I've been using 542's for years, and I'm going to disagree with you here. There's a boost at around 100hz (at 30ips), but it starts to cutoff past that. Sub-100hz matters A LOT for modern music.

Dear sir. I would have to agree to disagree. Head bump on the 542s with the 15ips setting is centered around 60Hz. The headbump with 15 ips is +6db at ~60Hz and +4db at 20Hz when the saturation is set to Minimum. The Q is somewhat medium. You can reduce the headbump and reduce that low end lift and increase the roll off by increasing the saturation. Sorry but I feel like anything below 50Hz is sub and increasing +4db-+6db below that frequency is extending the low end. There is also what seems like a psychoacoustic thing happening that deepen the tone. So I think these are a great tool for extending the low end. Its other features may not make it a great tool for mastering but in some circumstances it could be just what the doctor ordered. Just my humble, rather meaningless experience using these and other tools that have been mentioned.

I stand corrected.

All good. So many tools in 2024 to get the job done!!

^^

Thanks for the insightful back and forth! That was collegial, informative and data-driven... exactly what makes this place awesome! I learned something new about my old 542 I didn't know before. :-)

Yeah if you increase the saturation you reduce the headbump and start a lowend roll off. Leaving saturation at minimum lets the lowend headbump bloom.

Well, I ended up selling mine because I just couldn't gel with it. This was back before I was a careful listener so I was probably a bit rash and letting it go.

Retrospectively though I can see exactly what you're saying. I was always battling with that saturation taking over and so it seemed like an either/or for the saturation or the low end, not a "both" to some degree.

So yeah, could have used this thread before I sold the 542. I wonder how long it will take me to dive back in and get a couple more :-)

Yeah I have a pair. They were racked in a Bento2 stereo 500 rack. I switched them out for a pair of 500 Zulus and I’m super happy. Love the Zulus. I may get another Bento2 and put the 542s back. And I feel you in terms of battling/balancing the input and the saturation. Sometimes I look for Silk blue and miss it. So I’ll probably rerack them.

I've aligned a lot of tape machines and I've never experienced a +6dB head bump! Most are 1 to 2 dB. Is the 542 supposed to be emulating a specific tape machine?

https://www.endino.com/graphs/

Yeah I was about to say +6db bump seems to be huge in that case...Would Rupert designed it that way ? Very surprising..

I paid a hell of a lot of money to Flux Magnetics to get rid of that 2dB head bump too!
--scott