A New Reel to Reel Tape Deck?

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.

topoxforddoc,

I wasn't aware of that.  Very encouraging and that would make complete sense.  Let's hope it will be something that is affordable.  Fat chance on that last one.. huh?

N.

Normansizemore - 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.

NSM - I wish you continued good success with them. One day my Studer powered up fine but when I loaded up a tape tails out, right side, threaded it up and hit rewind, nothing except.... a sinking feeling...
I called Roger Ginsley my tech.

Here is a shot of him I found on the internet

http://www.modularmusic.ca/pictures/side_ads_VM125W818p.jpg

and here is a web gallery of pics . Some of the pics give a good indicator of what can be involved with servicing these machines if anyone here DIY feels he can tackle them.

http://www.tekxelectronics.com/webgallery/webgallery.html

anyway
Over the phone he said it was a high probability of the power supply capacitors. Huge coke bottle size buggers.
He had new capacitors in stock we arranged for a visit. I went to see him this time. After diagnostics he found the original West Germany made capacitors in the machine showing full voltage ! No leakage, or bulging. Still looked new he said. How is this possible? Now he needed to start probing. After X hours he found a bad resistor if I remember.
Well personally, I would have felt much better leaving there, if I had paid for X hours labor and brand new capacitors.

Larryi - 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.

Larryi - Yes, I have heard this too from talking with a few engineers and also from Roger who as worked with so many recording engineers. And digital music sourced from Analog tape can be great. The CD available from that site I linked sounds really really good.

french_fries
....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.

french_fries
but the current cost for two blank tape reels needed for one 40 min 15 IPS album is $100. that cost would need to come down.