Sony APR24?

[AlphaDingo]

Well it's that time again, analog lust is upon me and I have some questions. Has anyone ever used a Sony APR24? What can you tell me about it as far as reliablility and sound quality goes? Oh Yeah, how about tape for it? Where can I get it? How much per reel? Thanks.

[idylldon]

There's a Yahoo group dedicated to these recorders, so you might want to post there for more info. Also, you can search the archives once you subscribe.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sony_apr/

Cheers,
--
Don

[sscp]

I have one which i bought new and dont use anymore.I didnt have any major trouble with it good workhorse.It sounded really good with quantegy 499 tape.

[Musiclab]

I've only worked on one of few times, I thought it sounded good, it's what happened to MCI. You can store alignments which is nice. As far as reliability goes, sorry I wouldn't begin to know.

[thethrillfactor]

Its very boring and very vanilla sounding. Not a great representation of the good analog tape can bring to music. I would personally skip it and look for a Studer which are all over the place these days. Also the remote has those weird switches which if they go(and they will eventually) you are screwed.

[Berolzheimer]

A decnt but not great machine, but the recallable alignments aren't very accurate, when I worked on one I always found I had to tweak it after recalling the settings.

[AlphaDingo]

Thanks for the feedback. It's just what I was looking for. As it turns out I'm going to listen to a studer tomorrow or Tuesday.

[IPLayHamers]

A studio I worked at in the 90's had 2 of them. Pains in the royal bottom they were. Sounded ok, but not worth the maintanance trouble.

For reliablility and superior sound, but a Studer. The A800 MkIII is the best sounding 24 track I've ever heard. Followed closely buy the A820 and A827.

Like an old Mercedes, it's German engineering at it's best.

IPH

[in the red]

Originally Posted by IPLayHamers

Like an old Mercedes, it's German engineering at it's best.

IPH

you mean swiss engineering

[dokushoka]

I have a JH16 up for trade right now...

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/showt...highlight=jh16

The audio cards on the JH16 are basically clones of the Ampex MM1200 and 440 cards...

[studjo]

Originally Posted by IPLayHamers

Like an old Mercedes, it's German engineering at it's best.

IPH

Ähem?????????????????????????



Jo

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

Its very boring and very vanilla sounding. Not a great representation of the good analog tape can bring to music. I would personally skip it and look for a Studer which are all over the place these days. Also the remote has those weird switches which if they go(and they will eventually) you are screwed.

It's funny. I feel exactly the opposite way.

I find Studers to be built better but I prefer the MCI sound.

It goes to show, trust your ears. Not what you read on an audio forum.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by Produceher

It's funny. I feel exactly the opposite way.

I find Studers to be built better but I prefer the MCI sound.

It goes to show, trust your ears. Not what you read on an audio forum.

An MCI JH 24 and a Sony APR24 are 2 different sounding machines even though they have the name Sony on them.

The APR 24 was made to compete with the Studer.

It doesn't.

Not all Studers sound the same either. I agree with IPH the A800 is probably the best sounding and the 820 is the best workhorse.

The A80's and the 827 i've never dug sonically.

That goes for Otari machines, Tascams and Fostex machines as well.

[msrecprod]

I love the old MCI sound, I too prefer it over the Studer's. To me as far as quality of sound, the 70's MCI, and Studer 800's are at the same level, just different sounding. I don't think the later Studer's like the 827 sound as good though. I don't like the Sony machines @ all.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

An MCI JH 24 and a Sony APR24 are 2 different sounding machines even though they have the name Sony on them.

Oops. I thought we were talking about the later model JH-24 that had Sony on it with better gold connectors.

I've never tried the APR. I'll shut up now.

(Still prefer MCI or Ampex to Studer)

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by Produceher

Oops. I thought we were talking about the later model JH-24 that had Sony on it with better gold connectors.

I've never tried the APR. I'll shut up now.

(Still prefer MCI or Ampex to Studer)

Trust me if you did you'd be the first to pour gasoline on it and light a match.

[dismaus82]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

Its very boring and very vanilla sounding. Not a great representation of the good analog tape can bring to music. I would personally skip it and look for a Studer which are all over the place these days. Also the remote has those weird switches which if they go(and they will eventually) you are screwed.

Thanks to your posts on this website, Everybody now thinks this machine is total crap, due to lack of other information on the web. First link on google when you search Sony APR 24 is GS threads with you rambling on about how you like your studers better. Cool, dude. The guy who I bought this from replaced his 827 with the APR24 and didn't have to spend a grand every year repairing his machine anymore. But I guess when there's lack of information out there, people will take whatever they can get!

Take everything on here with a grain of salt, people

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by dismaus82

Thanks to your posts on this website, Everybody now thinks this machine is total crap, due to lack of other information on the web. First link on google when you search Sony APR 24 is GS threads with you rambling on about how you like your studers better. Cool, dude. The guy who I bought this from replaced his 827 with the APR24 and didn't have to spend a grand every year repairing his machine anymore. But I guess when there's lack of information out there, people will take whatever they can get!

Take everything on here with a grain of salt, people

Trust me i'm not the only one who felt like that at the time, but that was a different time all together. In those days the sonic standards were a little different then now and professional analog was expected to deliver what was called at the time a "big record sound" because when people tracked to tape in big studios that's what was expected...especially what you paid for that machine new. That just wasn't the APR strong suit which shouldn't be a knock because for what it does sonically its just more on the uncolored sound which at the time surprised "analog" people. Your right there were great things about it like it locked perfectly with midi sequencers without needing an audio track for SMPTE and you could store the formulations for up to 2-3 different tapes. It also had a really nice transport. But the knocks against it basically the flat sound and the problems with the sensors on the transport were legitimate at the time. Also getting support from Sony for it was a nightmare. I had one for a while and must admit i was glad when someone took it off my hands. My clients at the time wanted a name and sound that they were used to which says something more about them then anything.

And yes any opinion on here should be taken with a grain of salt, no question.

[Waltz Mastering]

Just to even the scales a bit, I bought a Sony Apr 24 new in 92-93'... sold it in 06'

Solid machine. Flat sounding is not a way I would describe it.. All depends how it's set up and the tape formulation used. The deck was pretty versatile for it's time. fast punch in and out..low noise, store up to 6 tape set ups at a recall of a button. Long head life. inter-changeable/swappable channel cards. etc.

Studer's were 10 grand more at the time... also a very solid machine.

When I sold the Apr 24, I had the remote rebuilt by a company who specializes in that.

Back then you mostly saw Studer, Sony/MCI and Otari.

Studer = excellent engineered and sounding machines 800-820-827
Sony APR 24/MCI JH 24= second to Studer
Otari 90 = Not bad

If you're blaming any of those machine's for not sounding to good when set up proper, I would guess it's the engineers fault. YMMV

[Fletcher]

As Thrill mentioned - tape machines were viewed differently when they walked the Earth as the main form of recording [hell they were viewed differently in 2006 when this thread was first started!!!]. My experience with the APR-24 was that the bottom wasn't as clear or large as a JH-24... nor was it as exacerbated as the low end on a Studer. The other thing that used to drive me nuts about those decks was the bearing noise in FF and REW... which wasn't a bug, it was a feature.

They punch great - record great - but if you're mixing from them the bottom ain't so great [better than most digital systems I've heard - but not so much by analog deck standards of the day]. Very reliable machines, especially the transport - pretty well laid out auto-locator... but all things being equal - or near equal [as in price tags] - I'd prefer a late 80's JH-24, a Studer A-800 [best audio] or A-827 [very convenient for changing alignments] or an MTR-90 mk II or mk III.

As always - YMMV.

Peace.

[rdraudio]

I did a project recorded on a 3M56, 2-inch 16 at 15 ips. Did some roughs off the Sony APR and finals off an A 800 mkIII. We felt that the Sony just was more "sonorous". It sounded more like the 3M, which was good. The Studer had a nicer transport. I'd take an APR over an A-80 any day.

[Jim Williams]

I also found the APR lacking, not because of the sound, but because of the limited adjustment range. Using MDAC's to adjust settings instead of continuous trimpots always left me choosing a too high or too low setting, none really line up with those 1/4 db increments.

An Audio Precision really shows how you can get close, but still no cigar as to a precision alignment. Compared to the previous model, the JH-110C, that deck can be precisly aligned to the point of getting a 32k hz frequency response at 30 IPS and .15% THD at +9 on GP-9 vs .55% stock at +3 on 456 tape fomulas.