I have been making a lot of tapes to listen to with my Walkman lately. I have Tidal and can download music on my phone and it sounds "perfect" but it's missing something. When I record the same music to tape, from the same source, it seems improved somehow. I realize that the wow and flutter are non-existent on the digital version as is tape hiss. I guess I am lucky as my aging eardrums no longer pick up the frequencies associated with hiss but I can still hear wow and flutter well. Despite all the drawbacks, I prefer listening to the tapes over listening to the original streams or cd's. It doesn't seem to make as much difference with speakers as with headphones. The tapes are just less fatigueing than the digital source even though they are recordings of the digital source. Maybe the hiss helps smooth out or fill in the sound somehow. As I said earlier, I can't actually hear the hiss so I don't know if that would make any difference to me. All that I am sure of is that I can listen to tapes for hours at a time through headphones but I usually don't get that immersed in the digital version of the same music. What are Y'alls opinions on the subject? Thanks a lot! Gene
This is a nice video to compare different results. I think in the big debate people miss that the equipment might "color" the sound and some people prefer different versions rather than the "pure" digital version. It's kind of like water, distilled water tastes horrible, add some impurities and it tastes great!
In a nutshell yes. I struggle with it. Trying to understand how. I had read about this phenomena for a few years and wanted to experience it myself. Now I get to hear it too. I tried some old TDK MA-R tapes and there was even more wonderful resonance. Maybe some kind of Nakamichi house sound going on too. I don't know. I just describe it as resonance. Easily heard with headphones. Especially with a great amp.
