THE Newport Show 1/2" & 1/4" Tape at Pelican Hill (ground floor)

Our thanks to our friends who graciously provided the loan of some stunning tapes for this show.

We blew two tweeters last night setting up / playing Muddy Water's "My Home Is On The Delta" - I have the SACD, Classic & Mobile Fidelity LPs, the tape blows them all away - utterly incredible. The dynamics are off the charts.

Groove Note lent us a 1/4" tape of the new Vanessa Fernandez album "When The Leveee Breaks" - we're playing the acoustic version of the title track. Absolutely stunning.

Have not played Yello's "One Second" yet; I know it will be stunning.

I will be playing tape only from 12 -1:00 and 5-6:00PM every day.

BTW, we are also playing Quad DSD multi-channel with a prototype of the new Roon software.

Swing on by if you are free....

Philip

The tapes were a huge hit at the Show. I own MuddyWaters' The Folk Singer on DVD-A, SACD, Classic & MofFi LP; they all sounded broken compared to the 1/2" 30IPS tape. Unbelievable dynamics. It sounded so natural, an absolute delight.

Ella Fitzgerald singing "Black Coffee" was simply delicious, her voice had so much texture, tonal color. Guys came back to show me that they bought the LP. Dusty Springfield singing The Look Of Love, sounded nothing like what I have heard on LP or SACD - again, simply gorgeous & so, so natural.

Yello & Shirley Bassey The Rhythm Divine was superb, Ms Bassey's singing was terrific. Though the recording did not have the visceral snap of the star of the Show:

(drum roll please) Vanessa Fernandez When The Levee Breaks - acoustic version of the title track. The bass plumbed stygian depths, its an even better cover version than Kashmir.

Michael Ross the recording engineer came in to the room with Ying Tan from Groove Note and they were both v complementary about the SQ. I tried to buy the album on tape but Groove Note won't have them for sale on 1/4" or 1/2" until the end of the year. BTW, Groove Note are making four copies of the album on 1/2", two of which are still available as of yesterday for sale.

I returned all the borrowed tapes reluctantly last night, (deep sigh). Its a golden era for tape aficionados.

Anyone hear other interesting tapes during the Show ?