The July/August 2024 issue of US audio magazine The Absolute Sound features a four-page review by Jonathan Valin of French company Analog Audio Design’s TP-1000 R2R tape player.
Valin admits to having overlooked French high-end audio as a whole for much of his career (I’m not sure why since there’s plenty there to appreciate) but I can only assume that this review will have changed his view for good!
Based in Brittany in north-west France, Analog Audio Design’s Christophe Martinez is an engineer who spent much of his long career designing flight simulator electronics before joining the Mulann RTM company, which manufactures magnetic tape among other things (‘RTM’ being Recording The Masters). In his article, Valin references my earlier interview with Christophe to answer the question of why he decided to design a new deck. The answer: “sheer sonic delight” (and BTW Valin also adds that this is “a terrific site” – thanks Jonathan!).
The TP-1000 is a two-track, quarter-inch, 15ips / 7½ips, playback-only deck. The deck and its touchscreen operating pad are, reports Valin, “loaded with remarkable convenience features.” These include: a REW + Play function that rewinds the tape then starts playback immediately afterwards, with automatic slowing down and stopping just before the tape’s end or beginning so that the leader doesn’t come off the reel and need rethreading; a locator button that allows you to set markers for the player to return to, so you can go straight to your favourite tracks; plus the ability to choose rewind speeds, select NAB or IEC equalization, adjust input and output levels, set playback fluxivity, switch between speeds and reel sizes and “adjust a slew of other parameters”.
At the same time, Valin is happy to confirm that it also sounds great! Having established that the sound of tape beats every other format hands down (the only other analogue kit that comes close being German MBL’s omni-directional loudspeakers and DS Audio’s optical phono cartridges), he notes that “Like every deck I’ve reviewed, the TP-1000 has its own set of nuances.”
“Where tape decks chiefly differ from one another is in overall neutrality, density of timbre, resolution of musical and performance detail, transient speed, dynamic range, duration (or PRaT), and susceptibility to noise (both physical and electrical).”
Valin finds the TP-1000 to be “on the bottom-up side of neutral (which I prefer)”; “uniformly dense and rich in color” in bass and midrange timbre with “outstanding bass range”; “edgelessly soft, sweet and a bit rolled-off without wholly sacrificing lifelike sparkle and detail” in the treble; “superb” in resolution and “also very good” in transient speed and dynamic range, while handling durations “realistically” and being “dead quiet and uncommonly fluid from start to finish.”
What do these strengths and nuances add up to in playback? Well I’m afraid I can’t quote the full article here otherwise I’ll have Valin and TAS on my case (and rightly so)! For the full story you’ll need a copy of the July/August 2024 issue of the magazine (or keep checking the TAS website, since many of their review articles eventually end up online for free).
Bottom line? “This is a wonderful tape deck – outstandingly convenient, beautifully made, and both highly musical and highly realistic sounding on well-recorded R2R tapes”. It’s also “a sensational bargain” in terms of costing a whole lot less than the decks it competes with (“and outdoes when it comes to useful features”).
For the full review check out the July/August 2024 issue of The Absolute Sound.
You’ll find more about the TP-1000 at www.analogaudiodesign.com
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 