In my opinion nothing sounds better than a reel to reel, this A-4300 was purchased in original box with very low hours, the recordings are as smooth as can be. Having owned a A-4300SX as well I think the only difference is in the line mix between rca and mic inputs. The song is Tangerine Dream recorded directly from vinyl- Beach Theme from the Theif Soundtrack record. I shot the video then added the audio from the Reel to Reel to get true playback sound quality, if the video and audio aren’t perfectly synced sorry! But doesn’t it really sound great!!