
VHS Hi-Fi audio system - camtarn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#Hi-Fi_audio_system
======
camtarn
Another example of the enormous amount of physics and engineering which went
into old-fashioned storage media that we took for granted.

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ddingus
I had one of these, a Mitsubishi U50, I believe. The head alignment issues are
real. Those machines require care and feeding, as pretty much all great analog
gear does.

But, if you did that work?

Oh man! Ordinary people could get access to fantastic recording capabilities
for a song! I paid a few hundred for mine, and used the crap out of it.

It would record near flat 20 to over 20Khz! Noise was -80Db and better,
depending. And it was so good on the lower end that record warps would be
reproduced. If you've ever seen this, it's a movement of the bass driver
speakers, in and out, as the signal gets biased + or - due to the lift and
fall of the needle and cartridge as it moves over the warp, or hump in the
vinyl. To see them, you need a very good amp, one that doesn't roll off the
very low end.

I had a couple records with this issue and would record them to cassette,
which basically filtered this out. The Hi-Fi VHS reproduced it perfectly! (I
did not expect that) The only other thing I know would do that is a higher
speed reel to reel. (I am sure studio grade recording gear would too, but this
is about stuff available to mere mortals.)

Connecting a high quality CD player direct to the audio inputs could clone a
CD, on high quality VHS tape, with a few db noise added. Amazing!

If one took the time to add recording index marks as things were happening,
the player could fast forward and rewind to them. The speeds were reasonable,
able to index past a whole CD in sub minute time frames. Plus or minus a few
tunes would be seconds. Without those marks, one could input a plus or minus
time offset and the machine would zip right to it perfectly. With them, it was
plus or minus X number of marks.

I would label tapes with time offsets for albums and indexes for tunes. Was
possible to work with a 2 to 6 hour recording and get what one wanted in no
more than a minute. Spiffy!

And one could get 6 hours of slightly noiser audio recording (still better
than just about anything other than high end reel to reel). One of the more
memorable things I did was dump hours of a local radio station stunting
classic rock tunes. It's a party tape. Used it a few times. People would ask
about the source. This was very late 80's, and it was uncommon to have
uninterrupted music available for an event. I did a few "mix" tapes too, 6
hours, curated sets, intended to frame the atmosphere of an event unattended.
Those were fun.

I also used it to play computer game audio files into both my old VCS (Atari
2600 with Supercharger cassette cartridge) and 8 bit Color Computer 3. The
index capability made cassette storage far more useful and faster than I
expected. Was a fun lark. Basically, I had it hooked up, remote next to the
machine. Just operate the VCR as needed, with remote right there, easy.

I still have a couple tapes. Nothing to play them on though. That machine got
lost, along with some other things I'm still bent about, during a move.

Great tech, totally underappreciated.

One other thing:

These machines, if you got one capable of handling S-video, and used it with a
high grade, or pro-grade CRT, basically delivered near DVD quality video. Most
people never really got to see what NTSC SD can really do.

Today, people are collecting the pro video monitors and are revisiting older
tech. It's better than many of us realized. I have one, and even an ordinary
VHS punches a bit more than expected for it's "weight class."

~~~
DrScump
I used SVHS for audio as well (heck, I still use one for time-shifting TV).
The missing piece was portability, though.

For longer audio programs, I'd generally want to take them in the car or to
work. I settled on a pro Sony dual-deck cassette drive that could do serial
recording spanning two tapes. Using pro-quality 110-minute tapes provided
nearly 4 hours of continuous recording.

~~~
ddingus
Yes, not portable.

Regarding the car or work, the noise ratio was so good that I archived to VHS,
then worked from there multiple times where needed. Was basically CD quality.
One generation down from that pretty much was not a problem in the car.

That SONY seems pretty cool! I would have used it a lot, had I one to use. :D

Older, often vintage, audio gear is just so damn cool!

