Rediscovering the reel-to-reel
Years ago when I was still in Asingan trying to figure out what to do with my life, I happened to meet Mr. Mike Acosta. We became immediate buddies because of our common love for one thing: the reel-to-reel tape recorder.
At that time there were just a few people who owned this gizmo. So we had Titong Arzadon and he had this Akai tape recorder with a built-in amp. But not happy with the set up, he bought a separate amp and fed the signal from the tape unit to this external amp. The sound was really glorious.
I bought one year ago from an electronic junk shoppe. It was an Akai tape deck with built in inputs for 2 mikes in case you want to do some Karaoke duet with an equally drunk buddy. It got a sound on sound feature..Meaning, you tape your voice on one track, then rewind it, replay the track and sing you with it with the mike on. Your 2nd singing will be recorded side by side with your first one! Neat huh? Can you do that with your CD player/recorder?
Last night, I dusted my Akai baby and since I was in the yearly process of rearranging my basement ( my den ) I connected the tape deck to a one of those portable Sony portable ( but powerful ) players. Tried playing and assessing the sound. Maybe I have been listening to the tape deck when I was a kid and thus my hearing is biased. But it seems the sound of the tape deck has a quality which is never heard of in CDs.
I know, I know. It takes an effort to put on one tape into the machine for playing. And you have to reverse it afterwards which takes a few more fumbling with butterfinger hands. Then you can not buy pre-recorded tapes for this baby anymore. Even blank tapes are nowhere to be found.
But still once in a while, I play it just to be mesmerized by the two reels turning around and around.
It is very hypnotic. And the sound, in my opinion sounds better than some CDs in its own way. I did not say it is absolutely better than CDs. I added the phrase "in its own way."...:)
Yea man, I rediscovered my Akai toy and brings me back to the 60s each time I play it in my den. ----#
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