Using a three-head tape recorder (technically known as a recorder / reproducer) for playback remains a common practice. Yet tape playback through a recorder / reproducer can never provide optimum performance, in part due to the location of the playback head in the headblock.
Consider that the primary purpose of the playback head on a recorder / reproducer is to provide confidence recording capability. This feature allows an operator to monitor the signal coming back off the tape, assuring that a recording is taking place satisfactorily.
How to achieve the highest quality tape playback?
Analog tape machine designers have known since the 1960s that the solution for attaining highest quality playback is a specialized machine optimized for this purpose. Such playback machines are known as reproducers. Reproducers never have erase or record heads. The better reproducers (including those from ATAE) have only a single playback head that has been optimally positioned in a special headblock design.
Consider that the primary purpose of the playback head on a recorder / reproducer is to provide confidence recording capability. This feature allows an operator to monitor the signal coming back off the tape, assuring that a recording is taking place satisfactorily.
How to achieve the highest quality tape playback?
Analog tape machine designers have known since the 1960s that the solution for attaining highest quality playback is a specialized machine optimized for this purpose. Such playback machines are known as reproducers. Reproducers never have erase or record heads. The better reproducers (including those from ATAE) have only a single playback head that has been optimally positioned in a special headblock design.