HiFi VHS vs Reel to Reel - Recording direct to tape 

No surprise there. I've been using 4-head HiFi VCRs to record audio for decades. They are great, especially for recording live radio broadcast of shows. You also can take advantage of the built-in Time Recording feature to set the time when it'll record the whole show (including commercials). I've even used it to assist in transfers from vinyl records to tape to preserve the warmer tone. The only thing you need to remember doing is record a blank "leader" about 1 minute in SP mode at the very beginning and end of the tape. Sometimes the ends of the tape are not stable or have wrinkles during the manufacturing. After that, you're fine. You will need to make sure the level is perfect (not too loud going into distortion or risk bleed-through and not too soft you start hearing background noise) before recording.

Before I see the results, my favourite is B. I love what it does to the vocals. So interesting!

Listening on headphones the warmth of the reel to reel was very appealing

Cool! I used to run tests like this in the '90s with DAT, ADAT, a Denon 3-head cassette, crappy soundblaster(s), a Layla20 8-channel A/D, Fostex 4-track cassette and a dbx VCR. The VCR had the best vibe and fidelity on most any mixdown, except that it was too compander-y on close-mic'ed acoustic material unless you wanted that Beatles-y 'smack' to your transients ...but without the lovely Redd console color (eh...). ottomh, your r2r needs new capacitors, and calibration for everything that moves. It sounds like it's being low-passed at a mellow slope (6-12 dB/octave) from about 3kHz upward. You're getting about 5-7dB attenuation @10 kHz compared to the other two files. Transients are smearing; slew is looong due to low capacitance. The VCR is swelling a few dB from about 3-7 kHz; quite strident and boost-y. Might help liven up an old dull master from that r2r some, if it's the only one you've got. Cheers :)

Hifi Vhs holding its own and then some as usual!

Got'em right first time, although I am a bit of a HiFiVCR expert having used them for semi professional applications for the entire 1990s. You need to remember that for the HiFi VCR to do its trickery, it uses a compander to get that dynamic range. Its a very good algorithm, but to a trained ear you can still hear the effect of compression when compared with the other two, a bit like comparing a vinyl record to a song played on the radio. Thats where your "punchier in the louder sections" comes from - the ever so slight delay in the expansion circuit reversing the compression placed there during recording. Of course the true benefit of these machines was the ridiculously long playback time they offered - so we used them mostly for playback and logging of radio programmes. I did also use a Panasonic F65 VHS HiFi deck coupled to a Sony PCM501 for mastering for a time, giving both digital and analog recording on the one tape, which was eye opening in the day especially for the digital crowd where I could instantly fade between the two or even easily have left on one and right from the other. I can say that I often ended up printing the HiFi VHS track instead of the PCM one - and the customer could never tell the difference 🙂

Just a note, on this interesting comparison. The VHS video is a low-end hi-fi recorder, I don't think it even has volume control. Not all VHS hi-fi videos' sound quality is the same! You have hi-fi videos (prices at the time) from 400 to 6000 euros! The difference to the best is abysmal... for example to Panasonic AG-8700 or JVC BR-S822... In any case, the sound quality, even on the lowest line, is excellent. But for high-end, only top-end, usually pseudo-pro or true-pro S-VHS machines.

VHS baby!

There was one mistake and the editor revealed this: you should use a VCR with an input level attenuator and an input level meter to avoid clipping made by an auto leveling system.

VCR is the most bass and wider stage...People dont know the value of such machines .Man SLHF-900 Sony Beta wow!

I also discovered how good VHS HIFI was back in the day. After many comparisons I had yet to find an open reel deck that could match the uncanny replication of an analogue source as a well chosen HIFI VCR. After many listening sessions I found it near impossible to hear differences between a HIFI VHS recording and it's vinyl source... whereas cassette or even expensive open reel decks never sounded identical to the source... I could always hear various degrees of coloration. My personal favourite VHS decks were by Fisher or Sanyo. Their audio sections were designed by DBX which to my ear sounded nearest to perfect of any consumer VHS machines I'd heard and certainly better than cassette or even open reel.

Excelente experimento. Gracias me sirvió!

another thing to add here, Reel to Reel both the medium and media is far more expensive and far more difficult to deal with then VHS. Though VHS often has reliability issues as it gets old, the extreme expense of a truly high quality reel to reel deck (some fully refurbished examples like those "like new" Technics RS-1500s that are being sold these days can cost over $2000) not to mention the sheer amount of space it takes up (both the reels and the deck itself) and the chunkiness of spooling and unspooling reel to reel and the fact that good reel to reel tape has gotten extremely expensive, VHS is a clear winner in most categories.

Great video. More please

Impressive performance!

hi my mate works in that kind of shop he doe's not got alot of VHS in any more i know he allways asking me to check them over there is a format you missed betacam sp i have worked on alot of them over the years i know they are more pro end i have worked on alot of the pro reel to reel decks you used to pick up from ebay in the past you can't find on there now

Epic comparison man , im usually mastering in ozone and def gonna tray the VHS tapes , ive a load here from 80s so that will be interesting hearing if they are different . Mix B stood out as a fat and warm sound and i would describe A as "normal" modern sound

I've got 11 super drives. Amazing.

This video demonstration is awesome. I typed in Panasonic Nv-fs90 to learn more about my vcr. I am so impressed. before the results I chose B time after time. And it was Panasonic!! if this is playback on a cheap Panasonic, then how much more on a professional Panasonic? By the way Technics is Panasonic... they were the kings in Hifi

This is very interesting.

good TC 399. simply is the best.

Very cool and interesting comparison! Do you know if there have been any portable hifi vhs recorders/players (kinda like giant walkmans)? Are there hifi camcorders maybe?

the question is what tape stock did you use. Try it with new production ATR or the like or Maxell UD XL . I own a TC-399 and it can take whatever BIA/EQ out there as it was the last Sony Consumer Reel to reel they made.

The open reel had an issue with the left channel being dull and off balance. Open reel would not normally sound like that. Also was the open reel deck biased for that particular tape? This was a great demo.

Great video thanks! Wondering if a S-VHS tape in a S-VHS recorder would have resulted in even better result?

i just want to know how to record youtube and records and cds to vhs vcr recorder i have a stereo vcr with left and right recording metters i just dont know how to hook anything up thankyou for your video quite intersting.. im a senior so can you explain it slow?

There is distortion from the reel to reel. Maybe rolling down the level a bit could work, or you may need an alignment.

Tank you for the video. EMTEC T 120 work in hifi? Tanks.

Before knowing the result, no 3 is my fave, 2 is a little more louder and 2 sounds like yr typical yt. i think the r2r machine is not running perfectly. I can hear some fluttering

I was able to guess correctly listening on my phone.. I do think the open reel machine should have sounded better though and I wonder if it is aligned and biased correctly.

The reel to reel sounded like a 70's record...I loved it!!!!

Hi, all ok, I had friends in the '90 that couldn't afford a DAT and they recorded the master on Hi Fi VCR, but a vintage consumer sony reel to reel can't be taken as representative of the "1/4 inch sound", it was consumer stuff, to hear the real difference you should have use at least at perfect calibrated Revox B77 ;-) In fact the reel to reel sounds to me sounds like the more scarce :D

Would I be correct in thinking that the VCR would have some kind of auto gain function to set the recording level. This could create a compression effect making the recording sound a bit fuller/louder. When I have tried to "master to tape" lol, then I generally have the VU needles bouncing into the red a bit more than you, which I like the sound of. I do have a Revox B77 although it does only run at 7 1/2 IPS. Interesting experiment though. For the price, the VHS is certainly worth a look.

Can you do a step by step video of how you run the lines to record straight into the vhs from your Tascam and or from your DAW? Thank you again for a great reference video!

How did you record the music straight onto a vhs? Then, transfer that to a computer? Mind blown 😳

i knew right away that A was daw and lost lol, and i like b and C butt b have more pros about it butt c did add some more sounds that b did not have

I can't handle the fact that reel to reel have to be so dull. It isn't. Did you clean the head , demagnetize, and so on, before using machine?

vcr sounded best didnt like the reel to reel.

The DAW and VHS where far better than the reel to reel

B

HiFi Stereo is a modulated audio signal into a high frequency FM carrier in MHz, Sort of digital sampling into 44.1KHz, Even though FM carrier has more sampling than digital, the modulation-demodulation scheme is analog and has more losses compared to digital.

Reel to reel the best. It saturates the sound the way it is very pleasant to hear. For best result you should use the big studio reel to reel like Ampex 24 track.

The reel to reel sounds a lot worse to my ears

Everything is proven if that VCR player itself doesn't have HiFi at all it causes HiFi on vhs tape itself not to work

They all sound the same. Because small differences are beyond what the human ear can perceive. Whoever "finds" differences is simply lying to himself.

I thought the video recorder sounded the clearest.