The rare Klipsch Demo Reel to Reel Tape

[Ki Choi]

We had few of the hardcore tapeheads in Pacific northwest get togther at my place to hear the rare Klipsch tape played on a Studer A820 machine.

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww38/KiChoi/Audio/Tape%20Club%20of%20the%20Northwest/DSC_1268.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww38/KiChoi/Audio/Tape%20Club%20of%20the%20Northwest/Tape_details.jpg

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww38/KiChoi/Audio/Tape%20Club%20of%20the%20Northwest/DSC_1269.jpg

the tape belongs to Dr. Phillip Chance who is operatin the machine.

Let me know if you want to see more.

Ki

[LarryC]

Ki, is that Studer still made? Wonder what it's worth? What a great picture!

Got any pictures of the group?

Larry

[Ki Choi]

Hi Larry:

The Studer analog tape recorders are no longer made or supported. However, there are still large number of Studer master recorders at studios and homes of few people.

Prices of Studers can vary very widely depending on its conditions but still pretty pricey in comparision to some of the other recorders.

I'll try to dig up the photos of the tapeheads in our area.

Ki

[dtel]

Very cool. [Y]

[jcmusic]

Hey Ki,

Glad to see you here again, nice pic's. What's on the tape?

Jay

[boom3]

any chance this could be burned to a CD and made available to Forum members, please?

[artarama]

http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww38/KiChoi/Audio/Tape%20Club%20of%20the%20Northwest/Tape_details.jpg

Very nice! I really enjoyed reading the tape details in this link. I guess that would certainly indicate how PK felt about "dial twiddling"

Any idea how many copies of that tape were made or still exist?

[Ki Choi]

Hey Ki,

Glad to see you here again, nice pic's. What's on the tape?

Jay

Hi Jay:

Happy to be here and I am playing the Khorns again.

It was the actual Klipsch demo tape that was being played on A820 when the photos were taken. We were giggling like little girls as Rich Brown explained how rare the tape was. The tape came in a 7" reel and only had ~15 min worth of awesome organ music playing at 15 ips. It was so fragile, I had to library wind it on a 10" metal reel before we got to play it.

As you can see in one of the photos, I also dubed on to a A810 using RMG911 tape and also as a DSD 5.6 file.

Ki

Ki

[Ki Choi]

Any idea how many copies of that tape were made or still exist?

Rich Brown told me that he thought there were less than 10 ever produced for Klipsch sales force and wasn't meant to be distributed as a product.

Based on the sound quality of the tape, PWK must have sold quite a few pairs of Klipsch speakers. It is amazing sound now but think of people's reactions in 1957 when they first heard the organ bass pedal notes flapping their pant legs through the Khors... I know I would have lost my bladder control if I were there...

[joshnich]

Way cool!

[Dennie]

Very Cool, that for posting this!

Here are the Pictures......

[greg928gts]

That's very cool Ki, wish I could have been there.

I actually have a Studer A820 in storage at my shop. Unfortunately it doesn't work, it's a parts machine for my friend Sergei over in Russia. He's got two of them over there, one that he uses.

Too bad, it would be nice to be able to use this.

Greg

[Ki Choi]

Hi Greg:

It seems to me from the photo, the Studer A820 you have is a two track 1/2" machine. I have both 1/4" and 1/2" two track Studer A820s and few other studio master recorders. Playing master/dub tapes on Studer through Khorns is very special.

Yes, the Studer A820 is probably the most flexible but at the same time the most complex reel to reel machine ever produced in my opinion. The 1/4" Studer A810 that is smaller and shares same audio electronics with A820 and it is very popular model to audiophiles these days.

Let me know if you want to learn more about the Studer recorders.

[Travis In Austin]

Wow, how cool that must have been.

Ki, if you want to know a little more about these tapes you can go here:

http://forums.klipsch.com/blogs/amy/archive/2008/03/10/who-here-remembers-klipschtape.aspx



They were not demo tapes, they were sold seperately, but what you all had certainly looks like it could be a prototype for the tapes they eventually issued. Amy has not
been able to tell me yet how many were sold and what outlets they were
sold through. At some point they switched to a state of the art ampex
deck and and started recording at 7.5 ips, two track stereo. The tape y'all have appears to be almost a prototype. As the blog entry above mentions, it appears that 8 titles were made by Klipschtape, 7001 to 7008. I am attaching the insert for KST--7001, and it is 7.5 IPS stereo. I am guessing that 7001 was the first tape in the series, so what was the tape you all had, something that John Eargle sent to dealers to see if they had an interest in selling the tapes? Dr. Edgar new John Eargle, in fact I think there was a SoCal Klipschowners meeting that John Eargle spoke at. Unfortunatley he passed away a few years ago before I had a chance to try and ask him some of these questions.

Paul indicates in
the box insert that one of the channels was recorded with increased bass
response? The insert indicated that it was a stereo recording, but
under the specifications section he says that one channel is boosted in
some way. Could you tell a difference between the left right channel? I
guess at that period of time they were thinking that most people were
going to be playing back in mono? Or this could have been one of John
Eargle's first attempt at recording, although I think he worked for
Mercury Records before coming to work for Paul. Maybe stereo was so new
that John didn't understand that you don't want to record one channel
with boost on a stereo tape?

Did the owner of the tape provide any insight on these issues?

Travis

[Ki Choi]

Paul indicates in the box insert that one of the channels was recorded with increased bass response? The insert indicated that it was a stereo recording, but under the specifications section he says that one channel is boosted in some way. Could you tell a difference between the left right channel? I guess at that period of time they were thinking that most people were going to be playing back in mono? Or this could have been one of John Eargle's first attempt at recording, although I think he worked for Mercury Records before coming to work for Paul. Maybe stereo was so new that John didn't understand that you don't want to record one channel with boost on a stereo tape?

Did the owner of the tape provide any insight on these issues?

Hi Travis:

Thanks for the link. I thought it was appropriate to share the Klipsch tape experience here and hopefully get more Khorn users to try tapes.

Playing the tape through the Studer A820 -> Manley Reference Preamp -> Bryston 7BSST2s -> Maggie 20.1 and later Khorns (stock), we didn't hear any abnormalities in levels and bass responses. I was also dubbing the fragile tape to anther machine and was watching the levels very closely. Dr. Phillip Chance, who brought over the tape had purchased it on eBay I believe but was afraid to play it multiple time on his Ampex 351 machine which is a beast...to say the least.

The tape running at 15ips and the sound was awesome even with the tape hiss.

[Mallette]

I'd love to hear those. I certainly disagree right off with the notes about how the mikes were placed. For any pipe organ properly mated to its structure there is a "right" place in the building where your ears want to be regardless of the repertoire. I think the change of "seat" is probably a bit disconcerting.

Dave

[Travis In Austin]

The tape running at 15ips and the sound was awesome even with the tape hiss.

Ki,

Thanks for the follow up. There was a signigicant amount of hiss at 15 IPS? Those old Concords must have had a 40 db S/N. Can you make heads or tails of the insert, Paragraph 4 where it discussed "preferred bass" and speakers of differnet frequency response?

Travis

[boom3]

Any chance this could be burned to CD and made available to Forum members?

[Travis In Austin]

There was a bit of promo history between Klipsch and Orr Industries/Irish Recording Tape

[Mallette]

There was a bit of promo history between Klipsch and Orr Industries/Irish Recording Tape

With all due respect to PWK, Irish was awful tape.

Dave