I worked as a professional recording engineer for 34 years. I used Studer reel to reel tape machines and spent hundreds if not thousands of hours calibrating and maintaining them.
S/N ratio of reel to reel is maybe 70dB at best without noise reduction (I used Dolby A and SR when it became available). Frequency response may go to 20kHz at 15 ips speed or above. Low frequency response is not flat due to head bumps.
If you don't have test equipment to calibrate your machine both mechanically and electronically, you won't get very good results. You need playback test tapes to calibrate playback electronics plus an oscillator and oscilloscope to align the heads and do record calibration for the type of tape you are recording on (if you can find reel to reel tape). You need to adjust record bias for lowest third harmonic distortion and then high frequency record EQ to get flat record response. You need to adjust tape tension (take up and hold back) and pinch roller pressure. Your rubber pinch roller is probably dried out and needs to be conditioned or replaced. Without all of these adjustments, your machine will not work well or sound very good. Wow and flutter is just one potential problem. If your heads are worn or not properly aligned, they affect many parameters of record and playback operations.
IMO, R-R is a dead format. Be happy technology has advanced well beyond the capabilities of the R-R.
Last edited by Rex Anderson; 03-24-2017 at 03:40 PM.
|