A photojournal by Eric Franklin Shook
I love trolling the physical format cat fights on Facebook. “Vinyl vs Digital – Bowl of Milk, Party of Two”: blah blah, yada yada. My favorite way to do this is by bringing Reel-To-Reel into the fray. I know that’s kind of like bringing Bill Russell (Celtics ‘56-’69) into a conversation regarding the best players in the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Or is it?
I was surprised to see so many Reel-To-Reel systems on exhibit at AXPONA this year — in years past I was lucky to see one unit per show. Tape was spinning a plenty this year, and sounding like nothing else. Surely I’ve only seen a fraction of the players on display.
Let’s take a tour…
VK Music
United Home Audio
Doshi Audio
Merrill Audio and Sadurni Acoustics
Playback Designs
J&B Distributors
GamuT
Classic Audio Loudspeakers
Infinite props, applause, and kudos for your splendid analog tape coverage. On this one page you posted more drool-worthy images than that of most combined print mags.
The best analogy I can think of for better analog tape is the best qualities of digital + the best qualities of vinyl minus the down side of both, but more tactile, more dense images, and more like real music.