As you may recall, I gave Greg Beron’s superb UHA Ultima5 tape deck a Product of the Year Award in 2023. After that, you might have thought Mr. B would rest on his laurels—at least, for a while. However, if that’s what you were thinking, you don’t know Greg. This is a guy who’s been smitten with the sound of reel-to-reel tape from his early teenage years and who, since then, has spent a great deal of his time and money developing better and better means of R2R playback. Indeed, it is fair to say that Greg and the folks from The Tape Project (Paul Stubblebine, Michael Romanowski, and Dan Schmalle) are the godfathers of the current R2R revival. They were among the very first to “get behind” consumer, 15ips, quarter-inch, two-track tape playback—The Tape Project supplying the tapes and Greg’s United Home Audio supplying the decks to play them back on. And happily, they’ve made some commercial progress.

While R2R tapes and tape players are still niche offerings in the world of high-end audio, their popularity and availability have unquestionably grown. (We wouldn’t be witnessing the increasing number of brand-new decks and R2R tape purveyors if that weren’t the case.) Yes, R2R tapes and decks are expensive, but then so are the best LP reissues (or collectible originals) and the cartridges, tonearms, turntables, and phonostages needed to play them back.

There is this, as well. This magazine was founded on the ideal that the finest audio gear should take you as close as technology permits to the sound of the real thing—the sound of actual musicians playing acoustic (or, increasingly nowadays, electronic) instruments in a club, concert hall, or studio. Short of being at the session, the sole record we have of what the “real thing” sounded like is the mastertape that preserved the performance. In the family tree of high-end audio, masters are the Adams and Eves—the first-generation documentations of what the microphones picked up (and of what was added to or subtracted from it by the producers, artists, and recording/mixing engineers). For all intents and purposes, they are the “absolute sound.”

Anyone who has listened to a really good commercial R2R tape can tell you that, sonically, it sounds more holistic—more continuous, three-dimensional, rich in timbre, and effortlessly powerful—than the LPs or CDs/SACDs/files that were made from it. Some of these differences have to do with the sonic character of the medium itself—to wit, tape’s inherently fuller, lusher, somewhat more elevated bass, its sweeter, softer treble, its smoother, more lifelike reproduction of the duration of notes (with markedly less emphasis on starting transients than digital sources and, to a lesser extent, LPs), its remarkable solidity and dimensionality of imaging, its continuousness of staging, and its far gentler, more relaxed reproduction of dynamic peaks—or mic preamp overloads, for that matter. (Clipping that can set your teeth on edge with digital playback and some LPs is nearly unnoticeable with tape.) Aside from these characteristic differences in harmonic/dynamic profile, some of tape’s realism can rightly be attributed to its generation—its unique proximity to the recording session (and, hence, to the sound of the real thing).

So, if the sound of tape is largely shaped by its own character and the fact that it’s the first recorded iteration of the event it preserves, what role, you may be wondering, does a tape deck play in sonics? Well, what roles do cartridges, tonearms, and turntables play in the sound of LPs? A good record is going to sound “good” whatever it is played back on—there will be a family resemblance across source components. But…that LP will not sound as good on a middling cart/arm/turntable as it does on a truly first-rate setup, the presentation of which will be more complete, which is to say, denser in color top to bottom, markedly more three-dimensional in imaging, more audibly continuous in ambience and soundstaging, more replete in instrumental and performance detail, and, at the same time, more holistic—that is, more likely to create the magical impression you are hearing the artists and their instruments sound so realistically “there” you can almost visualize them.

R2R decks are no different. They can’t change the basic character of a tape, making an inferior transfer sound superior or vice versa. But they can and do add to or subtract from the completeness of what has been preserved on that tape. They can resolve more musically relevant information.

Which brings us to the $55,000, two-piece UHA Ultima Apollo tape player under review.

As I noted in my discussion of the Utima5, the Apollo, like all UHA decks, starts life as a Tascam BR-20. By the time you buy it, however, the entire product has been refurbished—all electronic parts, connectors, tape heads, and transport mechanisms rebuilt or replaced, all playback circuits updated, EQ precisely dialed in to the IEC standard, and the chassis itself refashioned in sturdy, mu-metal-shielded billet-aluminum. (In my SuperDeck review, Greg explained why he chose the Tascam machine as his base model: first, it is a recent design from the mid-to-late 1990s, for which replacement parts are still available directly from Tascam; second, because of parts availability it is a safer bet to warranty for two years—as every one of Greg’s decks are—than a rebuilt 50-to-60-year-old studio machine from Ampex or Studer; third, it has all DC motors, which are more reliable and speed-stable than the very large AC motors in studio decks, and a very efficient tape transport with full-logic control; and fourth, it is compact compared to giant studio machines, fits on the average audiophile rack, and looks like a part of the system rather than a huge outlier parked in a corner.)

Like the Ultima5, the Apollo has inherited bespoke parts and wiring from Greg’s statement $90k–$100k+ SuperDeck. Unlike the Ultima5, it comes packaged with Greg’s OPS-DC outboard power supply (previously a $6500 option), making a two-box Apollo setup standard. While the Apollo deck looks identical to the Ultima5, with the same controls and outputs and specs (two-channel, ¼”, IEC-eq’d, 15ips-tape-playback only—though both the Ultima5 and the Apollo can be had with record head and electronics for additional dough), it doesn’t sound the same. Indeed, it doesn’t sound like any previous Ultima I’ve heard (and I think I’ve heard most of them).

What’s changed? Well, the EQ stage is completely new; and the gain stage is larger and more sophisticated in parts and build. (Both the eq and gain stages run on DC, which is why the outboard power supply, which converts AC to DC, is a necessary addition, rather than an optional one.)

As is the case with LPs, tapes have to be equalized before being amplified to line level (in this case, by the new, dual-mono, fully differential Class A head amp built into the Apollo deck). Equalization is necessary to extend and flatten frequency response by boosting high frequencies at 6dB/octave above a “transition frequency” (4500Hz for IEC eq and 3150Hz for NAB eq). 

Though Greg hasn’t shared details about how equalization and amplification have been altered, you can almost guess what’s different by simply listening to the Apollo, which 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 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 timbre, 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. On something like Sinatra’s great 1966 live recording Sinatra at the Sands on a three-reel 15ips production master, the effect is magical.

Now, this is a recording that sounds wonderful on LP (particularly on MoFi’s out-of-print reissue). As I’ve noted before, Sinatra’s use of his Shure SM-545 microphone—which he once compared to the way a geisha uses her fan—is crystal clear on every cut, allowing that incomparable whiskey baritone of his to swell, coast, or fall to a whisper as the lyrics require, without any sibilant sizzle or mic-preamp overload. This guy was a gifted actor as well as the last century’s greatest pop singer, and he always delivers lyrics as if he is a character telling a story—from the indelible ache of “Angel Eyes” to the Depression-era-Hollywood hopefulness of “Street of Dreams” to the alcohol-soaked soliloquizing of “One for My Baby.”

Happily, Count Basie’s great orchestra and the late Quincy Jones’ superb arrangements are as well served by Lowell Frank’s engineering as The Chairman of the Board’s vocals. The sheer power of a big band recorded live in a real venue—the Copa Room at The Sands—has seldom been reproduced more realistically.

However, as great as the MoFi reissue sounds, unless you’re using a DS Audio Grand Master EX cartridge on your analog rig it doesn’t hold a candle to (or only holds a candle to), the 15ips production master played back on Greg’s Apollo deck. The increase in lifelike vocal and instrumental body alone is astounding. Indeed, listening to the tape reminded me of the shock I experienced many years ago, when I first heard an SET driving my early pair of Avantgarde Trios. The sheer “directness” of the sound, the tremendous density of timbre, the sense of reach-out and-touch-it solidity were unforgettable. That is what is being delivered here by the Ultima Apollo, along with superior harmonic/dynamic duration (no etching of transients, thinning down of tonality, or drying out of decays), superb wall-to-wall-to-wall staging, and dynamics that flow with ramp-like continuousness rather than skipping from one level to the next in step-like fashion. As for that magical gestalt effect, whereby the audible is turned into the near-visible, a great tape player like this one simply owns such legerdemain.

So…if you’ve looking for the most “absolute sound-like,” most “faithful-to-source,” most “musical” analog source component, you needn’t look much further than United Home Audio’s Ultima Apollo. It’s the cat’s pajamas. Most highly recommended.   

Specs & Pricing

Type: Full-size, single-chassis, 15ips (no 7½ or 30ips playback and no record function), two-track, ¼”, reel-to-reel tape player
Price: $55,000 (includes outboard OPS-DC power supply)

UNITED HOME AUDIO
11 Secretariat Dr.
Stafford, VA 22556
(540) 295-8313
unitedhomeaudio.com

JV’s Reference System

Loudspeakers: MBL 101 X-Treme MKII, Magico S3 2023, Magnepan 1.7 and 30.7
Subwoofers: JL Audio Gotham (pair), Magico S Sub (pair)
Linestage preamps: Soulution 727, MBL 6010 D, Siltech SAGA System C1
Phonostage preamps: Soulution 757, DS Audio Grand Master EQ
Power amplifiers: Soulution 711, MBL 9008 A, Siltech SAGA System V1/P1, Odyssey Audio Stratos
Analog source: Clearaudio Master Innovation, Acoustic Signature Invictus Neo/T-9000 Neo, TW Acustic Black Knight/TW Raven 10.5
Tape deck: Metaxas & Sins Papillon, United Home Audio Ultima Apollo, Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon, Analog Audio Design TP-1000
Phono cartridges: DS Audio Grand Master EX, DS Audio Grand Master, DS Audio DS-W3, Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2.1, Air Tight Opus 1, Ortofon MC Anna, Ortofon MC A90
Digital source: MSB Reference DAC, Soulution 760, Berkeley Alpha DAC 2, Kalista Dream Play XC
Cable and interconnect: Synergistic Research Galileo SRX (2023), Crystal Cable Art Series da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream
Power cords: Crystal Cable Art Series da Vinci, Crystal Cable Ultimate Dream, Synergistic Research Galileo SRX 2023
Power conditioner: AudioQuest Niagara 5000 (two), Synergistic Research Galileo SX
Support systems: Critical Mass Systems MAXXUM and QXK equipment racks and amp stands
Room Treatments: Synergistic Research Vibratron SX, Stein Music H2 Harmonizer system, Synergistic Research UEF Acoustic Panels/Atmosphere XL4/UEF Acoustic Dot system, Shakti Hallographs (6), Zanden Acoustic panels, A/V Room Services Metu acoustic panels and traps, ASC Tube Traps
Accessories: DS Audio ES-001, DS Audio ION-001, SteinMusic Pi Carbon Signature record mat, Symposium Isis and Ultra equipment platforms, Symposium Rollerblocks and Fat Padz, Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic record cleaner