John don't forget that many if not most of these machines purchased need some tech work to render them operable which will raise the initial cost to user
John don't forget that many if not most of these machines purchased need some tech work to render them operable which will raise the initial cost to user
Hi John
I'd recommend the Technics RS-1700 auto-reverse deck. You can get a whopping 240 minutes at 3 3/4 ips with 1 mil tape! These are very solid machines.
Hi John
I'd recommend the Technics RS-1700 auto-reverse deck. You can get a whopping 240 minutes at 3 3/4 ips with 1 mil tape! These are very solid machines.
There are some nice decks in the $500-750 range
1. OTARI MX5050BII nice tape handling parts plentiful, ebay findable.
2. Ampex 440 a workhorse professional deck big sound on ebay "c" model most desirable
3. Panasonic RS Series VG deck but pricey now superior tape handling
4.Crown CX822 or CX824 sometimes on ebay for $500 a nice deck
5.Studer Revox B77 ,G36, unfortunately the A810 is now priced out of range .
The most important thing is be careful when you purchase there is a lot of junk out there........ask questions about usage and history if you can
heads can be relapped.
I have a friend here in Mexico that has a quite sophisticated R2R implementation and member of a club where he receives a very high quality tape every month or so from Germany (my guess). He was using a modified Technics 1600 deck just as a transport and custom made Bottlehead units for the head amp and equalization stages (outboard of course). The sound was amazingly good.
John,
I hope you are not considering buying a reel to reel in order to play back tapes at 3 3/4 ips unless your goal is just to have a reel to reel deck spinning tapes and looking cool. It won't sound cool. I find the noise from 7 1/2 ips to be barely tolerable let alone 3 3/4 ips. If you are going to go through the trouble to get a deck and make tapes for yourself, my advice is to get serious about it or don't do it at all. 15 ips 2 track will blow your socks off. Anything else will just blow.
It's the whole "interactivity" or "hands-on" approach that I find very appealing about tape...much like vinyl of course. I would be using the 7.5ips speed and not the 3.75ips.....
John,
I hope you are not considering buying a reel to reel in order to play back tapes at 3 3/4 ips unless your goal is just to have a reel to reel deck spinning tapes and looking cool. It won't sound cool. I find the noise from 7 1/2 ips to be barely tolerable let alone 3 3/4 ips. If you are going to go through the trouble to get a deck and make tapes for yourself, my advice is to get serious about it or don't do it at all. 15 ips 2 track will blow your socks off. Anything else will just blow.
I'd like a RTR that does play/record at 15ips so I can play around and hear what the differences are. If I end up liking the format or, at least, realize its potential...then I can get serious. In the meantime it's a preliminary excursion.
I am aware of The Tape Project, thanks to this forum, and have read all about the superior quality a good tape deck can provide. This is why I'm interested in considering getting a start. I have a lot to learn yet, and maybe a browse over there is a smart idea. Thanks for the tip as I didn't realize they had a discussion forum.
So realistically, and lets make the assumption that everything checks out, what would be a good pricepoint to consider? Am I crazy to assume that I can get one for $500?
To all of you...thank you so much for your input so far!
John,
You can get an Ampex ATR-700 for around $300 that will play and record tapes at 15 ips 2 track. For some reason, these decks are the biggest steal in high-end reel to reels. It was probably because they were built by TEAC for Ampex. It doesn't matter, it is a pro deck.
Here is my latest folly. I've always wanted a Presto Tube RTR and finally found one on the east coast. I believe these decks were only made for 2 years when production ended in either 1958 or 1959. They were made in mono full track, 1/4 inch 2 track and 1/2 inch 3 track versions. My technician just made some new cables between the power supplies(dual mono) and preamps today and it fired up nicely. All original from 1957, outside of having new heads installed in 1976. Kara of deHavilland is going to re-bearing the motors and get the final bugs out next month. It is sort of a cross between an Ampex 350 and 351. It has mostly submini tubes(12AX7, 6CG7 and 12AT7) with a final 6BL7 octal output. It is all hard wired with a flip down faceplate that offers nice access to the electronics. I'll post more pics when I get it fully set up. I got it with some Ampex 350 flight cases and have located an original Presto Trolly locally.
I'm looking for a 1/2 inch headstack for this beast. This will likely be harder than finding a needle in a haystack unfortunately.
note mono power supplies, each with two 6AX5 rectifier tubes. The transport offers 3 different wind speeds and it has user selectable tape tension for both supply and take up reel. These two features were not offered on the Ampex of the day.
Looking forward to hearing how it sounds up against Kara's 351.
Hi Rich, I watched that deck on the auction site for a while. I knew somebody would snag it, I was tempted but I have plenty to do with my Ampexes.
Frank Sinatra had one or two presto 800's and the 1997 Sony "kind of Blue" was redone on a presto 800. The Presto had a different sound than the Ampex. If it were mine I would get John at JRF to build a set of heads for it. It's a pretty piece.
“In 1997, when we wanted to address Kind of Blue again, I had a GML custom line mixer, and a basically pristine, all-tube Presto 3-track— possibly the R-II [1956] or Model 825 [1957]—which had a unique sound. The GML console was a true step up—it was by far more transparent than the Neve. I did a flat transfer—no EQ or compression—from the Presto and GML to an analog Ampex ATR- 102 with Dolby SR running at 15ips. Printing to analog allowed me to move those original mixes into the future for any technology change that may come along, and these are now the reference standard mixes of Kind of Blue.
