On Mar 22, 10:45 am, "Mike Rivers" wrote:
On Mar 22, 8:38 am, "jailhouserock"
wrote:
The vintage cartridge formats give a lot more performance per dollar,
than the new digital formats.
I think you need to send your time machine in for repair.
My Elcaset EL-7 would kick your digital disk player to the curb. You
are starting to remind me of those kids with MP3 players jammed in
their ears.
At the time
of the "vintage" cartridge formats, there were no new digital formats,
so there was nothing to compare them to.
I've been comparing them for the last 6 years now- heavily. Digital
is more convenient with no background noise- analog is more enjoyable
to listen to. End of story.
And when the "new" digital
formats came out, they were so much more expensive than the "vintage"
cartridge formats that there could be no comparison. Remember $1,000
CD players? Not too long after $1,000 Elcassettes actually, and I
believe that the listeners of the time much preferred the sound of
that newfangled digital CD player to the sound of cassettes which were
the current home format at the time.
I just picked up my second EL-7 ELcaset for only $240, with tapes,
delivered to my door. Mint condition, original owner, manual- that's
the beauty of analog !
Are you suggesting that your 3-3/4 ips cartridge has higher fidelity
than a reel-to-reel tape deck running at the same speed?
I'm not only suggesting it, I heard it first hand- you obviously never
heard a Sony Elcaset deck- check the specs for yourself- it has 7.5
IPS specs, from 3.75 IPS tape. Here's a scan of the owner's manual
specs on the EL-7, click on the link below, then put your cursor on
the spec sheet, a box will appear at lower right, click on that to
maximize and read it:
http://i17.tinypic.com/2hsb0ao.jpg
HOW DOES THIS GRAB YOU ??
15 HZ TO 27,000 HZ with Type II tapes (FeCr) (NAB)
15 HZ TO 25,000 HZ with Type I tapes (standard FeO2) (NAB)
I don't know how they did it, but they DID it- this deck sounds as
good as/better than a reel to reel at 7.5 IPS- and the Elcaset does
it
with 3.75 IPS. It MUST be the FeCr tapes- and some really high-end
circuits inside the unit.
Specs at +/- 3 dB rating are somewhat less, but still quite
impressive
for 1/4" 4-track analog tape at 3.75 IPS, again NAB:
25 HZ TO 22,000 HZ TYPE II (FeCr)
25 HZ TO 20,000 HZ TYPE I (standard FeO2)
Basically CD quality or better, from 1/4" tape in a cartridge, at
only
3.75 IPS. With the FeCr tapes, a better top end than a CD- from a
home-made cartridge tape format. I have been dubbing to the FeCr
carts, and let me tell you, I've NEVER heard a 1/4" open reel that
sounded this good.
It might
equal it on a good day, but it's unlikely to exceed it. And a 10-1/2"
reel of 1 mil tape at 3-3/4 ips will run for a bit over three hours.
Who wants to thread that tape, and store all those huge 10.5" reels ?
May as well listen to 180 gram vinyl then.
Remember, in the
days when they made those Elcassettes, a standard LP, which is what
you'd get if you bought a prerecorded cartridge, was less than 40
minutes.
Yes but you didn't have to thread a reel to reel each time, just flip
the cart, or the record. BIG difference there.
But then how else do you get
a beer without missing some of the music?
I've got an 8-track cart changer made by Telex, it will hold (12) 90-
minute carts, do the math on that one. You can drink a whole case of
beer, and be a serious drinker then, and never have to change the
music- concentrate on the beer (chuckle...). And that also sounds
very, very good These cart formats got a bad name, due to the crappy
solid state amps people play them through, which creates a lot of tpae
hiss. The key is, use a single ended tube amp with low power, high
eff. speakers, and there is no tape hiss.
Yes, that's the simpleminded, wrong concept. But suit yourself.
You need to read up on some reference material, written by studio
techs and sound engineers, their recording consoles are ANALOG. More
dynamic range. They convert it to digital. It's put into the digital
realm of formats, to sell to the public, and cut production costs.
Then same engineers go home, and play vinyl records and reel to reels.
and Elcasets.
and cassettes in Tascam machines, at 3.75 IPS, with metal tape.