I worked at a stereo store in 1975-6 that sold Tandberg, Revox, and Nakamichi (as well as Teac), and I owned a Tandberg reel-to-reel. To these ears, the Tandberg reel-to-reels sounded better than the Revox A-77 and their 330 cassette deck trounced the Nakamichi 1000 and 700.
The Tandberg R2Rs had a s/n ratio of 64 dB, where the Teac, Sony, and Pioneers of the day were at 55-58 dB. Even the much more expensive Revox with Dolby was only 2 dB better than the Tandberg. I never got around to getting one of their cassette decks but we weren't paid much back then.
