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Reel to reel

I’m entertaining the idea of purchasing a reel to reel to record my albums on and also use to possibly soften the digital age a bit. Does anyone know where or if NEW blank tapes can be purchased? Are there any thoughts on a resurgence of R2R and if blank media will become more easily accessible?
luvrockin
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Funny how nobody seems to talk about the lower end of r2r or admit to owning a lesser deck.

While my Sony TC-377 is far from state of the art, it’s inherent simplicity and build quality will likely mean it will still be working into the next century.

Nope it will not give that state of the art replay some are experiencing here but I can say that Qobuz hires streaming recorded at 7.5ips on Ampex 641 sounds pretty darn good to myself.

I also really like the retro look of this deck.
johnss
595 posts
 
I used to have a 377. Nice deck. they benefit greatly from film bypasses on the interstage coupling caps and a fresh power supply rebuild.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

Uberwaltz, I had a friend who had a big beautiful Sony reel. The only thing I remember was the big multicolored buttons, and it's silent running.

It's not about whether or not it's state of the art, but whether or not you can get parts, and someone to work on it. Without those two things, I wouldn't recommend any deck.

I recall being in a large sale room that was devoted to nothing but reels. They had models of each major brand: Sony, AKAI, Pioneer, Crown and others; they had 10 and 7 inch models.  I bought a 7 inch AKAI that played cassettes, 8 tracks, and reel.

Sony TC 377 must be a good deck, they're still selling them.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
Orpheus.

No idea if it is a good deck but atm it’s good enough.

I really like the simplicity of it and it has similar controls to my old Akai cassette deck. Hard switches not soft touch controls.

Very solid feeling.

If I had one criticism it would be its relatively low output to my amp, but I think that is likely fairly common issue in most vintage tape decks.


atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,067 posts
 
If I had one criticism it would be its relatively low output to my amp, but I think that is likely fairly common issue in most vintage tape decks.
Consumer decks (including cassette) are set to a 1.0 volt output generally. There was an expectation to be used with a preamp. Pro decks are a bit different and have a lot more output.
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