A New Reel to Reel Tape Deck?

ct0517,

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.  I think that we are pretty much in agreement, but you certainly fleshed out the issues more completely.  Yes, tape will remain a niche business and I would certainly hope that the niche remains healthy enough so that support in the form of parts, service and blank tape will always be available.  Tape might not be for me, personally, but, I do recognize that under ideal conditions, it remains the very best medium out there.

I read not too long ago about a discussion among current recording engineers. They were remarkably consistent in their agreement about the merits of various forms of recording.  They all agreed that high resolution digital is closest to sounding like the microphone feed, but, they also agreed that analogue tape actually sounded the best, even though it was not the most accurate.

Servicing these complex machines IS a big issue.  A very good friend of mine actually does this as a side line.  He fixes and reconditions machines for a local Washington DC area audio store.  He said that, from a purely mechanical perspective, the Otari machines are the best built.  I believe that he has managed to find the parts necessary to service most of the common brands--Technics, Otari, Akai, Studer/Revox, etc.-- but I believe he has had some trouble with certain parts for Tanberg machines.

As to speculation on the original posting, I would guess that Nagra, which continues to make consumer goods, is the mystery company planning on making new consumer machines, with Studer/Revox as my second guess.

I have looked over what is available on 1/4 inch pre-recorded (high-def)
tapes and the selection is (still) very very small.  Plus when i collected a few
tapes from the 60's and 70's off of EBAY like Columbia for ex. and had
to throw several of them away- the backing was too dried out, the edges
were feathered and didn't pass over the heads correctly, etc. It isn't the
money spent as much ($10-$25 each) but the aggravation this caused (plus having to clean the tape path thoroughly to make sure there was no tape
residue left behind).  If you want a good machine you can get one for $1K or so, but you have to either make tapes from your vinyl collection or spend hundreds of dollars on a tiny selection of tape project titles or similar.  I DO have a few decks that could be modified with better electronics, etc. but i need someone to make available a whole bunch of HD tapes for, let's say $100-$150/ea. to make it all worthwhile. 
     Maybe a modern-day Rudy Van Gelder will open a studio, assemble some jazz musicians, make a whole bunch of masters, and sell copies
at something like affordable prices.  Until then, we wait...
Reference Recordings could "probably" embark on this kind of a project...
     I had a Concord-220 when i was 12 years old and have had a R-to-Reel of some kind ever since- i am over 60 now. I made hundreds of tapes, compilations of
music i liked- off of FM radio, and then later off of vinyl.  But that 
ain't what we're talking about here, is it?

ct0517, larryi,

I haven't had a problem with any reel to reel machine I've ever owned.  I play them regularly and all of them are over 35 years of age.  That and a quick Google check shows that here in the Chicago land area there are several quality shops that will do a full service on your machine.  I honestly think that with most all machines, parts are still available from some source.

The most common concern is that of head wear.  If you're using a Sony, or an Akai (they only made one half track machine) then head wear isn't a concern with their ferrite heads.  I was worried about this and bought a couple of NOS head stacks for the Pioneer that I use most.  But now after years of use the heads look tremendous.  I realize that I am probably never going to wear out the original stack.  Maintenance and using quality tape helps a lot in this regard.

If there were NO available master tape copies I would still own a reel to reel machine to tape LP's that I enjoy most.  I can edit out the songs I don't like, put them in the order I do like and at then listen for 45 min at at time without having to get up and flip the LP.  

larryi, I listen to tapes that I made back in the early 70's.  Only those I made using Scotch 206 and Ampex 468 having given me issues.  Maxells, BASF, AGFA, Memorex (believe it or not), and TDK's play beautifully without issue.

N.

1. I believe that only with R2R tape you can get close to vinyl quality or sometimes better.
2. Just like vinyl rejuvenation the next step will be R2R

Get ready for new components folks.

I believe that it's going to be Revox-Studer. The Horch Music R2R titles shown (e.g. the 6 album Oscar Peterson) are being sold under the Revox brand.