Anyone ever tried a Dynamic Range processor for Q8’s?

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doity

400 Club - QQ All-Star
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Something like this:

11075A00-2848-4D4F-84F9-CCFA231DB702.jpeg



I listen mainly to Q8’s at the moment as I still have yet to get my Tate Tetrasound recapped. I have found a shop to do it locally but have been too lazy to drive the 7 or 8 miles to get there. Anyways.......some of my Q8’s sound decent but others sound flat. The deck was recently serviced so it isn’t that. I have a few of these dynamic range expander things in storage and seem to remember they work surprisingly well, but don’t know if it would even make a difference for 8 tracks. Anyone try this or use these in your system? I have one of these pictured above and it did a good job for what it is. Plus they are small and not too obtrusive.

I also have a JVC 4 channel EQ with ‘SEA’ or whatever they call it which I believe is just a audio boost of some kind. It is a good equalizer but kinda big for my liking. Which of the two would be the better choice to improve, if possible, the audio from 40 plus year old eight track tapes?
 
Something like this:

View attachment 61893


I listen mainly to Q8’s at the moment as I still have yet to get my Tate Tetrasound recapped. I have found a shop to do it locally but have been too lazy to drive the 7 or 8 miles to get there. Anyways.......some of my Q8’s sound decent but others sound flat. The deck was recently serviced so it isn’t that. I have a few of these dynamic range expander things in storage and seem to remember they work surprisingly well, but don’t know if it would even make a difference for 8 tracks. Anyone try this or use these in your system? I have one of these pictured above and it did a good job for what it is. Plus they are small and not too obtrusive.

I also have a JVC 4 channel EQ with ‘SEA’ or whatever they call it which I believe is just a audio boost of some kind. It is a good equalizer but kinda big for my liking. Which of the two would be the better choice to improve, if possible, the audio from 40 plus year old eight track tapes?

I note that it says "stereo expander" & not dynamic range expander.
Most likely this is just a circuit to control opposite phase/polarity blending between the stereo chs to give the effect of widening the stereo image.

For dynamic range expansion you would need something like the Pioneer RG-1 or RG-2 dynamic range processor:

PIONEER RG2.jpg


I had two of the older RG-1's & even tho it didn't look as cool I would prefer it because you can clip one blend resistor & get complete independent range expansion on all 4 chs. Can't do this in the RG-2.

The RG stood for Robert Grodinsky who had his own brand of DR processor & was hired by Pioneer to design these units. Of course there was also Phase Linear & dbx making peak level audio expanders as well.
 
I have one of the old RG dynamic range processors also. What I meant essentially is to ask if anyone had ever used anything to actually increase the fidelity of 8 tracks and if anything was ever really effective. The Archer unit seemed to work OK for what it was but don’t know if it would be something that would work for extended listening. I just like the size of them and the DNR is nifty also because unlike Dolby it doesn’t require a encoded signal and works with just about any recording.

I guess the logical thing to do would be to pull the JVC out of storage and hook it up but like I said the size is a bit too much and it really wouldn’t match my other gear.
 
I am recording Q8's to Q4 reels right now and have equalizer's front and back hooked between the q8 deck and the reel deck. The improvement is very noticeable and sounds excellent. I "sweeten" up the high end with a lot of 15k and a little of 8k (or 6k depending on your equalizer). I also add a little low end (30 hz-60 hz) if the tape is bass shy. All of the Q8's I have converted to Q4 are enjoyable and are better than the originals, but remember a little bit of EQ goes a long way. I have compared several of the DV quads to the same title on my equalized Q8s and am suprised how good the Q8 compares to the sacd quad. I recently picked up rca Q8's of Montenegro "godfather" and the clint eastwood movie themes tape but have not bought their DV counterpats because the eq'd conversions are satisfying to me. I also have many dbx units and have tried the dbx thing on Q8s but prefer the equlizer method over dbx. Although I ocasionally listen to a Q8, I normaly use my Q8 deck to convert to Q4 because I only have one Q8 deck but have several Q4 decks (trying to preserve my Q8 deck). I have a dbx 3bx hooked into a main stereo system with a sansui 9090 running it. I took it out for a while but hooked it back up up because I missed the "punch it gives to the music. I listen to converted Q4's, Q8's and cd4's as much as I listen to my hi res surround library. I'm just a 70's quad freek.
 
Recording from Q8 to Q4 might not be a bad idea, but I suppose it is rather "old school". It might be better to record to your computer's hard drive, then you can apply noise reduction and equalization very easily in software.

Yes some Q8's can sound very good, especially the Canadian gold cased United Artists releases. Some people scoffed when I suggested that the Q8 of Donald Byrd sounded almost as good as the DV SACD, but it's true.

I suspect that Q8's have better dynamic range than a lot of the more recent CD releases!
 
I have asked this before...How do you get 4 rca out analogue channels into your computer?. I would love to do this!!!
 
I have asked this before...How do you get 4 rca out analogue channels into your computer?. I would love to do this!!!
You can go with something like Jon's suggestion or else look for a multichannel sound card assuming you have a desktop computer that can handle the extra card. I started off with a Maya 44 sound card, it worked fine for years but was only 16 bit. Next I went for the Delta 44 (and Delta 66) but they are limited to 96 Khz sample rate. Now I use a Digigram XV822v2, a professional card with 8 balanced inputs and outputs.
 
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Thanks for the info. (by the way are you a scratch golfer..i have single digit handicap)
 
For years, I've wanted to add a pair of DBX either the 118 Compander or the 128 Compander/Noise Reducer, especially since they have some sort of "Quad Coupler" on the back I'd like to play with. But.... the prices on them has gone ridiculous lately.... the 118 used to trade for about $50.... now they go for $250+. Ditto the 128.

I could get my hands on an RG-1 from Pioneer from a local audiophile buddy, but then I'd need another one and they're none too cheap either. Plus, there's no room for them in my hi-fi cabinet.... that's why the DBX 118 was so attractive.... because two of them could still fit.

As it stands, I've got two SG-9500 equalizers in my setup. My one for the front needs to go get serviced soon as it's gotten hissy and the Left Front channel will occasionally short tripping the protection circuit in my receiver. But prior to that, they really helped brighten things up without getting overly noisy.
 
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