Machines shootout

[xcortes]

Last week two friends who are serious audiophiles came to my place and since they are considering getting into reel to reel we did a hardware comparison. One of them posted about it in amother forum. I want to share here what I posted on such thread:

The shootout Fernando mentions was really fun. To be more specific the decks were a Mike Spitz rebuilt ATR 102, a Bottlehead modded Technics 1500 with extended repro head, a Tim de Paravicini 1520 and a Tascam BR20 rewired for external preamp.

We compared the Seduction with the Tape Repro. As nice as the Seduction is the Repro is in another league. I've yet to try an Eros which I suspect will be way closer to the Repro than to the Seduction since the circuits are very similar.

We then compared the decks. The Tascam needs stepups since the heads are lower gain and impedance. I tried MC stepups at one time and they work nicely. I don't know if they're ideal but since this deck is only a spare one they seem to be a good solution.

The ATR with repro is fantastic, the level of realism, detail and easy goingness never ceases to amaze me. The big surprise was the Technics with the repro. I upgraded to the ATR at the same time than to the repro so I hadn't really compared both decks with the same electronics. This time we did it one after the other. The technics with BH mods and extended head is very close to the ATR! The guys at BH have done a great job with the mods. Don't get me wrong, there is some difference and it was clear that the big transport could do things the small one couldn't. But considering the difference in cost and size, this is the poster child in diminishing returns.

The Tascam with stepups was a notch below the Technics. Very nice too. The transport is very nice but the heads are not in the same league as the others. And the TdP was very nice albeit different. If I were forced to rank it I would rank it slightly below the 1500 with the extended head and repro. The one thing where it excels is in recording. We copied some tapes at 15 ips from the ATR to the TdP. This 15 minute demos are what we used as sources for the shooutout and what Fernando is using now at his home. Of course not the originals but very, very close.

Anxiously waiting for Series Three of the Tape Project!

[Doc B.]

Thanks Xavier, it's nice to hear that you find the modded RS1500 has some of the same sound as the ATR. That was the goal when we started working on mods. Along with the Flux head the addition of the ball bearings on the upper guides and removal of the guides on the headblock seem to be the two things that had the biggest impact on getting the sound closer to the ATR. I suspect the modded MX5050s we have done might even be a hair closer in terms of transient performance.