While were at it: Does anyone still use a Reel to Reel deck?

Man, when I was a kid you were the pride of the "gang" if you had a reel deck. A friend brought back a huge Sony 10" reel deck back from Japan when he was stationed there in the late 70's and we were in awe. Big, fat analog meters, huge spinning reels......Wow! He gave me that deck a few years ago but sadly it needs some parts that I can no longer find.

A couple of years ago I purchased a Teac 3340S 4 channel reel deck when I was heavy into quad.

Last month I bought a Pioneer RT-909 10" reel deck. Man, she sure is pretty! It plays flawlessly and I am rediscovering my old tapes. I even recorded a SACD to it at 7 1/2 ips and other than a very small amount of
hiss, I really can't tell the difference between the two.

Nice stuff!

 

Reel to Reels were quite awesome in the 60's.
I used to record all my favorite songs from the radio or LPs to create a greatest hits tape.
I also used to record the simulcast concerts like Allman Brothers.
I recently picked up 3 reel to reel recorders including 2 like I had as a kid the Sony 250. I tried it out Saturday with a pre recorded tape and it sounded very very good.
I have not tried the other 2 yet.
I just love Sound reproduction devices...

 

There has got to be more reel fans out there! Tell us your story.

 

Just last week I offered a beautiful Akai deck over on classifieds http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20495. Not a single offer. Still available...PM if interested.

 

Dean,

I use my Reel Recorder almost every day and I am presently mired in a mammoth recording project. Here is my machine:

Bob

 

I rarely play my reels any more. Partly it's out of fear that the reel I pull out will be afflicted with "sticky shed" syndrome, as so bloody many of them are. Grrrr....

 

I have an older Teac that I picked up just for dubbing pre-recorded reels to CD. I picked up a pair of NAB hubs directly from Teac, and can now play large reels if I want to. Nothing I'd use seriously, but it's a lot of fun nonetheless! It's sort of addictive like LPs--watching those big reels spin around.

 

Reel decks are great. I miss working with them.

 

Steve,

My EMTEC (BASF) reels from 1990 still play just fine. I have older Scotch 250's and 996's that still play very well. The older AMPEX 456's are pretty shot though...

Bob

 

I like portable reel-to -reels as well as their bigger brothers

This is a nice little portable mono deck



and this is a nice little portable stereo deck



but the cutest one is



All the best - Andrew

 

I have a Teac XR-1000. I used to tape several simulcasts over the radio, good ole Westwood One back in the 80's. I plan on editing and burning on CD-R. When they did the live concerts, reel-to-reel really came in handy for length instead of cassettes.

 

"Your mission, should you decide to accept it...."

 

It's hilarious to look at all the auctions on eBay for Ampex 456...they sell for a premium. Wonder if anyone knows the tape stock is probably no good?

I have other Ampex tapes from the 70's that play like new, as well as some 70's and 80's Maxell UD35-90 that sound excellent when recorded on.

 

I have a JVC 1400 4 track that I use quite a bit. I had a friend hand me a r2r tape last week that has Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Peppers and Help on one side and Simon & Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence, Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme on the other. What I find interesting is that the reel has a record date of 10 March 1968. You can hear the needle drop and the surface noise. I also use this deck to record a friends band on occasion as it has the 4 track capability so as to record on 4 and down mix to 2 tracks to put onto cd's.

 

I have Scoth 250 and 996's that are total sludge. Lucky you.
206/207 mostly still plays. 406/407 stands a reasonable chance. Anything "better", probably gunk. 150/190 no problem.

Every single reel of 3M-806 or 807 I've ever seen, and that's a lot of reels, is totally, utterly, completely trashed. This was their entirely unwelcome "replacement" for 206/207, never mind that it's characteristics were totally different, tape machines all had to be radically rebiased, and the older ones could never record flat on the stuff (way too bright!) unless you wanted to modify them <rantff> Geeze. Still mad after all these years. That was a stupid, stupid move, 3M. Oh well, too late to worry about now. (We did switch to Ampex solely because of that.)

My voice grade tapes generally play just fine.

Mostly it does seem to be the American tapes that go bad, though I do have one reel of something Japanese - Fuji, perhaps - that's in trouble.

 

Cool thread!

When I was a youngster, my mom bought my dad a Roberts 997 Reel to Reel...around 64 I do believe. It still works....

I bought a Pioneer 707 around 78? I still have it and it works flawlessly...I still have the original box and manual that came with it...........I can get more for it on Ebay than I paid for it used.



I've heard that the Roberts brand was actually made by Akai but sold under a different name here, because of the bias against "cheap Japanese junk" we had stateside in them early years of stereo..

 

I wish I could find a good one. I wouldn't mind doing some transfers to digital with one.

I know, I know...EBAY!

 

Pioneer RT-707 - Use it everyday! Transfer a lot of CDs and all vinyl to Quantegy 407 tape using this machine. 20+ years old and still works perfectly.

Dave

 

I never had a problem with any Maxell or TDK tapes that I've had from about '76 or so. They still sound great.

 

Steve,

For reasons I cannot explain about 1988 seems to be an important date. Reel tapes I have that I recorded subsequent to 1988 play just fine. Those recorded prior to 1988, there are problems. I have never had an EMTEC (BASF) tape go bad - not once. I should add that my Maxell Reels play just fine going back to the late 70's. Problems is - these are consumer grade tapes and they do not sound as good as professional grade tape - I still play them on occasion. Sadly, my old 60's airchecks recorded on 7" Reels of Scotch 111 all self-destructed a number of years ago long before CD recording technology. I was never a big fan of 3M's later tape stock and I am glad that I totally switched to EMTEC by 1992. Thanks to a generous Forum member, I have 2 Reels of Quantegy GP9 to runs some tests on. I hope to do that soon.

Bob

 

What is Quantegy and where do I find it?

 

Dean,

Quantegy is the newer name for AMPEX. While I have yet to record on the GP9, I am generally more favorably impressed by EMTEC (BASF) Reel tape. Professional tape can be found at just about any full service pro audio house....

There are a number in your area, I'd assume.

Bob

 

Hi Bob,

I am thinking that 1988 date may be just a coincidental thing. I've had no such luck.

My bias (no pun intended) against the Japanese tapes is that they had a stiffer backing than others, which made them more dropout prone, particularly on slow speed quarter-track decks (most particularly on my Tandbergs, which did not have the best head design for dealing with dropouts, though they wore well.) I've also noticed more high end degredation with time on the Maxell and TDK reels I have from the early '70s.

Sorry to hear about your 111. Also curious - we have tapes going back to 1949. Some of them are squirrely (they weave up and down when playing) but none of them have the oxide falling off. Most of them are still perfectly playable. (Scotch, audiotape, Irish, etc.)

I used to use BASF myself. European tapes tended to run dirty - when they were new you had to clean the heads often. Otherwise I liked them. But for some reason they just weren't considered where I worked. I guess they were not as readily available. Or maybe we just wanted to buy American.