Hi everyone,

So does anyone have any suggestions about a non-hernia, bad ass, two track reel-to-reel for less (hopefully way less) than $14k? I was wondering what people used to use back in the day for stereo Classical recording in the field (in the days before dat)... I already have two channels of dolby SR lying around the house...

I do a lot of on-location, direct to stereo, classical and jazz recordings using vintage AKG and Neumann tube mics. I am currently using Mytek AD converters and I want better resolution and frequency response.

I heard the Miles Davis Kinda Blue SACD at the audiophile store down the street. It was life-changing! It was like there was a whole extra octave of highs compared to CD, and the speakers just seemed to melt away! It was easy on the ears... Quadrupling the sample rate makes a huge difference! Localization on the drums was very nice too... digital brightness was gone; it sounded like a console feed from the live performance; it was a lot like listening to a new, virgin vinyl LP with no surface scratches. Even the tape hiss sounded different! When I played CDs on the same system, the highs seemed constricted; the usual "digital brightness" was apparent and it sounded like the recordings were being played back through speakers again. When I played my own orchestral recordings (made with C12s thru Mytek converters) the limited bandwidth of the CD medium was apparent in comparison to the SACD examples.

Don't get me wrong; my16-bit stuff was still better recorded and thus more fun to listen to than the SACD orchestral examples I heard that day (not witstanding the Myles stuff that is), but I could clearly hear the benefits of the new medium and I really wanted to switch to DSD. I realized then I'd been listening to the analog output of 16 bit 44.1 digital machines for too long. I wanted out of the box I'd been in for 10 years. Even if the client still has to listen to the final in 16 bit 44.1, I didn't want to keep listening to 16bit 44.1 for 8 hrs a day while I make the transfers and add reverb... and I want to archive to something with better resolution for the future...

I considered switching from DAT to DSD for in the field recording, but the DCS converters were $14k. I was heartbroken... I'd finally found digital I like, but I will NOT be able to switch to DSD for the time being, even though it sounds freaking incredible... If I had a spare $14k to drop, I'd use it for a downpayment for a building or something... So I'm stuck waiting for DSD to become more affordable (or at least cost less than a building... )

So I guess that leaves analog SR to get better resolution...(for hopefully less than $14k that is)...

So does anyone have any suggestions about a non-hernia, bad ass, two track reel-to-reel for less (hopefully way less) than $14k? I was wondering what people used to use back in the day for stereo Classical recording in the field (in the days before dat)...

I currently have an atr 102 (that was way less than $14k) with 2 channels of SR at the studio that I will NOT be schlepping on location with me... The atr sounds great, but was there something more portable that people used to use? Did they use cassette or reel-to-reel? I saw a Marantz model on their website that records at double speed onto metal tape, but even then I believe it's still only 3.75ips (suck?) and the head gap is pretty puny... and the frequency response is probably not what one would want... My PMD 430 cassette (that only does single speed) sounds better than my 3700, but does anyone know of a reel-to-reel or something else that would do the deed better? Using Dolby SR with a cassette (even one with balanced IO) seems kinda silly.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sal Vito
The Man of Sound
Salvito@hotmail.com
312-409-0176