A visit to Bottlehead and Tape Project

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Last week my wife was visiting her brother and his family who live on Bainbridge Island, across the bay from Seattle. Since this is the new home of Bottlehead Audio and the Tape Project I asked her if she would stop by and visit. Dan and Eileen were extremely gracious and gave my wife a tour of their new facility. Here are some photos:
The first shows the individually engraved open reel flanges Tape Project uses to customize each subscriber's tape. The second is a guitar amp they had, the third is a parts and shipping area. The two last ones show a listening area where Tape Project tapes can be auditioned using a combination of a Nagra T-Audio transport fitted with a Tape Project playback electronics. The rest of the amplfication was by Bottlehead and some custom speakers.
Enjoy, Ken

[Deleted User]

Here are some additional shots:
This is a closeup of the Nagra and you can see the Tape Project playback electronics at the top. The second is the man himself, Dan Schmalle, aka Doc Bottlehead, enjoying listening to a sample of the new series three tapes. My wife said it was just incredible! A closer shot of the Nagra T and then a photo of one of the office walls with framed copies of the previous series one and two Tape Project offerings. The fourth shows some of their collection of prototype Bottlehead projects and some of their tube collection.
Enjoy, Ken

[Deleted User]

Here's more:
These are some closeups of the items in the cases.
Enjoy, Ken

[Deleted User]

And some more:
Here's a shot of a headphone listening area. This is Eileen, Dan and my brother-in-law, Charlie. Charlie is a highly qualified digital engineer who plays the bagpipes (he played at our wedding) and loves good music. I'm trying to convert him into an audiophile and to start building some Bottlehead gear.
This is Dan and Eileen posed with a beautiful tape machine.
Enjoy, Ken

mhardy6647

cool. I am officially envious.

I met Dan ("Doc Bottlehead") at a Bottlehead-themed shindig here in MA some years back (when their Seduction phono preamp was just a prototype). I had him autograph the instruction manual for my Paramours! :-)



My very early kit-built Bottlehead Paramours are getting the job done with the Altec Duplexes in the LR. Bottlehead's always done a great service for the low-rent vacuum tube hifi audiophiles such as ahem me.... and with Tape Project, Dan & friends have re-invigorated analog reproduction.

Lately... I have this perverse desire to build one of the 99 dollar battery powered Bottlehead "Quickie" 3S4- based preamps...
http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php?crn=220&rn=438&action=show_detail

[Deleted User]

Hey MH,
Those Paramours look sweet, very Scandinavian looking with the nice wood trim. I've set my next audio budget to Bottlehead's tape playback kit. Combine that with a reasonable transport and a person can get into the TP tapes without too big a budget. A half track A77 goes for around $500/600 depending on condition and the Eros is $800.00. It gets closer to the realm of possibility for some folks.
Cheers, Ken

Wardsweb

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Lately... I have this perverse desire to build one of the 99 dollar battery powered Bottlehead "Quickie" 3S4- based preamps...

It is a sweet little pre. Good bang for the buck and you're only limited by your imagination on how to build.

DarqueKnight

Ken,

Have you had an opportunity to compare tape, CD, vinyl and SACD versions of the same recording? If so, what were your impressions? The thought came to mind when I saw a cover of Sonny Rollins' "Saxophone Colossus" on the wall in one of your pictures. I have CD, SACD and vinyl versions of Saxophone Colossus.

mhardy6647

Wardsweb wrote: »

It is a sweet little pre. Good bang for the buck and you're only limited by your imagination on how to build.

You rascal! $1000 worth (street value) of cabinetry wrapped around a hunnert dolla preamp :-)
Where do you get designer batteries to go with something like that?

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

Hey MH,
Those Paramours look sweet, very Scandinavian looking with the nice wood trim. I've set my next audio budget to Bottlehead's tape playback kit. Combine that with a reasonable transport and a person can get into the TP tapes without too big a budget. A half track A77 goes for around $500/600 depending on condition and the Eros is $800.00. It gets closer to the realm of possibility for some folks.
Cheers, Ken

The Paramour kit was originally 500 smackers for a pair of monoblocks, incl. NOS drivers and Chinese 2A3s. One of the better hifi bargains extent (at least at the time).

I've got the half-track A77, good to go there :-)

PS I posted a note over at the Bottlehead forum mentioning this thread.
Ken, dunno if you are a member there...?

[Deleted User]

Very cool Ken, thanks for sharing ! :cool:

george daniel

Thanks for posting this Ken,,some really sweet looking gear.

Big Dawg

Very nice - I've enjoyed perusing the Bottlehead site for some time. Cool to see your pics of stuff they've posted - almost like seeing it myself!

mhardy6647

Their wares are well worth perusing with your ears, as well! :-)




(two views of the Seduction phono preamp)

schwarcw

Very nice post Ken! I'd be interested to hear your impressions of the TP releases.

Wardsweb

Seriously, BH gear is really nice stuff. Over the years I've built three of the Foreplay preamps, the SEX 8DN7 stereo amp, a pair of Paramour 2A3 monoblocks, a Seduction phono pre and the little battery powered Quickie pre.

mhardy6647

I've got an unbuilt original (v.1) Foreplay in the basement. I'd bought it for my father to build, but he never did.

[Deleted User]

DK,
I've not done a comparison of the same recording in different formats, except for "The Band" and the tape was much better than the LP. Maybe at a future Polk event we could set something like that up? If you visit the TP forum and look at a few of the individual comments for specific tapes many of the members have serious turntables (Walker comes to mind) and matching associated electronics and speakers and the TP tapes always fair well when compared to the same performance on other media. Some guys have invested in quite nice tape decks, ATR and Studer are favorites. But, great results can be had with more modest approaches, Technics and Otari for example.
There have been a few excellent Otari's on Craigslist for $250.00 that could be used with a little TLC. Once you see those big reels turning round and hear the amazing dynamic range they have you get hooked.
Cheers, Ken