Reel to Reel decks

Listen to Orpheus10. Akai made some nice decks, but the parts are notoriously difficult to source and Akai's don't compare too favorably in both the sound and maintenance departments to Revox, Teac, Pioneer, Tandbergs, etc.

It's awesome to have a cool, gifted heirloom, but resale & if it will see serious use are always considerations when thinking of refirbing and esp. spending to refirb vintage gear.

If you just want to have a lark, why don't you just hit it hard with the contact cleaner and see what you have on your hands first?

That's pretty much where I'm at with it, Marchameslice. I'll post my results on this thread when I get to the project, since this thread is truly one of the few sources for kind of info. Many thanks again.

Michael

Cool man, let us know how it goes with it. I have a Revox A77 & a Technics 1506 and I really enjoy messing around with tape.. so what if it's a bit anochronistic :)

There are a few other boards you can check out for some RTR info. A dedicated one called Tapeheads.net comes to mind, also the Tape Trail forum at the AA (doesn't get a lot of action these days, but there are some very experienced folks who lurk over there). Also, places like the Bottlehead/Tape Project board and the stevehoffman.tv boards have some really nice and informative RTR minded people on them as well.

Good luck with it! M

@Poprhetor,

I know of an Akai R2R for sale right now at a vintage shop...i don't think it's too expensive actually i don't think he knew what it was worth at all. The unit works through and through, if you need parts or want to replace let me know and i'll msg you the details.

If you want to lubricate any bearing set in most tape machines, an excellent lubricant for the job is Dextron-style automatic transmission fluid. Usually only a few drops are required.

A common problem in many Japanese tape machines is the pinch roller arm that activates the pinch roller. It can get gummed up by the grease that was used when the machine was built. Quite often by now such greases have turned to a pretty effective glue! Another area where this is a problem is the reel brakes which are often activated by a common lever.