I mentioned earlier that I had acquired an Otari tape machine. Since then, my interest in tape has mostly revolved around recording high‑resolution digital sources onto tape with very good results, especially when the original music source was an old analog master.
Recently, while buying some vintage electronics on Craigslist for my next project, the seller asked if I might also be interested in some vintage pre-recorded tapes he had for sale. They had apparently been inherited from his grandfather. I decided to take a look. He brought out two large boxes filled with 7‑inch tapes, all dating from 1956 to 1965. Some genres didn’t interest me much, like Christmas music or movie soundtracks, but I selected a batch of tapes that seemed promising. All of them were recorded on acetate tape at 7.5 ips. Most were 4‑track stereo, with a few 2‑track tapes as well. The condition was excellent—some were still sealed and had never been played. I offered him about $1.50 per tape, and he accepted.
Back home, I started listening. My Otari can play both 15 ips and 7.5 ips tapes with either NAB or CCIR equalization, so I set it to 7.5 ips, 4‑track NAB mode, and selected a reference fluxivity of 185 nWb/m.
The first thing I noticed was the hiss level: much higher than what I’m used to with contemporary RTM tape. I expected this, since I’ve heard similar hiss on high‑resolution transfers of vintage masters (you can find many on Qobuz and elsewhere). Even so, the hiss was still less intrusive than groove noise on vinyl records of the same era. Another obvious issue is a cross talk in 4-track tapes. I could hear faint sound from opposite track in pauses. Strangely level of that cross-talk varied, like track position on tape was not uniform for different tapes.
The tapes were in great physical shape, leaving only a tiny amount of oxide dust after running through the Otari. Sound quality varied significantly—much more than between different vinyl pressings. Two tapes were duds, with audio quality resembling AM radio. But the others generally exceeded the sound quality of vinyl records from the same period. Based on this experience, if you own a tape machine, 60‑year‑old tapes may actually be a better bet than 60‑year‑old vinyl.
I was also surprised by the original retail prices. Many tapes still had printed or stickered prices of $7–10, which was a lot of money in 1960.
I logged all of these tapes into my Discogs collection and was pleasantly surprised to see that their average sale price is around $30 each. So if I ever decide to part with them, I should be able to make a nice profit.
Recently, while buying some vintage electronics on Craigslist for my next project, the seller asked if I might also be interested in some vintage pre-recorded tapes he had for sale. They had apparently been inherited from his grandfather. I decided to take a look. He brought out two large boxes filled with 7‑inch tapes, all dating from 1956 to 1965. Some genres didn’t interest me much, like Christmas music or movie soundtracks, but I selected a batch of tapes that seemed promising. All of them were recorded on acetate tape at 7.5 ips. Most were 4‑track stereo, with a few 2‑track tapes as well. The condition was excellent—some were still sealed and had never been played. I offered him about $1.50 per tape, and he accepted.
Back home, I started listening. My Otari can play both 15 ips and 7.5 ips tapes with either NAB or CCIR equalization, so I set it to 7.5 ips, 4‑track NAB mode, and selected a reference fluxivity of 185 nWb/m.
The first thing I noticed was the hiss level: much higher than what I’m used to with contemporary RTM tape. I expected this, since I’ve heard similar hiss on high‑resolution transfers of vintage masters (you can find many on Qobuz and elsewhere). Even so, the hiss was still less intrusive than groove noise on vinyl records of the same era. Another obvious issue is a cross talk in 4-track tapes. I could hear faint sound from opposite track in pauses. Strangely level of that cross-talk varied, like track position on tape was not uniform for different tapes.
The tapes were in great physical shape, leaving only a tiny amount of oxide dust after running through the Otari. Sound quality varied significantly—much more than between different vinyl pressings. Two tapes were duds, with audio quality resembling AM radio. But the others generally exceeded the sound quality of vinyl records from the same period. Based on this experience, if you own a tape machine, 60‑year‑old tapes may actually be a better bet than 60‑year‑old vinyl.
I was also surprised by the original retail prices. Many tapes still had printed or stickered prices of $7–10, which was a lot of money in 1960.
I logged all of these tapes into my Discogs collection and was pleasantly surprised to see that their average sale price is around $30 each. So if I ever decide to part with them, I should be able to make a nice profit.
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