Less than top line reel-to-reel worth it?

I'm sorta amazed at the renaissance of interest in open reel, having been a fan and active user of tape decks since the days of mono (early 50s). Some of my thoughts do run counter to those above, though. I bought a Teac X1000R brand new in 1984, had it serviced regularly, and was amazed at how a used (MUCH used) Otari MX5050 BII2 simply slaughtered it sonically and otherwise. 'Course I spent more money bringing it up to snuff than it cost originally . Which brings me to point #2.

You MUST have access to a tape tech who knows his way around these elderly electromechanical marvels. There is nothing more complex except maybe a Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck. Yes you can get lucky and find a tape deck that doesn't need immediate service, but most of them do. And they must be used regularly. Please trust me on this :-)

Speaking of luck, you CAN find tapes on Ebay that sound great. Even 4-track pop-jazz and classical. Percentage-wise, maybe 20-30% of what you buy. For instance, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is almost worth the $hundreds in 4-track form (a 2-track Kind of Blue and a 2-track Dave Brubeck "Time Out" have gone for over $2K each and no, they're not worth that kind of money but it does speak to the sonic quality of these tapes).

I've always considered open reel tape the ultimate "hair shirt" medium. A recent buy of a great-looking Revox A77 Mk. IV Dolby deck simply confirmed it. First, some capacitors exploded (my tech refers to these as "firecracker caps"). Then it caught on fire. Then it developed other problems. But I haven't give up on it. Not entirely.

Everything fades in importance when you watch those reels revolve and hear the music they can bring to you.

Thanks for all the responses. I should mention I am not very interested in recording. So far, I've gathered that it takes at least 7 1/2 ips to be comparable to vinyl, and, of course, condition of the unit and tape is critical.

The Pioneer RT-909 is a very good, reasonably inexpensive deck. And they have those very cool blue meters.

The very best-sounding decks are the Tandberg TDA20-SEs with DynEQ. You can make *fabulous* tapes with these, virtually indistinguishable from the original source.

And, for me, feeding the tape thru the capstans and onto the takeup reel rivals the tactile ritual of the best turntables...

-RW-

I've been into Ampex pro audio machines for about 40 years now. I think I have had the same electronics (351) for about 35 years. They have been rebuilt three times.

The old Ampex stuff is pretty bullet proof, not as nice looking or as easy to operate as the newer logic-controlled transports, but the sound is easily on par if not better. Tubes baby! You should not have to pay $10K for that stuff- even completely rebuilt, unless I am really out of touch with prices these days...

If you are only going for playback you will likely find the rather limited catalogue of commercial tapes recorded at 7.5ips or 3.75ips. Yes, Tape Project tapes are at 15ips but they are expensive.

3.75ips as said for recording is pretty good for the most part. Vinyl recorded at 3.75ips makes for long playback times and still quite high fidelity. IMO 3.75ips is best for FM radio recording.

7.5ips is true high end fidelity on a good reel to reel and will make great playback and esp great recordings of vinyl or cd.

If you are only planning to play back though you will find as I said a very limited library of tapes and a lot of used ones are in mediocre condition due to age, use and possible previous abuse.