To facts:

1) A few weeks back Robert Witrak. The owner of http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/TreeItem.aspx?postID=2692

sent me example of the original 24/96 files that he is greeting after his AD processor. The result is so remarkably more interesting then the cheesy 16/44 CDs that it’s not even funny.

2) Recently I visited a local friend of mine, was listening his playback in his new, very cute listening room and his updated playback. While I liked something and did not like something I asked him to play for me one of his many reel-to-reels. I polled from his shelves the Callas/Gobbi’s Tosca and he fired up his Otari 5050II. As soon the first notes hit the room the audio eventually collapsed and the sound become “as it should be", regardless the imperfections of the playback.

The sound from my friend’s prerecorded reels was near-identical to the sound that I am getting from my FM live broadcasts. However, in the today’s broadcasts I’m not able to get the greeters singers of the past and I was wondering….

1) Since I have already the a wonderful Lavry AD-122 and the entire framework of getting and playing very high quality 24/96 files…
2) Since there are many reels of operas that I like out there for a reasonable price…
3) Since , I have many  opera LPs and I always annoyed with necessity to flip the records during the play…
4) Since the prerecorded tapes deliver MUCH better quality then even the best pressed LPs…
5) Since I have access to some “interesting”, custom reel-to-reel recourses….

…then why don’t I make the conversion of the selected tapes available for myself? I do not want to commit myself to this idea too deeply but in realty: all that I need is reel-to reel machine and some know-how…. if any transferring know-how even exist…

I would not be a big deal to find a well keeped Otari, Nagra, Stellavox, Studer or Amprex and then all that I need is one extra cable to make the thing works… I do not want to go for all those hassles but the result that heard recently was so farther then anything we do in audio that it was very motivating. It was not that I was not familiar with reel-to-reel sound but it is about my revelation that from the “transfer to digital” state were I am currently in, it is very simple to get into the state where I would be able to preserv for myself some the best operatic experiences that middle of the last centiry had offered.

Today I was trying to make some experiments. I made some recodings to my reel-to-reel machine from LP.  I did not go crazy and ran fairly poor cables just off my preamps. It was BASF 486 at 15ips ½ track. It was not bad, in fact quite good. I do not really plan use reels in this way but it was interesting to see what the battery-powered Stellavox will be able to do. At least, this way I am able to get very good quality reels, recorded on the same machine. Now I need to run it via Lavry AD122 processor to 24/96 and see what sonic and musical quality I will be getting then. As I said, the AD122 does a phenomenal job with FM signal. Let see how it will be able to handle Stellavox 15ips ½ track….

I got last night an interesting collection of many dozens reel-to-reel tapes.  They are recordings of 1975-79 seasons of Metropolitan Opera mostly with James Levine. All reels are in meant condition, in own plastic bags, scrupulously numbered, annotated; and use high quality, high output, low noise tape. They are not high speed recordings but still have good quality. Also, some of the boxes are staffed with programs, production notes and etc…

It is most likely that the people who did it are already dead but spinning those reels and dealing with their notes is very special feeling, practically since they are live recordings. The recordings did not sound like FM recordings and I have no idea what was the source. Perhaps they are the low speed dubs of the sound-check master tapes… I do not know…. But I do know what I will be doing during those long and rainy Boston’s winter evenings…