Studer A810 Butterfly vs standard heads

[Bruce B]

So butterfly heads are DIN heads versus standard NAB heads not to be confused with nab and iec equalizations ?

Correct

 

[bblue]

I send files to my clients blindly.. labeled as sample 1... sample 2... and so on. I tell them I've used different converters and headstacks. I try to level match the samples to within 0.1dB.

What I hear is a smearing of the soundstage. You really can't pinpoint the direction of instruments. Things like vocals feel bloated instead of fine detailed images.

Interesting. Have you done this comparison on recordings known to have been made (recorded) with butterfly heads?

 

[Bruce B]

Interesting. Have you done this comparison on recordings known to have been made (recorded) with butterfly heads?

I've done my own recordings (master tape dubs and location recording) with and without DIN heads over the years.

 

[bblue]

I've done my own recordings (master tape dubs and location recording) with and without DIN heads over the years.

And the resulting playback differences hold regardless? So it's strictly a playback issue. ?

--Bill

 

[Bruce B]

And the resulting playback differences hold regardless? So it's strictly a playback issue. ?

--Bill

I hear it both in record and playback. I get much better recordings with NAB heads than DIN heads.

 

[jdza]

ftp://ftp.studer.ch/public/SwissSound/SwissSound16eJul86LR.pdf

Studer themselves discuss the issue in this link.Scroll to the "Stereo to TC article"-page 8.What it boils down to is that Butterfly heads were designed by German Broadcast to enable 2 channel machines to replay mono tapes without the 6db loss of level if replayed on 2 channel machines. This is seen as the only advantage.

Many in Europe refer to heads with 2mm gap as 2 channel heads and those with a 0.75 mm "Butterfly "head as Stereo heads

The 2mm gap in 2 channel allows for a 60db channel separation not possible with Butterfly heads. Machines with Butterfly heads are never used for multi tracking and use mono erase heads as opposed to 2 channel erase heads in 2 track machines.

As Audiophiles it seems logical to me that we should use the 2mm heads for better soundstaging etc. Having said that my best sounding machine is the Mark Levinson ML 5 where ML very definitely specify Butterfly heads.

 

[Bruce B]

ftp://ftp.studer.ch/public/SwissSound/SwissSound16eJul86LR.pdf

Studer themselves discuss the issue in this link.Scroll to the "Stereo to TC article"-page 8.What it boils down to is that Butterfly heads were designed by German Broadcast to enable 2 channel machines to replay mono tapes without the 6db loss of level if replayed on 2 channel machines. This is seen as the only advantage.

Thank-you....

 

[rockitman]

ftp://ftp.studer.ch/public/SwissSound/SwissSound16eJul86LR.pdf

Studer themselves discuss the issue in this link.Scroll to the "Stereo to TC article"-page 8.What it boils down to is that Butterfly heads were designed by German Broadcast to enable 2 channel machines to replay mono tapes without the 6db loss of level if replayed on 2 channel machines. This is seen as the only advantage.

Many in Europe refer to heads with 2mm gap as 2 channel heads and those with a 0.75 mm "Butterfly "head as Stereo heads

The 2mm gap in 2 channel allows for a 60db channel separation not possible with Butterfly heads. Machines with Butterfly heads are never used for multi tracking and use mono erase heads as opposed to 2 channel erase heads in 2 track machines.

As Audiophiles it seems logical to me that we should use the 2mm heads for better soundstaging etc. Having said that my best sounding machine is the Mark Levinson ML 5 where ML very definitely specify Butterfly heads.

Thanks...makes perfect sense.

 

[c1ferrari]

ftp://ftp.studer.ch/public/SwissSound/SwissSound16eJul86LR.pdf

Studer themselves discuss the issue in this link.Scroll to the "Stereo to TC article"-page 8

Informative article. Thank you

 

[C_Campbell]

There's a wealth of good information on my friend Richard Hess' web site, including the signal-to-noise calculations for NAB vs. DIN heads. See especially:

http://richardhess.com/notes/2007/0...2-track-tapes-on-a-din-stereo-butterfly-head/

http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/025-reel-tape/

http://richardhess.com/notes/category/audio/reels/matching-head-to-tape/

Christopher Campbell

www.cbcampbell.com

 

[MylesBAstor]

There's a wealth of good information on my friend Richard Hess' web site, including the signal-to-noise calculations for NAB vs. DIN heads. See especially:

http://richardhess.com/notes/2007/0...2-track-tapes-on-a-din-stereo-butterfly-head/

http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/025-reel-tape/

http://richardhess.com/notes/category/audio/reels/matching-head-to-tape/

Christopher Campbell

www.cbcampbell.com

Thanks for the info Chris and welcome to our little round portion of the net