Does anyone own a Reel to reel tape recorder?

[MrReaper182]

So does anyone on this forum own a Reel to reel tape recorder? I have always wanted one for no other reason than I think they are gorgeous but the price has always put me off owning one. Old tech needs a lot of tender loving care and not to mention that old tech breaks a lot and I bet geting hold of parts is not easy or cheap. So if you do own one how often does the reel to reel last before it needs repairing? How easy is it for you to find parts for your reel to reel when it does break?

 

[davedotco]

So does anyone on this forum own a Reel to reel tape recorder? I have always wanted one for no other reason than I think they are gorgeous but the price has always put me off owning one. Old tech needs a lot of tender loving care and not to mention that old tech breaks a lot and I bet geting hold of parts is not easy or cheap. So if you do own one how often does the reel to reel last before it needs repairing? How easy is it for you to find parts for your reel to reel when it does break?

I have owned many over the years.

The obvious contender are the Revox machines, plenty of service agents and support so fits the bill nicely.

Spares and service are not that cheap though, very labour intensive. Look for a B77 half track, if you are buying cheap you may need to get the heads replaced, otherwise these machines are well built and will last for years of domestic use.

New tape is available though you will have to search the pro shops, Expect to pay about £40, more if on a metal NAB reel.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep, we've got a Revox B77 - looks and sounds gorgeous. We have it serviced by an ex-BBC engineer that specialises in keeping all kinds of vintage kit in great working order.

We buy tapes online - plenty of great deals, especially from Europe (the Netherlands and Germany).

Like a classic car, it's a bit of an indulgence, but also a total delight!

 

[MrReaper182]

Thanks for the info. There are a few Revox B77 1/2 track machines going for around the four hundred and fifty quid price mark online which I like the look of so I'm going to take a punt on one of those bad boys. There is a shop near where I live which should be able to give my new machine a service.

 

[davedotco]

I have always wanted one of these.......

Hard to find and silly money for something that woudn't do anything, just sit there and look gorgeous.

 

[MrReaper182]

I have always wanted one of these.......

http://soniccircus.com/ampex_atr-102_tape_machine_w-conv_dm_u_f.jpg

Hard to find and silly money for something that woudn't do anything, just sit there and look gorgeous.

Wow, that's very striking. Something tells me it's probably not going to fit on my hi-fi rack.

 

[davedotco]

I have always wanted one of these.......

http://soniccircus.com/ampex_atr-102_tape_machine_w-conv_dm_u_f.jpg

Hard to find and silly money for something that woudn't do anything, just sit there and look gorgeous.

Wow, that's very striking. Something tells me it's probably not going to fit on my hi-fi rack.

It was the 2 track of choice back in the late 70s.

Fabulous to use, move either reel or the 'knob' on the top of the capstan and the servos simply moved the tape over the heads, maintaining perfect tension, great editing machine.

Proper real time counter too, you could 'mark' the start of a track, then after a while tell the machine to find it, it would fast wind, slow down in anticipation and shuttle back and forth to the exact spot required, very tidy.

The box on the left is a full function remote with the thick multicore coiled behind, remember this is well before any computer controlled systems, very clever stuff.

I can recall demming (at an APRS show) a digital delay designed for disc cutting. Unusually it had a full 8 seconds of delay, unheard of at the time and very much state of the art.

The conclusion of the show required me to cross the room, switch of the recorder manually, stopping it instantly, and return to my seat while the music continued via the delay line. Mundane now, but jaw dropping in it's day.

 

[MajorFubar]

I have a 2-channel 4-track three-head machine (Akai 4000DB), it was my dad's, bought in around 1976, and has been in storage for many a year. It wasn't exactly cheap in its day (was about £200 in '76 which was a fair whack back then) but compared to a Revox it's low-end. Semi-pro machines like the B77 come in various flavours and one of the most obvious differences is the tape speeds. Low-end models (if you can call over a grand new 'low end') offer 3 3/4 IPS and 7.5 IPS, and the pro machines were 7.5 IPS and 15 IPS. There were specialist slow-speed machines too which offered 1 7/8 IPS but these are very rare now I think and were made for recording long sessions of narration-quality audio. Some B77s came with the optional diapilot free head for use with AV synchronisers.

 

[davedotco]

I have a 2-channel 4-track three-head machine (Akai 4000DB), it was my dad's, bought in around 1976, and has been in storage for many a year. It wasn't exactly cheap in its day (was about £200 in '76 which was a fair whack back then) but compared to a Revox it's low-end. Semi-pro machines like the B77 come in various flavours and one of the most obvious differences is the tape speeds. Low-end models (if you can call over a grand new 'low end') offer 3 3/4 IPS and 7.5 IPS, and the pro machines were 7.5 IPS and 15 IPS. There were specialist slow-speed machines too which offered 1 7/8 IPS but these are very rare now I think and were made for recording long sessions of narration-quality audio. Some B77s came with the optional diapilot free head for use with AV synchronisers.

The A77 and B77 models came in hundreds of different versions, some factory, some aftermarket, companies such as ITA made a good living building special versions for all kinds of users.

The big difference between the Revox and Studer versions was the input/output interface, original Revox was din standard, and although more conventional rca connections were quickly fitted though the electronics, particularly on the A77, were always a bit noisy.

My all time favourite was a A77 running at 15/32 ips, used for data logging, the tape would last all day.....!

 

[aob9]

Have you visited Tapeheads.net. Lot's of vintage chat over there. I bought my Sony WM-DC2 (cassette) after chatting with forum members. It's true vintage audio is expensive to maintain. I spent £150 getting the drive mechanism repaired and Dolby circuits tuned by an expert. It sounds absolutely stunning for mere cassette.

 

[MajorFubar]

My all time favourite was a A77 running at 15/32 ips, used for data logging, the tape would last all day.....!

Ha! Yeah, I bet. I never fully understood though why my 4000DB tape deck, running at 3 3/4IPS, was very easily laid to waste by any average cassette deck. (Obviously, very much less so at 7 1/2, which is what I usually used). HF response was rubbish: splashy and sibilant, with a severely curtained FR. It had a 1 micron record head, so the gap should have been small enough for a decent FR even at slow speeds. Maybe it was just bad tape-stock, but the BASF and TDK tapes I used to use weren't exactly Tandy-grade pound-a-reel rubbish.

 

[andyjm]

I have an Akai 4000D in the loft.

The trick in getting decent performance was matching the bias level to the tape being used. I fiddled around for ages with a 'scope and signal generator and the end result was very good - however even a basic digital soundcard is far better.

 

[davedotco]

I have an Akai 4000D in the loft.

The trick in getting decent performance was matching the bias level to the tape being used. I fiddled around for ages with a 'scope and signal generator and the end result was very good - however even a basic digital soundcard is far better.

Ahhhhh, setting up the tape machines, first job of the day.......!

 

[Melchior]

I see no reason to bother. I used to own one, and it was nothing but trouble.