Quote:
Originally Posted by Golucid
there's another guy on another form by the name of Steve that his been trying to influence me to consider buying a Studer real to real. I think the model is an A810.
I have never seen in person a real to real machine and heck barely know what a cassette is.
I was told that if I transferred my vinyl over to reel to reel that the sound or should I say the analog sound will showcase better.
I like my vinyl and I like my digital stuff too but I'm really skeptical about tape - seems so old and antiquated.
I am open-minded to try new things and even very old things. Should I consider a cassette and a real to real?
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Just keep in mind that the sound can not be improved upon. Anyone who claims that the sound will showcase better if you "transfer" your LPs onto tape is misleading you. Best case scenario, the tape will preserve the analog sound without adding the digital "edge" to the sound but the tape will NOT miraculously improve the sound, it can only record what it is fed at best. In reality there will be some compromise due to the R2R and tape quality itself, just like the different cassettes often sounded better or worse due to their own inherent quality and the quality of playback heads. There is no magic here, there is no "The sum is greater than the parts" here either...
Vinyl is vinyl, the better your equipment and setup, the better the sound but it can get no better than the LP itself... Transfering the "BEST" you can muster out of your turntable/cartridge/phonostage/LP itself is what will be on the R2R (ignoring the variables the tape and heads will introduce).
I enjoy XRCD, XRCD2, XRCD24 Super Analogue & XRCD24 Refined Digital, for the simple fact that when they are mastered, an ORIGINAL ANALOG TAPE MASTER is sourced for the production.
There is the secret! XRCD process and you can read up on it here (
https://www.elusivedisc.com/xrcd24digprocess.pdf ) preserves the analog naturalness, fullness, warmth and ease of listening and is as good as digital gets IMHO.
So... Recording vinyl to R2R would be great if you have an R2R and tape and want to preserve/prolong the life of your valuable or rare LP and expensive cartridge's life. But the best case scenario would be an R2R mastered from and ANALOG MASTER TAPE on a bigger/more affordable scale like some of the LPs are and most XRCDs.
That would be heaven. As good as the XRCD is, I feel the R2R would beat it because you can never completely get away from the digital process when it comes to digital media.