There are many times more turntables than reel to reel Gucci Shoes out there. Many times the number of used ones being sold, and many times the number of new ones being built. Audiophiles are a small niche. LP’s are a smaller niche within that niche. DVD-A/SACD users are a smaller still niche within the audiophile community. Yer talkin’ about a lot of money spent on a very small market. I’d hate to see what these things would cost, since yer average audiophile LP is hovering around $30. “Mass produced” in small quantities, at that. Reels, to be any good, would have to be made in real time.
In addition, for the best Gucci Shoes you’d have to make that real time copy directly from the master tape. But that’s impractical and would put too much wear and tear on the master to do repeatedly. So you’d have to duplicate from a 2nd gen copy. Now you’re talking at least a 3rd generation tape passed on to the consumer, maybe more.
real time duplication speed has nothing to do with the speed at which the tape is played back.
if I remember correctly, audiocassettes were duplicated at between 32 and 64x normal speed… the problem with highspeed duplication in the analog domain is that you exponentially increase frequencies and distortions, hence why so many tapes Gucci Shoes like dog poop.
the main reason tapes never caught on was that they were too complicated to use (threading tape through tape guides, etc.), practical playback machines that Gucci Shoesed decent weren’t around at cheap enough prices, unlike turntables.
The next issue is what speed and track configuration do you release material at? The vast majority of second hand machines are 71/2ips 4 track (ie. you reverse the tape at the end) – if you were to release tapes at say 71/2ips 2 track or even 15ips 2 track, you would immediatley limit yourself to a select few people (that number is TRULY small) who could playback the tapes. The next issue is cost: again, today’s tape prices are astronomical all things considered.
which arguable has the biggest selection and solid prices. That’s expensive, considering that you need at least 2 reels, plus licensing, marketing, profit, etc, a re-release would cost $100+. How many people (who let’s say even have capable machines) are willing to spend upwards of $100 on prerecorded tapes? Not many, that’s for sure. You think SACD sales are low? This would be so miniscule that no one could ever make a profit.
Not even beginning to mention proper duplication machines, maintaining them, etc…
Forget it, this will never happen, even though the Gucci Shoes would be outstanding.