Yep, the previous year it was upstairs, and was very good then too. I think one of the blokes who did those shows passed away recently.
That was the crazy R2R world of Lodgesound and sadly Stuart passed away.
That year it was upstairs I remember listening at about 2am with the lights off and it was one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard.
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I would have been wandering around at 2:00 am ish that year too as the blokes with the 4xQuad ESL rig got it working at midnight and woke me up putting it through its paces. I wandered around with a nice bottle of Cote du Rhone until they packed it in. It took several pints of Doom Bar to resuscitate me the next morning, with the inevitable dire consequences that were compounded by the curry. I think Sodders was in the room opposite mine that year, the noisy fucker…
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Sad to hear that.
It just sounded pure or something, not really sure how to describe it but it was special. Why the hell would people go for streaming convenience when they could have sound like that? (Rhetorical).
I thought only the A77 did 7.5/15 ips.
Charlie Chan on pfm has a 15ips r2r but buys the stupidly expensive new recordings.
No, certain versions of the B77 do
Seems there’s enough interest for this to have a dedicated thread 
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Meh…
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There were 2 or 3 big Studers at ETF. Spectacular sound from some tapes.
and there’s plenty of material out there if you’re a lottery winner.
Yes, I was in there too and it was fabulous. I couldn’t stop going back in.
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How long to these old tape reels remain robust enough to be playable? After 40+ yrs id have thought the material would degrade and playing them could make things worse if you don’t know what you’re doing.
This was my favourite show specifically for this reason. Sat in the lounge area, drunk, (because my pre amp was dead), they played Hotel California and I have never heard it reproduced in a way I have enjoyed that much before. It was perfect.
That gear is going to be at the new show next year and I’ll possibly go to it just to have a listen to it again.
There’s an issue with, most infamously, Ampex Grand Master tapes from the 70s & 80s, but also some other makes of tape that had similar back coating, which pretty much covers all the studio output over that period. It’s called Sticky Shed Syndrome, (SSS), the tapes basically become hygroscopic and when played they deposit crap all over the machine and it gums up. it’s a big problem, the tapes have to be treated in a dehydrator and that’s only a temporary fix, if it works at all.
A few years back, Martin Hannetts stash of Joy Division and New Order etc studio demos was found, but it’s all sticky and all but unusable.
Maxell, EMI and Zonal seem to not suffer from it, so they’re older tapes to look out for. Obviously new production tape is safe.
Repeated play will wear the tape but a well adjusted machine handles the tape quite gently so you could probably equate the wear to a record played on a good TT with a properly balanced and aligned arm/cart.
I really don’t know. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve bought quite a few pre-recorded 3 3/4 & 7 1/2 ips tapes most of which must be from the 60’s and they seem ok. That said I haven’t played any of the 7 1/2 ones yet for want of a suitable & working machine. (I have a suitable machine, Tandberg 62, but it’s not working)
I was advised that there are two levels at which you can get into playing these more readily available & realistically priced tapes. The first & cheapest is to go for a machine like the ubiquitous AKAI 4000 (or one of its variants) or perhaps one of the Sonys such as the TC377 or 399. But these machines are single motor using a variety of clutches & belts for transmission.
Going a bit higher gets you into the semi-pro Revox A77 or B77 territory or perhaps one of the Teacs. These have multiple (usually 3) motors and just function better. I was warned about some of the Revoxes that while mechanically sound, the electrolytic caps can need replacement with age. Supposedly less of an issue with the Teac models but who knows? That’s about as far as I’d want to go and as I said earlier the music that’s available at sensible prices is mostly classical & Jazz.
I was talking to one individual about what people played on these & he said they just record their cd’s & vinyl to tape because they like the effect of the tape & playback electronics many of these machines have. That seems daft to me but certainly the sound quality from some of the pre recorded reels I’ve bought merits more investigation.
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Yeah, I do that sometimes, but given the cost of new blank tape, and even decent 2nd had stuff, you really have to want to do it.
I have been wondering about what the studio quality downloads would be like recorded to 15ips would sound like though…
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Why not buy that Kraftwerk tape on eBay for £900+ to find out?
There is just no way I would buy something like that without provenance. All those UK master clones finding their way to Slovenia and then being available for big money. Just doesn’t smell right to me.
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No there seems to be quite a few out of various other East European ‘studios’ as well. You’d really want to be sure they weren’t some CD recorded with the top rolled off to hide the signature.
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The fact that it’s Agfa tape in an EMI box sort of makes me think it’s a bit dodgy.
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Slightly worse than the studio downloads, but with added audiophile inconvenience 
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