Quote Originally Posted by tube fan
Unfortunately, close copies of master tapes, if available, would cost hundreds (and would be worth it!). Maybe someone is going to bring back tapes at an affordable price. There was a time we could buy tapes, but then came the crapy cassette. CDs almost killed off vinyl, but it now seems vinyl will outlive CDs! Turntables and cartridges are far from perfect, and, IMO, current vinyl cannot come close to matching master tapes (or very close copies). Tapes through the Evolution Acoustics speakers sounded better than the best of the King, Audio Note, and Lotus systems: clear, but not hard; tonally saturated, but not soft or slow; unlimited dynamics both micro and macro.
Hi

I read a review at the VSAC show where Audio Note had a Tape machine and the guy loved the sound of the room. So that had my interest up and your comments mirror those. I am sure Peter has a deep collection of tape and reel to reel machines. He has warehouses of stuff from competitors. I am always amused to see a Picture of an Avante Garde Duo in his closet behind a bike. Put $25,000 speakers in the closet -

Check out the ridiculous size of this room the AN E was in - Probably didn't have enough speaker cable to put them in the corners.

http://www.theanalogdept.com/vsac08.htm