You've got yourself a goodly amount of Sony there. Nice.
Rolls Royce of Cassette Decks
- Thread starter Snade
- Start date
Messing with this latest Nakamichi recording setup going 2 years now. Since I been using different recording source which are from the new release digital files and a lot of the the old school vinyl and reel to tape. Along the way, my integrated amp with phono section died 2 years ago so I ended up getting a separate phono preamp and a RCA / DBX router. Since when I got the Vista Phono 2 preamp, I found myself recording more now in getting the old school vinyl pressings with a higher analog SQ even in good to very good LP condition. To get that good information from the LP, I have to make sure that all geometrical axis on the turnatable are in specs including a steady (non skating) arm, tracking, the right cartridge, stylus and properly set to the preamp. I recorded over 200 vinyls using Empire cartridges, Shure V15 Type III, AT-VM745xML... and the results are astounding. I just found out that that the Vista Phono 2 preamp is perfectly matched to the Nakamichi Decks. I have tried 4 different decks from a 2 heads, 3 heads, manual and auto calibration. All decks have the same recording results. The information I'm getting from the vinyl are more musical and more balanced especially from the original or closer non remastered pressings. The very first time I saw the cassette recording level dialed 12 o'clock instead of the usual 2 o'clock. Impressively even the type I tapes comes to life. I cannot believe after I changed my mind and used a TDK Type I instead of Type II and recorded the 1982 Patrick Cowley / Sylvester album came out to be one of my best recordings.
Pros:
I found out that this preamp is so flexible and a so compatible with Nakamichi decks. Since I heard the results of the Turntable, Vista Phono 2 straight to the Nakamichi recording deck. This is by far, the purest recording I ever made in a LP source. The difference on the digitized ripped and this method is night and day. It even made the old Type I tapes record biasing so flexible on-the-fly that you can noticeably hear the adjustments in a 10 second test run. I can hear the recorded details even if I dial the bias to + "warm side". The settings are so wide that I can use almost any kind of new or old cartridges. I tried the new Audio Technica and old Shure and they sound like gold.
The other side:
The hundreds of recordings came out that good and I have to set aside the needle drops and digital file source recordings. It gave me an addiction and I have to buy old records to get a high SQ and sometimes the use of a micro linear stylus so I can reach all the way down to clean groove so I can get the most out the record. For short, it can be expensive for me now to buy records again like how we use to do it back in the 80's just to record it with no recording buddy to split with.
In my opinion this is not an under $500 budget preamp. There is too much quality in it that you won't experience in others. The newer phono 2 has built in toroidal transformer which is a big plus. I just thought I'd let you guys know. Thanks... HM
Pros:
I found out that this preamp is so flexible and a so compatible with Nakamichi decks. Since I heard the results of the Turntable, Vista Phono 2 straight to the Nakamichi recording deck. This is by far, the purest recording I ever made in a LP source. The difference on the digitized ripped and this method is night and day. It even made the old Type I tapes record biasing so flexible on-the-fly that you can noticeably hear the adjustments in a 10 second test run. I can hear the recorded details even if I dial the bias to + "warm side". The settings are so wide that I can use almost any kind of new or old cartridges. I tried the new Audio Technica and old Shure and they sound like gold.
The other side:
The hundreds of recordings came out that good and I have to set aside the needle drops and digital file source recordings. It gave me an addiction and I have to buy old records to get a high SQ and sometimes the use of a micro linear stylus so I can reach all the way down to clean groove so I can get the most out the record. For short, it can be expensive for me now to buy records again like how we use to do it back in the 80's just to record it with no recording buddy to split with.
In my opinion this is not an under $500 budget preamp. There is too much quality in it that you won't experience in others. The newer phono 2 has built in toroidal transformer which is a big plus. I just thought I'd let you guys know. Thanks... HM
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