Doshi Tape Pre

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
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Apr 2, 2013
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Location
Sarasota, FL
Myles - any initial thoughts on the new Doshi Tape Pre? I'm still shopping for one. Is this the one?
 
I haven't heard Nick's tape pre in my system but Larry Marcus was in town this week to hear the system with Nick's new phono and dropped by Friday; he wants me to hear it! :) So maybe one day Nick will drive up with one to hear!

Listen there are two units in my estimation and experience to consider: the King-Cello and the Doshi. But if the new tape is anything like the phono...
 
Fortunately or unfortunately, I have had pleasure of having most of commercially available tapehead preamps both solid state and tube types in my room temporarily or permanently. In addition, I have the Manley Tube Tapehead preamp, Ampex 350, 351, 354, and MR70 connected to Studer A80RC MkII and A820s' repro heads.

They are all different sounding and have good & bad points in their own ways and I rotate them regularly.

However, when I have occasion to play good master tapes for my friends, I use Studer as transport and Doshi tapehead preamp.
 
Mike,
Thought you were using Kara's DeHavilland tape pre? No?
I would highly recommend Nick's tape pre. I use a very early gen of his that used to be Larry's. Nick was incredibly accommodating and adjusted the tape pre to my nagra t.
His new tape pre was at Axpona and hopefully you had a chance to see it. I've got a few pics i can post of the new pre but no pics of the outboard power supply. It is similar to mine but far more user friendly and adjustable in terms of setting up for different decks/heads. It also has meters. It is the pre i would upgrade to when possible.
Chris
 

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Chris - it had a horrible hum that couldn't be fixed despite insistence on shipping my R2R AND tape preamp back to Oregon TWICE. Kara blamed Jeff (of J-Corder). Jeff blamed Kara. Problem never was solved. I got my money back.
 
Unfortunately that kind of stuff can happen. An internal wire too close to a motor, etc. and hum. Happened to me in one channel and best thing that happened was going straight out of the head block, not routing it out the back of the deck, to the tape repro. That's why having Nick or Charlie come over and make sure everything works, the heads are aligned optimally for the flattest and most extended FR is the best way to proceed.

Mike: I assume Jeff has your unit wired out the back?
 
He does Myles and he checked it with his tape pre and said it was fine.
 
Ki Choi said:
Fortunately or unfortunately, I have had pleasure of having most of commercially available tapehead preamps both solid state and tube types in my room temporarily or permanently. In addition, I have the Manley Tube Tapehead preamp, Ampex 350, 351, 354, and MR70 connected to Studer A80RC MkII and A820s' repro heads.

They are all different sounding and have good & bad points in their own ways and I rotate them regularly.

However, when I have occasion to play good master tapes for my friends, I use Studer as transport and Doshi tapehead preamp.
Click to expand...

Ki- I'm curious to hear your thoughts with regards to the Ampex 350s.
 
Mark

Ampex 350 is a fine tube tape head preamp. Some of the heads with less ~200 mH output inductance may not be as well suited due to relatively low gain compared to other non-Ampex preamps but it sounds very pleasing for 60's and 70's US recorded tapes with Rock music especially. On the other hand, it's not as quiet as SS types such as Cello Audio Suite P603 (and its distant cousin King Cello) and modern Manley and Doshi. It can be a very satisfying reproduction preamp for home audio use but not as a tool for master tape digitizing setup, IMO.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
What did the Manley sound like Ki?
Click to expand...

Myles - I use Manley when I run into odd EQ'ed tapes that require tweaking beyond the usual IEC and NAB when transferring to digital.

Manley has to be the most flexible tape head preamp ever made. It is like having a Cello Audio Palette for tape heads!

Most of the master tapes have test tones for particular EQ used for specific speed in the beginning. However, these tones don't necessarily match the standard MRL tape tone levels in most cases in my experience. Sometimes machine's head condition (such as wear, Zenith & Azimuth) at the time of that master tape was recorded would have huge impact as expected. The test tone frequencies might have been flat at the time of recording but the tape can deviate its frequency outputs if played on a different machine that was calibrated with MRL tape. Thus, if one would play the "odd" master tape on a standard EQ'ed machine, it would sound just as nice but not necessarily accurate sound in regards to what the engineer heard as he/she recorded and played back. I can only imagine what Abby Road Studio people must have gone through to set up their repro machine (Studer A80RC) to match the original Beatles tapes for their releases...

With Manley, I can dial in as close to the original response test tone as possible by using Level, Very High, High, and Low adjustments (as I recall from memory while not being home). However, because it is too flexible and don't have any preset EQ settings, it's not user friendly for home use (unless your tape collection is only one speed and one EQed tapes).

Although few others had some problems with Manley not being responsive from Very High Frequency adjustment knobs but I had good luck when the repro head is relatively new or recently relapped.

Manley's sound is far from Ampex 350/351/354 that are somewhat lushy tube sound to me. The Manley is closer to SS sound - more transparent (and analytical as golden ears would describe) than warm sound to my common man's ears.
 
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