8/8/95 TO: Reel-to-Reel Tape Enthusiasts REV 4 FROM: Charles King PO Box 116 East Berlin, CT. 06023 USA SUBJECT: LIST OF HALF-TRACK STEREO PRE-RECORDED TAPES ---- -- ---------- ------ ------------ ----- Folks, Welcome to the wonderful world of Half-Track Stereo Reel-to-Reel tapes. This list has taken shape over many years, and resulted from a realiza- tion that there is a dearth of current information regarding this medium. Tapes have been alluded to in the High-End journals, and a few reviews of RCA Quarter-Track tapes were published in SOUNDS LIKE magazine, but thats it. The reasons for this lack of information probably relate to the scarcity of tapes themselves. Let me try and list a few reasons: 1. The AGE of the tapes - realize that we are talking about tapes that were only produced in quantity for about six years beginning around 1954. Monaural full or half-track pre-recorded tapes were first made available in the early Fifties and were superceeded when the "Stereo Age" arrived. Tape head technology advanced sufficiently by the early Sixties so that Quarter-Track tapes with their doubled playing time killed off the Half-Track medium. 2. The original PRICE of the tapes - people squawk about the price of CD's these days. Well, Half-Track stereo pre-records cost $10-$20 back in the mid Fifties! This high price coupled with the high price of recorders must have made collecting a rich man's hobby. All this led to ... 3. The QUANTITY of tapes produced - my current list contains around 1900 titles, which is significantly more than the 450 or so titles in the first list. I'm guessing that the total number of titles will top out around 2000, with only a few produced in any quantity, so the total number of tapes sold probably totalled in the low millions (compared with LP sales in the many billions). How many are left today?? 4. The "STATE OF THE ART" in the late 50's - wasn't that great. All contemporary sources I've read stated that the tape medium had superior sound, which probably had more to do with crummy phono equipment in general use at that time. As we've come to find out (luckily) the Neumann's, RCA's and Ampex's of that day could capture marvels on red oxide and early mylar that the playback technology of today continues to reveal. Anyway, I've found that almost all of my tapes have made it to the present with little or no degradation in sound, with no high frequency erasure that I can detect, and with only a few tapes warped due to improper handling. THE LIST I put the list together from a number of sources. The RCA, MERC and CONCERTAPE listings come from catalogs which were included with a number of the tapes themselves. David Yates from Il. filled in the EVEREST list and helped with a number of other labels. The British COLUMBIA/EMI/HMV titles result from my acquisition of a 1961 GRAMMOPHONE Catalog with blanks were filled in by Heinz Theis. Richard Brown here in Ct. provided invaluable aid in cross-referencing the RCA and MERC titles to records; and he traveled to New York City to get copies of HARRISON tape catalogs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein archives at Lincoln Center. The HARRISON catalog was a quarterly publication devoted solely to tapes and was available from the late Fifties until the early Seventies. They are quite rare today. I'd also like to thank Rich for getting me involved in this hobby in the first place. A final thanks to Tom Sutkowski, also in Ct., for letting me audition around 30 tapes I'd yet to hear; a lot of them EVEREST'S. MY SYSTEM/PREJUDICES Before discussing tape sonics I must begin by telling you my prejudices and describing my listening system. Ninety percent of the music I listen to is classical, with the rest discribed as "everything else". My father taught classical piano and organ, my mother singing; (in our house) so I believe that I have a pretty good ear (and memory) for how those (and other) instruments should sound. I regularly attend concerts and recitals. I have had the good fortune of hearing a number of master tapes (from first to fourth generation) played back on "classic" tape machines over audiophile quality systems. The tape machines include Ampex 601, 300 350, AG-440 and MR-70 (an acquaintance has 3 of these!); Revox G-36, A-77, B-77, A-700; Crown 724; Tandberg 64X (a sleeper - try finding a 2 track 62X), TD-20ASE; Nagra and Stellavox. I am a confirmed tubeophile and have settled on the Revox G-36 for a number of reasons including great sound, reasonable cost (and size), phenomenal reliability, and the fact that important parts are still available from the manufacturer even though the deck has been out of production for 25 years. My deck has a number of modifications and I will discuss one in particular because it affects everyday listening. I've found that a number of pre-recorded tapes suffer from an overly bright or "hot" high end. The MERC's are the most noticeable. Even though the industry had a standardized response curve to which they could adhere, it sure sounds like a few tape dubbing operations boosted the high frequencies probably to make the tapes sound better on cheaper systems. Anyway I, in effect, added a "treble" control to my machines which can cut (or boost) the response around 10KHz by as much as 8-10Db. The boost can also help other tapes which are deficient in the highs. If you're really into tapes, yet don't have the luxury of modifying your playback machine, you might want to consider running the output through a preamplifier with tone controls. It will make a difference. The output goes to a Marantz 7/8B combination (with new capacitors). The speakers are New York Acoustics four-ways. TAPE SONICS The number of listings with a sonic rating attached may look pretty meager. Back in November 1991, before I obtained HARRISON information which added a number of obscure labels to the list, the ratio was a lot higher. Well, thats the current state of things. I've auditioned everything I could get my hands (ears) on. Some labels are rare enough that I've NEVER seen any of their listings. I've adopted a simple A, B, C rating system. Let's start with the C grade first. The C's have problems, typically distortion or some uncorrectable tonal aberration such as nothing below 150 Hz. (as on BEL CANTO ST-23), or unbearable brightness (as on RCA GCS-151). To me they are unlistenable, and I've gotten rid of any of them I ever owned. In trying to compare the A versus B categories, let's try this: during an evening of listening to say 2 or 3 tapes, I'd find my attention drifting when listening to a B tape, but with an A tape I'm riveted - there is enough going on that my mind's eye (ear?) sweeps the soundstage in anticipation of more surprises to come. The A+ tapes have that certain J. GORDON HOLT "hair-raising ability". The "spread" of ratings within a label may give you an idea of the label as a whole, i.e. the MERCS seem to be consistently great, but the RCA and CONCERT HALL sonics vary greatly. Realize also that a C graded tape could be a "bad apple" from a bunch, but I doubt it - all 3 copies of RCA ASC-27 I've auditioned have distortion. THE FUTURE This list will continue to evolve (especially if there are folks out there willing to let me borrow tapes to audition), and I may try to issue updates in some yet to be determined manner. Time permitting, a classical list compiled by composer would be helpful. I will keep everyone's address and could perhaps act as a broker for those with tapes to buy or sell. Let me know your ideas. Just to give me something ELSE to do, I may also try to grade some Quarter-Track tapes, and list MONO tapes. We'll see. FINALLY You may have seen the words "STACKED" or "IN-LINE" somewhere on the tape box or reel itself. This means that the left and right channels (tracks) are synchronized in time so they will play with a single half-track stereo playback head. For a short period of time, tapes were also manufactured and labeled "STAGGERED", which meant that the two channels were separated slightly in time, and the stereo effect could only be achieved by TWO half-track reproduce heads separated by a couple of inches. These tapes were made available to enthusiasts with monophonic machines, and separate tape head kits were sold to convert the machines to stereophonic operation. I've seen very few STAGGERED tapes in my searches, which is just as well because I don't have the facility (or interest) to play them. Until next time, KEEP YOUR HEADS CLEAN AND YOUR TAILS OUT. O yeah - listings with a "#" sign are ones I'm currently looking for.