Oxford has landed on TAoS

[Mike]

I'll do the honours.

[Mike]

Apparently i need to introduce myself.

I'm Colin and i work in electronics (to do with defence-say no more) and have been an avid hi-fi fan since my youth.

I have several valve amps and like a bit of DIY to help improve my system and keep costs down.

Forums are new to me so forgive me if i take a while to settle down,and i like to call a spade a spade !

Colin.

Hi Colin,

I've copied and pasted this into the 'Welcome' area on your behalf.

Hope you don't mind.

Cheers...

[DSJR]

All those reel to reel machines.

I find the Revox's boring today as I owned and sold so many of them... I like that old Tandberg though, but don't know how it performs in comparison with later models (the TD20A didn't like winding tapes with spliced edits as I remember).

The Ferrograph Logic 7 always looked good to me and now that idlers are being manufactured...

I owned a Sony TC366 and 377 and neither are as good as a typical Nakamichi IMO. The 366 has a weird, non-standard playback eq as well.

I never felt the Akai's to be quite as good as the best Sony's and Revox's, but never heard a properly calibrated example.

Anyone here used an Elcassette machine. The EL7's we had on dem were truly awsome and the tapes took many playings with no obvious excessive wear to tapes or transport - even a well contaminated pressure wheel didn't chew tapes as happens on thrashed video machines for example.

[Beechwoods]

On the subject of Elcaset there's some pictures of my EL-7 here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...?t=1128&page=5. I also did a little roundup of Elcaset basics a while back here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=875. Very shortly after getting hold of my EL-7 I was offered a Technics RS7500 but had to pass it up because of lack of space, and cost - they wanted 400€ IIRC. To much on the back of the EL-7.

Elcaset was a brilliant format. Soundwise it has the dynamics and punch of reel to reel, despite the lower tape speed. With the exception of a Sony Demonstration tape, there were no pre-recorded Elcaset releases. I've got one of these demo tapes and it's great - the lounge jazz interpretation of Also Sprach Zarathustra is a killer

Recording wise it sounds just as good as my reel to reels running at 7½ ips. I have a bunch of NOS Type II (Ferrochrome) tapes which sound better than the Type I (Ferric) tapes, and show the advantage of chrome tape formulations - reel to reel never moved on from Ferric tape. There was a definite advantage to these tape formulations as the tape speed reduced.

Both Technics and Sony prepared Type III (Metal) tape for the Elcaset but they never made it into the wild. Pictures exist in promotional material, but otherwise nada. The EL-7 comes with a 'Type III' Bias / EQ position, so the machines were ready for it. The lack of commercial success obviously put the kaibosh on full tape production.

Anyway, it's nice to be able to play with a slice of analogue history. The best failed audio format

[Beechwoods]

I owned a Sony TC366 and 377 and neither are as good as a typical Nakamichi IMO. The 366 has a weird, non-standard playback eq as well.

I've a 377 and it was definitely an entry-level machine. I think that playback was it's weak point though. Things that I've recorded on the 377 and played back on my other machines sound excellent. Pre-rec reels played back on the 377 sound OK. All my machines have been professionally serviced and lined up so I'm pretty happy I'm getting the performance that Sony intended... but my other machines definitely have the edge when it comes to resolving the best playback from old tapes, and at lower speeds. But it was a 377 that got me into reel to reel so I have a soft spot for it, I'll admit