[Old timer]

I'm new here. I didn't see a Tape forum?

[JohnR]

Seem like it would be the best fit 

[Old timer]

How many of you are into open reel and what are you running?

[Wayner]

ReVox A77, half track

Wayner

[Old timer]

Nice! I've owned an A77 in the early 1980's. I seem to remember circuit board upgrades in Audio Amateur or Audio Directions magazines back in the day.

I'm using a Scully 280 at the moment.

[Minn Mark]

Hey I gotta question (plural; questions). I'm flirting with getting into RTR and wonder how important is noise reduction to the overall effect? Older rtr decks don't have on-board NR, some of the later ones use Dolby or DBX on-board. I know external NR units are available (like dbx 226) . Is it critical that NR always be used for RTR?   Or is the tape hiss managemable w/o using NR? AT fasters speeds (7.5 or 15 in/sec) does NR become unnecessary?  Help me learn.

Thanks

Mark

[Minn Mark]

+1

Anybody care to reply to my questions?  Are you out there old timer, and wayner??

Mark

[tomytoons]

Mark
since you have a TEAC 6000 which includes all the noise reduction choices how does it sound between them?
On a Cassette deck the noise reduction is important because the speed is much slower than on the RtoR in comparison to both with and without I always felt you lose some high end detail with any noise reduction a trade off. I had A TEAC C3RX with DBX and Dolby B so those were my impressions.
I always felt the cassettes were only good enough for portable or car listening and not serious listening.

On a RtoR TEAC x1000R I had although it had DBX I judged it's use at the time of taping (7.5 never 3.25) choosing which was better. It's nice to have it. The better tapes too were quieter. But as I have said before they all deteriorated with oxidation causing tape squeal rendering them unplayable. These tapes were 10" $$$ and not abused in any way, always kept at room temperature. Frankly, I was BS and sold it all off. No more RtoR here but I enjoyed the hell out of using it. I had a Technics RS1500US too.
Keep in mind too, that 1/2 track at 15ips probably does not need the noise reduction. Way too expensive to run but just about the best you can get out of it.
I would be curious if they formulated a fix for the oxidation problem.

[Wayner]

The width of the track plays a huge role in tape noise, as well as the skill of the recordist at "gain riding". If we look at a cassette tape, moving at 1 7/8IPS, the width of each track is slightly less then 1/32". My half track RTR uses 1/4" tape, but only has 2 channels, so the track width is slightly less the 1/8".

More magnetic particles, the more the field strength. My Revox does not have any Dolby, but has produced very quiet recordings.

If your machine has Dolby (or a dbx) circuit, then hopefully, you will also have panel access to bias control, because such noise reduction circuits will alter the bias for each type of tape formulation.

Wayner

[Old timer]

I'm with Wayner, I've never really had a need for noise reduction.