Is United Home Audio the BEST tape deck there is? Other than $$$, why choose another tape deck?

microstrip

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Geez! :eek: Are you serious? :confused:

Yes, it is around 120 lb and enormous - you do not have a comfortable position to pick it and put it in the hinges of the trolley. I did it once and my back suffered for a few days. Surely two people can do it easily.

My main problem is that currently I have three A80 decks (one for spares) and two wheeled trolleys ...
 

microstrip

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ok so you have the A80 with the hinged gimbal suspension...is it not enough that you can tilt it up and back?

Yes, but only one trolley has the hinged suspension... BTW, the crane is also used for high power amplifiers, particularly tubes - transformers are really heavy. I then use a wheeled service bench in my work area.
 

microstrip

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Most "new" parts can be directly ordered from the Audio Haus in Switzerland.

Yes, they are excellent but they are very expensive and as Switzerland is not in the European Union, we still have to pay very high taxes on them. I think we must separate audiophiles, who are essentially amateur sporadic users, from professionals who need another level of consistency and reliability. Including all expenses, a rebuilt A80 capstan motor will cost around 1000 euros.
 
Jan 18, 2012
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Drobak Norway
better learn to do it yourself then?
I´ve spent the past two years getting aqainted with the A80s......
reapping, changing bearings, adjusting breakes, tape tension etc....fun and fulfilling.....steep learning curve when fun....
best
Leif
 

Greg Beron / UHA

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Apr 5, 2012
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In my experience, every time I have heard the United Home Audio tape deck at a show, that room is a best of show contender. You can just sit back and enjoy the music for hours.

Anyone prefer other tape decks? How different do the others sound?

Other than money, why would anyone buy another tape deck?

caesar thanks for coming by my room at the shows buddy. Please make sure to introduce yourself next time!
Also, people have posted on various forums that they came to hear the UHA deck but couldn’t get in the room. If that happens ask for me at the door and I will do whatever I can to accommodate you!

There are many great options for tape decks in high end audio, here are just some of the things I do.

FIRST, everyone always quotes high prices on the UHA decks, please note they start at $6500 for the Phase1.
Here is a review of the Phase1 by Scot Hull The Part Time Audiophile, he also bought the deck. https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2016/10/05/mini-review-uha-phase-10-and-phase-1-reel-to-reel-tape/uha-3346/


The Tascam deck was used after realizing I could not afford to warranty a big studio deck, nor did my customers need or want so many functions and complexities to simply play back new-gen master tape copies at 15ips with IEC eq. Didn’t need the spaghetti wiring and circuitry for three eq’s and 4 speeds, just muddies the audio waters...
This subject was discussed many years ago by the guys at The Tape Project on their forum as well.


The Tascam deck uses all DC motors, speed stable, reliable and quiet, with servo controlled arms and full logic control with no batteries or EPROMS to loose.
When I first started this venture (10 years ago) I bought 10 new motors from Tascam, they are still sitting on the shelf here, that says something.
I wanted a reasonable sized (some would argue that 70 lbs isn't super portable), reliable machine, another important point was I can still buy parts direct from Tascam.

One bonus on the Tascam deck was there is ample space for the head amps and they are only 3” from the tape head, super short wiring, low noise.
I also use a specific tape head that is only made for UHA, it was chosen after listening to may different heads in addition the head amps were made specifically to compliment this one tape head only.

As far as the head amps:
UHA uses a 100% custom designed head amp, no stock anything!
Special board materials, hyper pure copper and dielectric have been chosen because of their mutual sonic benefits.
Wide board runs, silver solder points, special grounding runs, also an important feature used solely on the UHA decks is no capacitors in the output at all, like D'Agostino is doing.
The best capacitor is no capacitor.

Resistors of the highest quality are used with crazy tolerances, each gain stage has their own power filtering systems, 100% fully discrete components throughout, Synergistic Research wire, Next Gen RCA's and Furutech XLR's, and on and on....

Because the head amps are in the deck some may assume they are in some way inferior to the design of having an outboard head amp.
That would not be true, the benefit of having a 3" run of specially shielded wire from the tape head to the head amp is a significant upgrade in design.
The head amps in the deck are specially designed and every aspect of their construction has been analyzed over the last 10 years.
There was ample room inside the deck for the head amps regardless of size.

A monumental difference of a UHA deck is the ability to RUN THE DECK 100% ON DC POWER by adding an Outboard Power Supply.
With DC motors I always had in mind to run the entire deck on DC power emanating from an outboard power supply (OPS).

So, TWO large toroidal power transformers were sourced and custom configured to go into the UHA Outboard Power Supply.

1.) One to run the new head amps inside the deck, the head amps were put there to allow for the shortest runs of wire from tape heads to head amps possible.
This was to avoid noise picked up with a longer set of wires, something we all know about.

2.) The second one to run everything else, motors, lights, transport, VU meters and so forth.

3.) There are banks of DC conversion devices inside the OPS that convert the AC from the wall to DC current and the only power traveling to the deck is DC.

There are no power transformers or any dc conversion devices inside the deck at all, everything resides in the OPS.
There is shielded Synergistic Research power cable in the umbilical between the deck and the OPS, also the power cables were routed to avoid creating any noise.
The OPS has two sheets of 3/4" MDF bolted to the top and bottom of the OPS for damping and rigidity, the power transformers sit in a sorbothane bed to reduce vibration.
The OPS also has a Furutech power conditioner on the 15a IEC inlet and a Synergistic Research RED fuse.

I have done so many shows for years attempting to get the tape movement going and have had thousands of people listen to and some buy UHA decks over the years.
Is every room at every show, or every system I've shown with been perfect and sounded perfect, how could it???
However one thing you can see on my web site, there is something that is consistent from shows as caesar mentioned in his OP... awards.

Probably the most coveted award was in the 40th anniversary edition of The Absolute Sound, their "Top 100 Most Influential Audio products of the last 40 years".
There were only 100 products in the world listed and UHA was honored to receive one of these awards.


Here is an excerpt of a review done by one of our buddies here at WBF from the Newport 2016, UHA After Hours Events.
MONO & STEREO
THE Show Report Newport 2016
By Ron Resnick


I returned to the MBL room on Thursday night to listen to music on reel-to-reel tape for three hours. I had an absolutely amazing time as Greg Beron played a wide variety of rock and pop music. We were treated, among other things, to a fascinating set of different takes of a Dave Mason/Jimi Hendrix recording, and we listened to the re-creation of a live Loggins and Messina concert.

The sound was holographic and incredibly dynamic and driving and "live"-sounding, as MBL systems always are, but this year I found the sound to be more natural and not fatiguing. Also the 101E Mk. II sounds much more powerful in the bass than a single 12" woofer has any right to sound. One of the providers of the tapes exclaimed it was the best-sounding system on which he has ever heard his tapes played. That surely is very high praise!

I have seen Greg demonstrate his UHA tape decks many times now, and I have never seen a single hiccup or glitch of any kind with any of his decks. The UHA machines not only sound amazing, they are solid workhorses!

Thanks to Jeremy and Greg for filling the evenings of many attendees with many hours of musical pleasure!
 

NorthStar

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Feb 8, 2011
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http://www.unitedhomeproducts.com/reel_to_reel_hq_tape_decks.htm

Awesome looking decks!
 

c1ferrari

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 15, 2010
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I have done so many shows for years attempting to get the tape movement going and have had thousands of people listen to and some buy UHA decks over the years.
Congratulations, Greg, and commendation for your stellar efforts! :D
Your advocacy of analog-sourced, tape program material has sustained us all.
My sincere thanks
.
:cool:
 

andromedaaudio

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Jan 23, 2011
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From a practical standpoint , im playing some old broadcast tapes tonight , spooling tape is such a breeze with the telefunken , you just push the spool button once , and spool back and forth with a handle , straight is zero left is rewind right is forward , and the more you push the handle the faster it goes that alone is a reason to buy a telefunken imo. :D
But hey i m no expert lol
 

Ron Resnick

Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Jan 24, 2015
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I am delighted to see you here, Greg!
 

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