Places to buy Reel-to-Reel decks

You should check with Deja Vu Audio in McLean, Va. They often get in and recondition reel to real machines. They currently have in the store an Otari and a Technics machine.

 

I don't really get the R-2-R thing. I mean, they look cool, but where do you even buy the tapes?

Seems like you'd have to collect a ton of tapes to make it worthwhile and there just doesn't seem to be an abundance of tape out there.

 

It's the sound, man. It's the sound.

 

Indeed. Nice museum pieces, fiddly tapes, and long surpassed now.

 

Brian it is a niche market that I am part of. In my 20 ' s I attended a 6 week recording engineering workshop when tape machines were the norm in studios. There is a natural sound inherent to analog tape that is unique and very pleasing. I really enjoy messing with a rtr even though most would consider it a hassle.

There are enough pre-recorded tapes out there on ebay and other sites to build a good library. I like to record several lp's to 10.5" reels @ 7.5 ips.

Hope to trade up from my RT-909 to a 15 ips machine soon.

 

Like @56GoldTop mentioned, the sound is second to none. I had the pleasure to hear some "Tape Projects" tapes, and wow is all I can say!

 

Craigslist because shipping is ridiculous. These units are Heavy!

 

It took months but here she is:



She's an Otari 5050 and she works brilliantly. I just used her to take some Steely Dan off my vinyl (Aja - Cisco) and the results are sublime!

Ed

 

Is this the last model made by Otari before it stopped production?

 

I hear you. But what kind of condition are most of these pre-recorded open reel tapes in? They have to be forty years old ...

 

This looks like a Crown open-reel deck ...

 

Before I moved, my go-to audio shop carried new RMG reels. Not cheap. Here are some:

http://www.splicit.com/rmgi_tape.html

If you've got a spare $11,000 ~ $14,000 or so, you can buy a new snazzy deck from United Home Audio:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...ew-tape-deck-and-next-gen-reel-to-reel-tapes/

Me? I'd go with a Revox or one of the decks people have listed above that have support networks.

 

1/4" x 1800' reel used to cost around $10 each back in the day ...

 

I'm not sure, honestly. This was originally made in 1997. It's been completely rebuilt from the inside out. He even threw in the brand new reel you see above.

Ed

 

That's a beauty. Always wanted one since they look fantastic. Friend of mine gave his away a few years ago. Didn't realise.

 

All the late models of Revox such as PR99 and TASCAM, etc. featured digital readout instead of the old analog tape counter, though the traditional VU meters continued. Akai did have two models where the tape counter (with real-time) readout and LED meter instead of the VU meter ...

A 97 model by Otari was probably close to the last production year if not exactly the last production year.

 

The United Home Audio machine is not all brand new. It is a rebuilt Tascam BR 20 machine with improvements. It is an excellent machine in it's own right even as a stock original Tascam. It was the last Tascam machine built. Otari only recently discontinued the MX 5050 line several years ago. The last ones being built to special order.

 

I am surprised Otari actually has the financial wherewithal to survive all these years ...

Is it Chinese owned now?

 

What are those speakers next to the Otari?

 

Tape can be incredibly robust (think of all the titles we get remastered over, and over, and over again… wouldn't be possible otherwise)

Believe it or not some of my oldest tapes are nearing 70 years old - all play as well as they did when new, perhaps even better. I would say most of my tape is 1950's vintage, about 60 years on average.


It's actually the later era stuff that can get you in a sticky situation (pun intended) but even that is treatable without ill effect.

 

It may be a letdown for you to know that some may be remastering from digital archives.

 

They look remarkably like Yamaha powered nearfields...but the shape is weird (optical illusion?)

 

I accidentally creased an open-reel tape due to my oversight of not setting the correct tape speed. As such, a few seconds of the live concert I recorded now sound muffled. Is there anyway to fix this problem?

 

The speed the tape was moving caused it to become creased? Hmmm... in any case. Something some engineers have resorted to in cases like this is to actually iron out the tape however that seems very intensive. I have no experience doing anything like that. If you can pack the tape neatly and tightly onto a small reel with a smooth unslotted hub, and let it sit for a long while, often these problems can iron themselves out or at least become somewhat improved. You'd want to put the affected area near the center of the hub where the pressure acting on the wrap would be the greatest, so if it happened at the beginning then keeping it tails out as standard (assuming two-track) would be a good thing to try before going for other, more extreme methods.

Of course, ironing a professionally recorded tape will have a much better result than trying to do the same to something made on a home-use machine, where more audio is condensed onto less tape - a small bit of damage that would not even be audible at 15ips could be devastating to recorded material at 3 3/4.

 

It was recorded off the air at 3 3/4 ips. The creasing was due to the higher speed on a different deck which caused the tape to get tangled up and you get the rest of the story ...