$55,000

Though it looks the same and operates via the same controls as its 2023 POY Award-winning predecessor, the Ultima5, Greg Beron’s new Ultima Apollo deck doesn’t sound the same. In fact, it doesn’t sound like any previous Ultima that JV has auditioned. With an entirely new EQ circuit and a beefed-up gain stage, it is “darker” in overall tonal balance (more “bottom-up”) than any previous UHA offering, save for the SuperDeck. Instruments in the bass range not only sound better resolved, more present, denser in color, more three-dimensional, and more powerful, they also sound deeper going, as if the deck had added another half-octave on the very bottom and some extra energy in the midbass. The midband shows this same increase in presence, color, solidity, and impact, while the top treble is still soft, smooth, and slightly rolled. It’s as if the frequency-response curve that the AES currently recommends for loudspeakers (a boost in the bass with extension down to 20Hz and a gradual roll-off in the treble above 1.5kHz) has somehow been incorporated in the Apollo’s new equalization stage. The result is a marked increase in bass-range extension, definition, and density of tone color, in overall listenability, in three-dimensional solidity top to bottom, and in the lifelike continuousness that makes an ensemble of instruments sound as if they are playing together in the same space, without any loss of their individual contributions.

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$27,000

Here is yet another outstanding high-end component from France. Gallic engineer Christophe Martinez devoted four years of his life to designing and building this brand-new, two-track, quarter-inch, 15ips/7½ips reel-to-reel tape player, developing (entirely on his own) the deck’s physical design and layout, the eq and gain electronics, the tape playback and wind/rewind path (including the “strain-gauge” sensors that maintain tape tension at 0.5gm and read and correct errors in less than a millisecond), and the unique, built-in, multi-function touchscreen that is the brain of the unit. The result is rather incredible, especially given the price. Here is a deck with a level of utility and convenience that is unrivaled in my experience. Virtually every playback parameter can be set or adjusted via a tap on its touchscreen. Of course, none of this ergonomic excellence would matter if the TP-1000 didn’t sound great, which, I’m happy to report, it does. Although its treble is a bit less extended than that of, say, the Ultima Apollo, everything else about its sound would make it hard to choose between it and its more costly rivals. Listening to 15ips R2Rs will never be a bargain, given the ongoing cost of acquiring those tapes, but as the best new and completely refurbished tape decks go, the TP-1000 is a bit of a steal. (350)

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$55,000 (with outboard DC power supply)

This has been a very good year for reel-to-reel tape recorders. As you will see, I auditioned two decks that knocked me for a (playback) loop. The first is the latest unit from old hand Greg Beron of United Home Audio—the Ultima Apollo. Seeing that I’d given its older brother, the Ultima5 OPS-DC, a Golden Ear and a POY award in 2023, you might wonder, as I did, how much difference a year or two could make. Well, in this case, it makes a spectacularly large and impressive one. With a plethora of technical improvements and an all-new high-quality EQ system, the Apollo sounded considerably better than any Ultima deck I’ve heard, with newfound power, color, detail, density, and extension in the bottom octaves, the midbass, and the lower midrange and sweet, edgeless sparkle and air in the upper mids and treble. I listened to Greg’s statement three-piece SuperDeck for about a month, and to my ear the Apollo comes very, very close to its sonics—for about half the price. This is just an outstanding tape player from a man with long experience building superb (and superbly reliable) decks. (Forthcoming)

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$34,500 ($6500 for optional, outboard OPS-DC power supply)

While current analog technology (particularly DS Audio’s near-massless Grand Master optical cartridges and ES-001 centering device and Acoustic Signatures Invictus Neo turntable and tonearm) has brought LP playback considerably closer to the sound of tape, there is still a gap, which Greg Beron’s latest iteration of his Ultima series of tape decks, the Ultima5 OPS-DC, consistently reveals and exploits. Of course, much depends on the quality of the tape transfer. But, at their best (or even a little bit short of their best), 15ips reel-to-reel tapes can be astonishingly realistic sounding, provided that the tape deck is first rate. The United Home Audio Ultima5 with OPS-DC power supply is precisely that—first rate. With parts and circuitry derived from Greg’s $100k SuperDeck, the Ultima 5 is more neutral in balance with better reach and dynamic impact in the bottom octaves, a wider, deeper soundstage, tighter imaging, higher resolution, and fuller, more accurate, natural, and continuous reproduction of the dynamic/harmonic envelope than previous Ultimas. If you’re in the market for a great, full-sized, playback-only, 15ips tape deck (and don’t want to bet the farm on a no-holds-barred UHA SuperDeck), the Ultima5 OPS-DC would, unquestionably, be the unit I recommend. (337)

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Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon T-RX Reel-to-Reel Tape Deck

$36,000

Unlike just about every other tape deck currently sold, Kostas Metaxas’ re-do of the great Stellavox SP-8 is not a refurbished unit from the Golden Age of tape recording. It is a brand-new deck in a drop-dead gorgeous aluminum chassis that uses the best possible parts in circuits designed, updated, and configured (with Stellavox’s Georges Quellet’s blessings, BTW) by Kostas Metaxas on the basis of his nearly 40 years of recording experience with the SP-7/8. Like the original, the T-RX is a portable unit, easily moved (in its dedicated carrying case) from your room to a recording venue or to a fellow audiophile’s digs. But unlike the Stellavox SP-8, the Metaxas Tourbillon T-RX does not require adaptors to play ten-inch reels. It’ll do that—at 7½, 15, or 30ips—entirely on its own.

Over and above its astonishingly “cool” looks, the Tourbillon T-RX is a sonic wonder. I’ve heard a lot of tape decks over the years—from huge studio Ampexes and Studers to smaller-scale gems made by Nagra, ReVox, Otari, etc. I’ve also heard just about every iteration of Greg Beron’s marvelous United Home Audio Tascams, and (except for Greg’s latest, ultra-expensive SuperDeck), not a one of them outdoes the Tourbillon. It is the very quintessence of neutrality and completeness—those twin household audio gods that make ersatz sound like real. 

Alongside the UHA SuperDeck, the Metaxas Tourbillon T-RX is the highest fidelity audio component I’ve auditioned, consistently making the musicians on well-recorded tapes into near-visible presences and music sound as you hear it in life. Like my other Golden Ears, the Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon T-RX will also be a nominee for TAS’ annual Product of the Year Awards—and this one would be a Product of the Year in any decade, past or present.

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