The A/V Thread

[flowersofnight]

How about a different kind of graph? I tried capturing a 400Hz reference tape with the CR-70 and DR-2 and normalizing both to -6dB for a head-to-head comparison:

CR-70:


DR-2:


Computer-generated pure 400Hz sine wave:


The overall noise level is pretty similar apart from the DR-2's spikes in the high end. The CR-70's high end bends up uniformly a little more instead - maybe those are just two different ways of handling the same phenomenon.
The "side spikes" on the CR-70 are odd. They are at precisely 35Hz above and below the main 400Hz peak, so it doesn't seem random. I wonder if this is a problem or what - is something 54dB below the peak even audible?

 

[flowersofnight]

Counterpoint: at 3000Hz the CR-70 is unmistakably better.

CR-70:


DR-2:

 

[cardy]

I need to get a testing tape(s) to see if my deck is acting funny.
Would you recommend an azimuth specific tape, you shared a link to one last year, or is better to go with a specific tone tape like you have here.

I believe the tape you linked is the one being sold by this person:
https://naks.es/calibration-tapes/

The thing I wonder about....is if all decks / players have some sort of spike in their frequency range and will never be perfect like the computer generate tone shows?

 

[flowersofnight]

Would you recommend an azimuth specific tape, you shared a link to one last year, or is better to go with a specific tone tape like you have here.

What exactly are you troubleshooting?
Azimuth tapes are good for nothing else except calibrating azimuth, they're recorded in a different way from normal tapes. And if you are doing azimuth, you also need a 1kHz head height tape.

If you want the naks.es tapes I'll sell you mine for che$p - slightly used of course. I traded up to different tapes from ANT Audio and GennLab in the process of wrasslin' with this CR70.

The thing I wonder about....is if all decks / players have some sort of spike in their frequency range and will never be perfect like the computer generate tone shows?

I believe the spikes at the first harmonic and second harmonic, with the second being stronger, is something inherent to tape decks and their magnetic heads. Notice that the 400Hz plot has spikes at 800 and 1200Hz, and similarly with 3000/6000/9000. The other things, like the suspicious 15.7kHz spike on my DR-2, I don't know.
Of course the computer tone isn't perfect either due to quantization noise - a real perfect tone would just be a single sharp spike. I'm too lazy to actually do this but I think if you keep cranking up the bitrate on your generated WAV you can keep pushing down the noise. But even the one I posted has noise well below what you'd get from any physical device.

 

[sanctum]

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit, I had no idea that VHS were still being produced, but Mortiis just went and announced a special repress of his 1997 video release.

 

[flowersofnight]

30 min music video

What, only one song?

I don't know about VHS, but my understanding is that as far as modern-day cassette tapes go, the quality ranges roughly from "abysmal" to "about as good as a decent Type-I tape from back in the day". And new vinyl is trash half the time because they're just wall decorations that they know nobody will ever play. I'm curious if VHS will be any better.
Some of the calibration cassette tapes I have are recorded on this stuff:
https://www.recordingthemasters.com/blank-cassettes

 

[sanctum]

And new vinyl is trash half the time because they're just wall decorations that they know nobody will ever play.

If it is put out by Back in Black then one shouldn't get their hopes up regarding the quality.

I have a couple of Mortiis albums on vinyl and they sound superior to the digital versions that I had been listening to until I switched. Emperor also re-released all of their albums as 'half speed masters' not too long ago and I've heard that those sound incredible.

What, only one song?

His early releases were one big song, split into two parts, with one part occupying each side of the tape/vinyl.