The Reel Way, in Sweden

[Hugo Thorsin]

The Reel Way, in Sweden. Opus3 master tapes

Hi Everyone!

My name is Hugo Thorsin and I run a store called Absolute Audio in
Sweden just outside of our capital Stockholm. My partner in running
this operation is no other than Mr Jan-Eric Persson of Opus3 records,
known for his many fine recordings throughout the years. When we
opened up shop a few months ago one of the first things in place was a
newly serviced Studer B67 deck. We call it our portable media player
since it's on a rack with wheels and we can roll it from room to room.



I've followed this forum, in silence, for a while and know there are a
lot of passion and love for reel to reel, which we very much share. So
I thought I'd show some of the things we're up to here in Sweden. And
I'm sure some of you know that the Opus3 catalogue containing about 50
titles will be available on "reel" as well as a series of samplers,
the first one called "One". Copying a tape is very much "hands on"
manual labour that require knowledge and a attention to detail. We're
going to walk through exactly how the copying is done and what
machines are involved.... And I'm pretty sure most of you will be able
to see what classic tape deck this is?

 

[MylesBAstor]

Hi Everyone!

My name is Hugo Thorsin and I run a store called Absolute Audio in
Sweden just outside of our capital Stockholm. My partner in running
this operation is no other than Mr Jan-Eric Persson of Opus3 records,
known for his many fine recordings throughout the years. When we
opened up shop a few months ago one of the first things in place was a
newly serviced Studer B67 deck. We call it our portable media player
since it's on a rack with wheels and we can roll it from room to room.

View attachment 4003

I've followed this forum, in silence, for a while and know there are a
lot of passion and love for reel to reel, which we very much share. So
I thought I'd show some of the things we're up to here in Sweden. And
I'm sure some of you know that the Opus3 catalogue containing about 50
titles will be available on "reel" as well as a series of samplers,
the first one called "One". Copying a tape is very much "hands on"
manual labour that require knowledge and a attention to detail. We're
going to walk through exactly how the copying is done and what
machines are involved.... And I'm pretty sure most of you will be able
to see what classic tape deck this is?

View attachment 4004

Welcome Hugo! I'm in the process of writing up the Opus 3 sampler tape Good stuff!

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

Welcome Hugo! I'm in the process of writing up the Opus 3 sampler tape Good stuff!

That's Great! They do sound fantastic. I had a few none audiophile friends by the store a few weeks ago, they gasped at the price tags and the size of the products. But when I turned on the Studer and played Eric Bibb "Where the green grass grows".... Everyone just hushed-up listed in complete awe and afterward just said: "Okay, now we understand why you guys are doing this".

 

[rblnr]

That's Great! They do sound fantastic. I had a few none audiophile friends by the store a few weeks ago, they gasped at the price tags and the size of the products. But when I turned on the Studer and played Eric Bibb "Where the green grass grows".... Everyone just hushed-up listed in complete awe and afterward just said: "Okay, now we understand why you guys are doing this".

View attachment 4007

Hey Hugo --

Sounds supercool what your up to. I'm actually going to be in Stockholm next week -- would love to drop by if possible. PM is you'd like.

 

[flez007]

Happy to read you Hugo, I have a pending order from my side for a lot of Opus RtR music - I own many of their CDs and they have great content and sound quality.

Are you witnessing an increase on demand of taped material up there?

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

Happy to read you Hugo, I have a pending order from my side for a lot of Opus RtR music - I own many of their CDs and they have great content and sound quality.

Are you witnessing an increase on demand of taped material up there?

rblnr you have a PM!

Very nice flez007, there are a lot of very fine recordings in Jan-Erics catalogue! And all analogue direct from "the" master tape is as good as it can possibly get.

As for an increasing demand, yes, very much so! I will double check, but I don't think there has ever been anyone so bold as to ask for a reel copy of the analog master But now a days it's a completely different story. Very much thanks to Tape Projects great initiative.



If I remember correctly one of the Decks Tape Project recommends for playback is the wonderful Technics RS1500, so does Jan-Eric. And that's the player Opus3 uses for master tape playback during the transfer process from master to copy.

 

[MylesBAstor]

Hey Hugo, see you carry some darn good lines over there

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

Hey Hugo, see you carry some darn good lines over there

Thank You Myles! We try our darnedest!



If you haven't guessed already, we are over for a cup of virtual coffee at Opus3 mastering studio in Jarna right outside of Stockholm. It's the first town south of Stockholm where the city noise disappears and life becomes a bit more tranquil. A perfect place for both a studio and our audio store. This is also where the Opus3 master tapes are duplicated.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Welcome Hugo!

i did get the Opus 3 demo reel and agree it is very good. i have a number of Opus 3 Lps and plan on getting a few complete album tapes at some point.

nice to have you guys doing tapes; thank you.

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

Welcome Hugo!

i did get the Opus 3 demo reel and agree it is very good. i have a number of Opus 3 Lps and plan on getting a few complete album tapes at some point.

nice to have you guys doing tapes; thank you.

Thank You Mike! Jan-Eric is really excited about this development. And he has spent a big part of his career working with both recording and playback with reel tapes. So naturally he's quite happy that this technology is getting a renaissance.



The RMG Studio Master 468 is the tape of choice and has been for a long time. It is exactly the same tape as we used from the very beginning - Agfa PEM 468 - among other things, because of it´s very good archive qualities! Tape production and development over the years have had a lot of issues and some tape brands were not stable over time. Some tapes even had to be "baked" in an oven to get them stable enough to allow One transfer to the digital domain for storage. That's a job a lot of good tape decks are being used for today. On The National Swedish Radio, with it's huge music archives, 25 engineers have this as a full time job. Our Studer B67 in the store comes from that department. But the RMG Studio Master 468 do not have these issues thankfully, so you will be able to enjoy them for a long time to come. Production of these tapes have just moved from Holland to Pyral in France, but this should not effected the performance or stability what so ever as the "recipe" for the tape is well known.

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

For the recording of the tape we use a pearl from the true inventors of the reel2reel tape deck - Telefunken! This is the machine that has always been used by Opus3 for 2-channel recordings. Just seeing the logo makes my heart skip a beat, yes, I like tube gear. So whether it be recording live music or a master tape copy the Telefunken
Magnetophon 28 is always the deck of choice. It's a true mechanical masterpiece! But then again so are most players talked about here

 

[flez007]

What about the tape coating Opus uses Hugo? The TP ones leaves a rather "red brick colour" (which is normal according to DocB), but the Quinton tapes leave almost no residual material in the tape path....just curious.

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

What about the tape coating Opus uses Hugo? The TP ones leaves a rather "red brick colour" (which is normal according to DocB), but the Quinton tapes leave almost no residual material in the tape path....just curious.

Personally I haven't tried either TP or the Quinton tapes. Probably just a matter of time before we do though. But it would be interesting to know what brand of tape TP used that left this residue?

But we do use the RMG Studio Master 468 for multiple reasons. One being it is the cleanest tape there is. The first Opus3 Reel Sampler "ONE" is at our store, it's been played probably over 100 times by now and I have not seen any trace of residue from the tape so far.

 

[Bruce B]

Personally I haven't tried either TP or the Quinton tapes. Probably just a matter of time before we do though. But it would be interesting to know what brand of tape TP used that left this residue?

The TP also uses RMGI SM 468

There hasn't been a problem with "sticky/shed" since the late '70s/early 80s. What flez is probably seeing is excess oxide comimg off.

 

[MylesBAstor]

The TP also uses RMGI SM 468

There hasn't been a problem with "sticky/shed" since the late '70s/early 80s. What flez is probably seeing is excess oxide comimg off.

I haven't noticed this issue either with any of the new tapes I've been getting. Older tapes, yes.

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

R2R has never been easy, but that's sort of the beauty in a way. All old Opus3 masters are in pristine condition, though.



In the background you see Jan-Eric's tube EQ/mixer. It bypasses the transistor input stage of the Magnetophon 28. It uses Telefunken EF86, a valve Peter Walker spoke very highly of. Opus3 used to be the Swedish importer of Quad back in the day.

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

As I said before this is the mastering studio at Opus3. These days Jan-Eric works in the digital domain and has done ever since the launch of SACD. But before the switch to digital there was about 50 official recordings done with the Telefunken magnetophon 28 for the Opus3 label.
The acoustics in the room is done by Lennart Nilsson one of the best in the world. He understands both acoustics and music something that's not that common, and a big reason why many concert halls sound so bad. The monitors are Totem Mani-2 that are very neutral and measures flat down to 27hz in this room.

 

[Bruce B]

As I said before this is the mastering studio at Opus3. These days Jan-Eric works in the digital domain and has done ever since the launch of SACD.

If Jan-Eric works strictly in the digital domain.... what is the outboard equipment for??

 

[Hugo Thorsin]

Bruce B: I was thinking more along the line "Once digital.... "


Jan-Eric hard at work

That's all I have So this conclude our little trip to Sweden We had Scandinavian premiere of KEF LS50, a new monitor, at the store yesterday. And the last 15 minutes we rolled in our Studer. And from reading the forum reports that's what impressed people the most, again.

*On a personal note, I'm 36 years old and have no nostalgic connection to reel tapes what so ever. Not even that fond of glorifying the past. But when it comes to R2R, just seeing how the music moves people in a fundamental way. There's no denying it really is the ultimate way of reproducing music...still. But we have a brand new Meither MA-1 that can play DSD over USB that we just begun playing with. There is hope that we one day get a medium that can compete with our Studer The mainstream mediums we have today just don't connect with people in that way. Hope I'm not being too melodramatic I still love my CD collection.

 

[flez007]

I really enjoyed the pics and narrative Hugo, thanks a lot, I will look to order my first batch of Opus masters shortly!