Dear Reader,

Another very geeky newsletter. If you can get through this without falling asleep you will now have a superb understanding of recording techniques that will help you understand the different sound stages you hear from different recordings.
In this issue

• The Absolute Reel Sound №4
  ​by Orest Voznyi
• Beyond the Baffle Part 4: The Celestial Sphere
  ​By Mark Block

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The Absolute Reel Sound №4
​Reviewed by Orest Voznyi

The Definitive Taxonomy of Tape▶️

Prelude: The Consumer Icons — The Soul of the Home Studio

For the modern audiophile, the allure of the consumer reel-to-reel is not merely a nostalgic retreat, but a pursuit of "The Absolute Real Sound". While digital formats offer convenience, they often lack the organic "breath" that defined the golden era of high fidelity. Consumer decks—engineered for the living room but built with the DNA of the studio—offered the first real opportunity for listeners to capture a performance with a dynamic range that surpassed the limitations of vinyl.

Audiophiles covet these machines because they represent the most ""human" interface in audio. The mechanical ballet of the reels and the warm saturation of the magnetic tape create a sonic texture that feels alive. In a world of clinical, compressed files, a well-maintained consumer deck remains a definitive choice for those who want to hear the music exactly as the artist intended, with all its original warmth and history intact.

Revox A-77: The Foundation of Swiss Home Audio

The A77 was Willi Studer’s first major solid-state success, transitioning from the tube-era G36 into a high-reliability, three-motor design. It is the machine that proved a consumer deck could possess true studio-grade mechanical DNA.

• The Technical Detail: It features a robust, die-cast chassis and a direct-drive,electronically governed capstan motor that remains independent of power line frequency. Its modular "plug-in" circuit board design was revolutionary for the time,allowing for specific electronic calibration and much easier servicing than the point-to-point wiring of its predecessors.
• The Sound: Celebrated for its "Golden Era" warmth. The A77 offers a lush, harmonically rich low-end and a smooth, natural high-frequency roll-off. It is less about clinical transparency and more about a cohesive, musical "soul" that makes analog recordings feel incredibly "present".
• The Catch: The early MK I and II versions lack the sophisticated tape tensioning of latermodels. Furthermore, the internal Rifa capacitors are mandatory replacement items as they are prone to failure with age, and the various trim pots often require cleaning to maintain stable bias.

Revox B-77: The Global Standard of Reliability

The B77 refined the A77’s formula into a more professional, logic-controlled package. It became the global standard for radio stations and advanced hobbyists, balancing industrial durability with an interface designed for the refined home listener.

• The Technical Detail: It utilizes a more advanced logic-controlled transport—avoiding the mechanical "clunk" of the A77—and a more sophisticated head-block with improved shielding. It also introduced an integrated splicing block and a built-in headphone amplifier with dedicated level controls.
• The Sound: "Transparent but Organic". The B77 offers a flatter, more modern frequency response than the A77. It provides exceptional midrange clarity, making it the perfect deck for acoustic instruments and vocals, where it preserves the "breath" of the original performance.
• The Catch: The "Nextel" suede-paint finish on the cabinet is notorious for degrading into a sticky mess over several decades. Additionally, the toggle switches are physically fragile and can snap if the machine is moved without protective covers.

Teac X-1000M: The High-Speed Precision Specialist

The "M" designation identifies this as the 2-track, 15-ips mastering version of TEAC’s consumer flagship. This machine was built for the audiophile who wanted to bridge the gap between home listening and professional studio standards.

• The Technical Detail: It features a dual-capstan closed-loop transport designed to reduce wow and flutter to professional levels. It utilizes Cobalt Amorphous (CA) heads for high magnetic flux and incorporates an integrated DBX Type II noise reduction system for massive dynamic range.
• The Sound: "Precision and Detail". At 15 ips, the X-1000M offers a wide frequency response and a very low noise floor. It is highly neutral, making it an excellent choice for those who want to hear the exact contents of a tape without the machine adding its own character.
• The Catch: The DC capstan motors are a known weak point; they can develop speed instability or"dead spots" over time. Additionally, the belt-driven dual-capstan system requires precise maintenance to ensure both rollers are exerting equal pressure.

Teac X-2000M: The Pinnacle of the X-Series

The X-2000M represents the absolute peak of TEAC’s consumer engineering. It took the foundation of the X-1000M and refined the head technology and motor control to the highest possible standard before the industry shifted toward digital.

• The Technical Detail: It features improved Cobalt Amorphous heads and a more sophisticated DC-servo motor system. It includes both DBX Type I (professional) and Type II (consumer) noise reduction, making it uniquely versatile for different tape sources and library types.
• The Sound: "Studio Grade Transparency"". The X-2000M is remarkably flat across the frequency spectrum. It offers a level of clarity and high-frequency extension that is nearly indistinguishable from high-end digital, yet retains the rhythmic "flow" of analog.
• The Catch: Like its predecessor, the motor is the primary concern. Finding original replacements for the DC servo motor is increasingly difficult, and the complex tape path requires a steady hand for cleaning and demagnetizing.

Pioneer RT-2022: The Industrial Modular Statement

A unique entry in the consumer world, the RT-2022 is a two-piece system consisting of the RTU-11 transport and TAU-11 amplifier. It was Pioneer’s attempt to bridge the gap between a high-end home deck and a professional studio workhorse.

• The Technical Detail: It utilizes a massive AC servo motor for the capstan and a rugged, oversized chassis. Its modular nature allows the head-block to be swapped with ease, and the separate amplifier unit provides superior isolation from the transport's mechanical noise and electromagnetic interference.
• The Sound: "Punchy and Forward". The RT-2022 has a very "solid" sonic signature. It lacks the soft roll-off of some European decks, delivering a high-energy, dynamic presentation that is particularly well-suited for rock, fusion, and aggressive jazz recordings.
• The Catch: It is a logistical challenge. The machine is exceptionally heavy and requires a large footprint. Furthermore, the proprietary multi-pin umbilical cables connecting the two units are extremely rare; if they are missing or damaged, the machine is essentially non-functional.

Sony TC-880-2: The Overbuilt Japanese Masterpiece

This was Sony’s "cost-is-no-object" statement. Built to challenge the dominance of European brands, the TC-880-2 was an overbuilt masterpiece that pushed consumer semiconductor and head technology to the absolute limit.

• The Technical Detail: A 36kg beast featuring Sony’s proprietary F&F (Ferrite and Ferrite) heads, which are virtually wear-proof. It utilizes a sophisticated closed-loop dual capstan system and a liquid-crystal level meter, and it was one of the few consumer-facing decks to offer true balanced XLR outputs.
• The Sound: "Massive Authority". The TC-880-2 is famous for its low-end "slam" and unshakeable pitch stability. It offers a sense of dynamic headroom and "weight" that is usually only found in 1/2-inch studio mastering machines, providing a totally neutral window into the tape.
• The Catch: It is a technician’s nightmare. The internal architecture is incredibly dense, and many of the custom Sony ICs and semiconductors are long out of production, making it a high-risk investment for those without access to a specialist.

Technics RS-1500 US: The Isolated Loop Reference

Often cited as the finest transport ever designed for the consumer market, the RS-1500 US introduced the "Isolated Loop" system, a masterclass in mechanical physics designed to eliminate the variables of tape tension.

• The Technical Detail: The RS-1500 is the 2-track + (4-track PB). The centerpiece is the massive 34mm single capstan driven by a Quartz-Locked Direct Drive motor. Two pinch rollers press the tape against this single capstan, creating a "U" loop that isolates the tape from reel vibrations. This results in incredibly low wow and flutter (0.018% at 15 ips).
• The Sound: "Holographic Precision". Because the tape path is so stable, the stereo imaging is remarkably focused. It provides a transparent, wide-bandwidth soundstage that remains steady even during complex passages, delivering detail that rivals professional mastering decks.
• The Catch: The matte-brown finish is very sensitive to scratches. Mechanically, the brake pads are known to glaze over or harden, which can lead to tape "spillage" if the reels are stopped abruptly from a high-speed wind.

Beyond the Baffle Part 4: The Celestial Sphere

By 🍄Mark Block 🍄

If Blumlein, ORTF, NOS, Jecklin, and M-S are all attempts to create a solid, three-dimensional space with two speakers, the Calrec Soundfield microphone took one spacey giant leap forward. In the 1970s, British researchers, including Michael Gerzon, Peter Fellgett, Geoffrey Barton, and Peter Craven, developed Ambisonics, an audacious attempt to capture and reproduce the acoustic sphere around the microphone. Gerzon and Craven then turned that theory into hardware: the Calrec Soundfield microphone.

Their creation was not merely a stereo mic. Instead, it consisted of four closely spaced mic capsules arranged in a tetrahedron—a little pyramid. Rather than outputting simple left and right channels, the Soundfield system can derive four distinct “B-format” channels: W, an omnidirectional signal capturing pressure and low-frequency weight; X, a figure-8 pattern pointing front-to-back; Y, a figure-8 pattern pointing left-to-right; and Z, a figure-8 pattern pointing up-and-down.

In theory, this captures not just left and right, but a map of the soundfield around the microphone: front/back, left/right, up/down, and pressure. The four raw capsule signals are called A-format. The control box then converts them into B-format: W, X, Y, and Z. For LP, CD, and broadcast, B-format could be encoded into two-channel UHJ—a stereo-compatible signal that plays normally through two speakers. Starting in the late 1970s, Nimbus Records released a large catalog of Ambisonic UHJ recordings, especially in classical music, with some flamenco and Indian titles as well. Other labels also released UHJ recordings.

Fun fact for old geezers: The UHJ format could be decoded via commercially available hardware decoders to feed surround speakers—not unlike Dolby Surround—which then recreated a convincing 360º soundfield from the original event. Without the decoder, they still played as stereo—often with an unusually wide, phase-rich soundstage.

In the 1980s and early 1990s—before Dolby Digital and DTS took over the home theater market—there was a dedicated niche of high-end hi-fi gear, mostly British, that proudly featured the “Ambisonic UHJ” logo on the faceplate. In other words, a UHJ decoder was built into the hardware. Bob Stuart, the co-founder of Meridian, was a staunch advocate of the format. It even made a brief appearance in consumer A/V receivers: Onkyo’s early-’90s TX-SV909PRO included an Ambisonic decoder alongside Dolby Pro Logic. It didn’t catch on.

What does it sound like when played back without the Ambisonic UHJ decoder? Try it for yourself! Many Nimbus UHJ recordings are available to stream, so cue up a Nimbus track on Qobuz and listen for that UHJ spaciousness. Even without a decoder, your brain can interpret the embedded phase and amplitude cues as a wide, panoramic soundstage that easily spills outside the physical boundaries of the speakers.

One of my long-time reference tracks used a single Calrec mic without UHJ encoding: the a cappella “Mining for Gold” by the Cowboy Junkies, recorded at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity. Recording engineer Peter Moore dialed in the equivalent of a coincident Blumlein-style figure-8 pair using a Calrec control box, and ran that two-channel stereo output into a heavily modified Nakamichi PCM digital processor feeding a Sony Betamax video cassette recorder. In other words, 16-bit/44.1 kHz digital audio was stored as a monochrome video signal on Betamax tape. No matrixed Ambisonics, no UHJ phase tricks, just a stereo signal straight to early digital.
​
Quick sidebar. The liner notes on the RCA album famously state, “A Digital R-DAT Recording.” In a 2021 interview for SoundStage!, Moore clarified that he used a video-based PCM setup for the final recording, not DAT. He had two systems set up in parallel, but found that “the DAT sounded horrible; it sounded so bad.” Some accounts identify the setup as a Sony PCM-F1 feeding a portable Betamax SL-2000. However, Moore described it as a hot-rodded Nakamichi converter, using Apogee A-to-D discrete circuit modules, feeding what he believed was a full-size Betamax SL-2700. Either way, the important point is the same: this was not DAT, but video-based PCM digital recording.

Most of The Trinity Session featured Margo Timmins singing into a mic some distance from the instruments, with her voice played through a Klipsch PA speaker in front of the band. The sound is very nice, but the Calrec spaciousness is fairly subtle, and Timmins’ vocal is just a bit veiled. The first track, however, was recorded a few days later, without the rest of the group, while the Toronto Symphony Orchestra took a lunch break during rehearsals in the church. Now the mic could pick up Timmins’ lovely, soft voice directly, but the old heating system could not be turned off and was audibly making its presence known, interfering with her quiet singing. According to Moore, he decided the noises added something interesting to the song. The hissing, ghostly clanking, and low rumble can clearly be heard waaaaaaay off to the sides. It’s positively spooky, and gives me goosebumps.

This complicates my earlier neat little theory that Blumlein gives you solidity rather than beyond-the-baffle magic. Moore was apparently using the Calrec control box to create the equivalent of a coincident Blumlein-style figure-8 pair, not a UHJ-encoded Ambisonic release. But a Blumlein-style pattern still hears the rear of the room, and in that church, the rear and side energy was not subtle. The Calrec system may also have generated a very precise virtual stereo pair from its four-capsule array, rather than relying on two separate physical microphones. Moore may even have widened the virtual angle a hair to get the sound he wanted. Add a very quiet singer in a cavernous acoustic, with deep low-frequency rumble and noises from the heating system, and the result can spill way beyond the speakers without any matrixed surround trickery.

And a cautionary tale about this album—not unlike the mangling of Led Zeppelin II on Atlantic, where the great Bob Ludwig’s “light touch” mastering was judged to be unusable, resulting in a reported recall of 100,000 LPs. The LPs that were already sold, bearing the famed “RL” etching in the runout area, are highly prized. Likewise, not a “whole lotta love” was given to the U.S. version of The Trinity Session. The band initially released the album themselves in early 1988 on their independent Canadian label, Latent Recordings. The Latent CD was essentially a flat transfer of Moore’s master tape. It completely preserved the unadulterated output of the Calrec Soundfield microphone, retaining the subterranean low frequencies—including the rumble of the church’s HVAC system and the vibrations from the nearby Toronto subway.

RCA Records bought the rights for worldwide distribution, and the U.S. CD was mastered more conservatively. To my audiophile mind, that immersive, sub-30Hz rumble is “celestial sound.” To a major-label mastering department in 1988, it may well have looked like a liability—something that could blow the woofers out of car stereos and boomboxes all across America. Doug Schneider of SoundStage! Network pointed out this discrepancy, and I was able to add the Canadian CD to my library. When I analyzed my ripped files in Audacity, the Canadian Latent CD preserved substantially more low-bass energy on “Mining for Gold”—about 8 dB more around 29 Hz. That’s not merely bass; it is part of the physical size of the church. By reducing the deep-bass energy, the U.S. CD doesn’t merely sound thinner—it makes the room feel smaller. You have not heard how amazing “Mining for Gold” can sound until you hear the original.

As an aside, my friend Alan Hyman loaned me his Analogue Productions LP, a 2016 reissue remastered by Peter Moore and the Cowboy Junkies from the original session digital tapes, with lacquers cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. On my system, the bass sounds rolled off, the treble boosted, and the presentation seems dynamically compressed compared with the original Latent CD. The result: The church sounds big in a completely different way: That low-level detail and air are bumped way up, so the acoustics are sparkling and lively rather than deep and heavy. The music itself is slow and brooding, so maybe this extra lift makes it less funereal overall.

So for me, the Calrec/Soundfield family—whether decoded to UHJ or used as a direct stereo source—is the stereophonic champ if you care about recording the “absolute sound” of acoustic instruments in a real space. I’m not dismissing the advantages of a purist Blumlein technique: namely, the solidity, size, and dimensionality of the stereo soundstage. As you might know, the word “stereo” comes from a Greek word (στερεός or stereós) meaning “solid” or “stable.” Blumlein does that. I’m merely pointing out that there are legitimate ways to keep almost all the solidity of Blumlein stereo while adding the celestial magic of sounds coming from outside the loudspeakers—and to do it within the confines of a 60º equilateral setup.

As a weird footnote, the first time I became aware of beyond-the-baffle stereo imaging was when a mastering and mixing engineer I used to work with, Bill Blachly, played me a crazy record by Karlheinz Stockhausen. It's a mixture of electronic music with live piano and percussion: Gesang der Jünglinge / Kontakte on DGG. Kontakte used a rotating loudspeaker on a table with multiple microphones to create a 4-track recording. When it was mixed for stereo, the phase weirdness created an amazing soundstage outside the speakers. It blew my mind. Is it the ultimate in celestial sound, a modern music of the spheres? Personally, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

If the Calrec Soundfield and Nimbus UHJ represented the 20th-century approach to folding a 3D acoustic sphere into two channels, the modern spiritual successor is the Norwegian label 2L (Lindberg Lyd). Founded by recording engineer Morten Lindberg, 2L is famous for its staggeringly spacious, almost architectural recordings. Lindberg’s technique is fascinating, and does not attempt to recreate a concert-hall experience. He often arranges musicians strategically around a custom immersive microphone array—the 2L-cube—usually inside highly reverberant churches or halls. He captures the performance in discrete, ultra-high-resolution, multichannel DXD. 2L releases the music in multiple formats: immersive surround, Atmos or Auro-3D, high-resolution stereo, and sometimes good old CD. The high-res stereo possesses a jaw-dropping, beyond-the-baffle spaciousness.

One final question to ponder: If immersive sound is so great, why not get a multichannel system and be done with it? Why search for the few stereo recordings that manage to imperfectly capture and reproduce sound beyond the baffles? For one thing, it’s a great magic trick, and who doesn’t love magic tricks? For another, most of the music I love was recorded in stereo, so why not play it back in such a way that we hear what’s on the stereo tape or in the stereo groove? It also speaks to audiophile obsessiveness in trying to improve our systems and get closer and closer to extracting everything there is—musically and sonically—from a recording, without adding colorations that destroy the illusion. Using these imaging champs as references helps in evaluating systems. So I have a two-channel system for music and a multichannel system for movies and TV shows. Never the twain shall meet.

I lied about one thing. That’s not the final question to ponder. Here’s the second part to that question: Is stereo reproduction fundamentally flawed—well beyond its inability to fully capture an immersive experience? Did Blumlein forget about something? Yes. My friend Ralph Glasgal of Ambiophonics fame has been beating the drum about it for years. Here’s the flaw, stemming from the shape of the human ear—specifically, the outer cartilage called the pinna: The pinna is not just a funnel; it is a complex acoustic filter. It changes the equalization of a sound wave based on the angle at which it arrives. Your brain uses this left/right EQ difference to figure out where a sound is located. This means that the phantom center of a stereo recording will be unnaturally EQed by our pinnae.

How so? When Margo Timmins is singing dead-center on The Trinity Session, the sound isn't coming from dead-center; it’s coming from two boxes sitting 30 degrees to my left and right. A natural sound directly in front of me will hit my face and the front of my ears symmetrically. The pinnae will apply a very specific EQ that adds a cue for my brain to localize the sound. With stereo speakers, the sound arrives from the sides, so the pinna EQ will be wrong. And as discussed previously, the Head-Related Transfer Function (HRTF) will not be correct for anything in the center of the soundstage.

Depending on the listener and geometry, this can cause response errors and comb-filter effects in the region where we are especially sensitive to voice presence and intelligibility—roughly 2 kHz and above. So Blumlein’s phantom center is only a partial success both spatially and tonally. It sounds slightly hollowed out, recessed, or “comb-filtered” compared to the actual singer standing in front of you.

Michael Gerzon and Geoffrey Barton, two key figures in the Ambisonics story, were concerned with this exact problem. They later developed the ideas behind the Trifield matrix, a matrix designed to extract the phantom center from a 2-channel Blumlein or stereo mix and feed it to a physical center speaker to fix the pinna coloration. It’s kind of ironic that for perfect stereo reproduction, we have to put a speaker back where Alan Blumlein started this entire journey: dead center (behind the screen). And for movies, a center-channel dialog speaker remains essential, even though there are ways to digitally recreate a more natural phantom center.

And that brings us to Part 5. Blumlein stereo gets some localization cues beautifully right—and others stubbornly wrong. What if digital manipulation, whether in post-production or playback, can fix those errors and create natural, immersive, or even surround sound from two channels? Next time, we’ll explore everything from Q-Sound to BACCH 3D.

Links:

​https://intothesoundfield.music.ox.ac.uk/michael-gerzon-story​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEr_XfsdfPU​
​https://youtu.be/qmRpys14ggA?si=d5xwIdSdWfDp0EHP​

​https://youtu.be/h_buzqvigDc?si=d69CeScHj4aoxAck​

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