It's clear that the quality of the tape heads, transport mechanism and electronics (sound like a turntable?) affect the sound of a reel to reel machine. Many of us not lucky enough to have the room or technical expertise to own a full blown studio machine, have instead opted to go with a commercial prosumer machines eg. Technics, Otari, Tandberg, Revox, etc. That said, the weak link for most prosumer machines still is these prosumer machine's electronics.
How many of you out there have modded your machines to run direct out and bypassed the stock electronics? What were the differences between the stock and modded unit?
I've bypassed mine and currently use either a Bottlehead Repro tube tape preamp (had a Seduction originally) or a newly acquired King/Cello tape solid-state preamplifier (I know my tube friends will I've gone off the deep end) that I'll have more to say about in the new audio review section. I've not compared the original deck vs outboard electronics but I've been lucky enough to compare the three tape preamplifiers electronics (that were as best as possible electrically matched to the Technics heads). I've also been lucky enough thanks to two tape head friends, to compare two different Nortronic heads (matched to the King/Cello) since they plug directly into the same board as the stock heads.
What's amazing is just how much information there is on these 15 ips tapes, whether they be dubs, master tapes, or the 11/2 gen tapes from the tape project (sounds like turntables here huh?). Better dynamics, increased transparency, greater low frequency extension, more resolution of low level info and spatial information all are differences between the different heads or electronics.
How many of you out there have modded your machines to run direct out and bypassed the stock electronics? What were the differences between the stock and modded unit?
I've bypassed mine and currently use either a Bottlehead Repro tube tape preamp (had a Seduction originally) or a newly acquired King/Cello tape solid-state preamplifier (I know my tube friends will I've gone off the deep end) that I'll have more to say about in the new audio review section. I've not compared the original deck vs outboard electronics but I've been lucky enough to compare the three tape preamplifiers electronics (that were as best as possible electrically matched to the Technics heads). I've also been lucky enough thanks to two tape head friends, to compare two different Nortronic heads (matched to the King/Cello) since they plug directly into the same board as the stock heads.
What's amazing is just how much information there is on these 15 ips tapes, whether they be dubs, master tapes, or the 11/2 gen tapes from the tape project (sounds like turntables here huh?). Better dynamics, increased transparency, greater low frequency extension, more resolution of low level info and spatial information all are differences between the different heads or electronics.