal at night time because in my area there are a very strong radio signal from US at night time only nothing in day time, I am not too care with RFI which means the sensitive of the gear and can give you more detail and emotion. it will not border when the music on
tony ma
Remember you can get an excellent tube tape preamplifier for as low as usd 800. http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php/products/eros-tape-head-preamplifier-kit I think that for a little extra you can get it assembled and ready to play.
