Reel-to-Reel

[plasticprime]

I'm waiting for 8-tracks to make a come back.

[JollySipper]

The thing about Jethro Tull........ It's just as much about the lyrics as it is the music. The only other musician that I can think of that can match the density of Ian Anderson's lyrics is Beck......

[webestang]

On 2/24/2022 at 2:28 PM, plasticprime said:

I'm waiting for 8-tracks to make a come back.

I buy all the 8 tracks I see at my local thrift shop. They sell for 49 cents, I resell on the Bay for around $3-5 each. I even found a sealed recordable 8 track......! 

[afx]

3 hours ago, JollySipper said:

The thing about Jethro Tull........ It's just as much about the lyrics as it is the music. The only other musician that I can think of that can match the density of Ian Anderson's lyrics is Beck......

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has a way with words, an example:

Here she comes in her palanquin
On the back of an elephant
On a bed made of linen and sequins and silk
All astride on her father's line
With the king and his concubines
And her nurse, with her pitchers of liquors and milk
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

 

Among five score pachyderm
Each canopied and passengered
Sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
Within sight of the baroness
Seething spite for this lithe largesse
By her side sits the baron
Her barrenness barbs her
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

 

A phalanx on camel back
Thirty ranks on a forward tack
Followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving
While behind, in their coach-and-fours
Ride the wives of the king of Moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

 

And as she sits upon her place
Her innocence laid on her face
From all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets
Melodies rhapsodical and fair
And all our hearts afire
The sky ablaze with cannon fire
We all raise our voices to the air
To the air

 

And above all this folderol
On a bed made of chaparral
She is laid, a coronal placed on her brow
And the babe, all in slumber dreams
Of a place, filled with quiet streams
And the lake, where her cradle was pulled from the water
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

[plasticprime]

On 3/1/2022 at 11:03 AM, webestang said:

I buy all the 8 tracks I see at my local thrift shop. They sell for 49 cents, I resell on the Bay for around $3-5 each. I even found a sealed recordable 8 track......! 

I used to have an Olympus 8-track recorder with level line ins and outs. You could buy blank 8-track Memorex tapes at almost any department store back in the day. I used to record tracks from my turntable to 8-tracks and then go cruising with my pal in his Mach 1 with 8-track player and homemade speakers in the back blowing out our minds...and ears. "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen cranked up near (but not past) the pain threshold will transport you to a new reality...along with everyone else in a 10-block vicinity. I have exactly four 8-tracks left, including one pre-recorded one by "Molkie Cole." The 8-tracks with the felt pads were the only ones that lasted - the foam pads disintegrated over time. The real fun came when the splice broke and you dis-assembled the cartridge to re-splice it. Without magnetic splicing tape, the heads never switched, so every time a section ended, you had to manually advance to the next track section (there were four in all). All in all, 8-tracks had lousy audio quality, better than an Edison wax cylinder, but not by much. 

[afx]

An audio snippet of my vintage amp.

http://public.fotki.com/steelers43/audio/img-0024.html

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by afx

[afx]

Just picked up this super clean Onkyo T-4040 tuner - looks brand new.

 

A Youtube video showing it's function:

 

[afx]

Bought this old Target Audio stand on eBay cheap - the shelves were all busted up.

 

My son and I fixed it up for his system:

• Replaced the shelves
• Added a butcher block top

Edited October 18, 2022 by afx

[afx]

Cat Stevens - Bitterblue on the reel-to-reel.

 

IMG_0097.MOV

Edited October 18, 2022 by afx

[Calb56]

Love your set-up. I never had reel-to-reel...but in the late 80s I had over 4000 albums, now my music is all on my computer ?

...but over 2tb worth.

Charles 

[afx]

16 hours ago, Calb56 said:

Love your set-up. I never had reel-to-reel...but in the late 80s I had over 4000 albums, now my music is all on my computer ?

...but over 2tb worth.

Charles 

Thanks Charles.  Lots of great used turntables out there and great new units as well.  You could start enjoying those albums again.

Listened to my original copy of this album this past weekend. One of the first albums I ever bought and still enjoying it.

Edited October 19, 2022 by afx

[Calb56]

My music player... a portion of my collection uploaded. Though I miss albums, i don't miss the space they took up.

[afx]

42 minutes ago, Calb56 said:

My music player... a portion of my collection uploaded. Though I miss albums, i don't miss the space they took up.

Is that on a PC/Macbook or do you have a music server?

[Calb56]

On a HP pc.. I have more than I knew. Just under 5 TB on two external hard drives. Kinda funny because my wife doesn't let me play music all the time like I used to. It's stuck off in a back bedroom. 

Played through Klipsch 2.1 THX computer speakers.

 

 

[afx]

16 hours ago, Calb56 said:

On a HP pc.. I have more than I knew. Just under 5 TB on two external hard drives. Kinda funny because my wife doesn't let me play music all the time like I used to. It's stuck off in a back bedroom. 

Played through Klipsch 2.1 THX computer speakers.

 

 

What music software (program) is it?

[Calb56]

Winamp.

I prefer it over any of the others I've used especially Microsoft's pos. I'm getting ready to go to the airport or I'd turn it on to tell you which version. It's an older version that I've found to be the most stable. 

[Brian Austin]

Just don't call records "vinyls", as some people apparently do these days.

Sadly most of the cassette decks in my house have failed due to age.  The drive belts go bad and turn to black goo that sticks to everything.

I see the Techmoan YT channel has already been mentioned.  He bemoans the fact that seemingly nobody makes a good cassette deck anymore.  Another fun channel is Tim Hunkin's "Secret Life Of Machines" TV series from the late '80s and early '90s.

 

[afx]

Belt failure is certainly a problem with tape decks both cassette and reel-to-reel. My RT-707 is direct-drive so no belt to fail.

[webestang]

Just got another cassette deck for free, a Sony duel tape. Looks to need new belts and a cleaning/demagnetize. Will post a pic when I get it up and going. 

[afx]

My son picked up a Sansui QRX-4500 at an estate sale.  It's quadraphonic - 4 channels.

Edited October 28, 2022 by afx

[afx]

23 hours ago, Calb56 said:

Winamp.

I prefer it over any of the others I've used especially Microsoft's pos. I'm getting ready to go to the airport or I'd turn it on to tell you which version. It's an older version that I've found to be the most stable. 

I have contemplated buying one of these.

https://thebrennan.com/pages/b2-overview

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by afx

[Calb56]

4 hours ago, afx said:

I have contemplated buying one of these.

https://thebrennan.com/pages/b2-overview

 

Pretty cool. I like that...

[afx]

On 10/28/2022 at 11:40 AM, Calb56 said:

Pretty cool. I like that...

I bought a $100 Chromebook last year that I leave in my listening room to stream Spotify to my system through my DAC.

If I decide to get deeper into a music server setup I think the Brennan would be the simplest route.

Edited November 4, 2022 by afx

[afx]

I've been limited to headphone listening the past 2-weeks or so.  My headphones plugged straight into my Chromebook was not very enjoyable so I picked up this nice little USB DAC/headphone amp.  Got if for half-price on ebay as an open box unit.  Sounds goods.

https://www.fiio.com/k3

Edited November 4, 2022 by afx

[afx]

Latest R2R purchase.