Who bought reel to reels back in the day?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by 12" 45rpm, Jan 27, 2018.

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  1. HDOM

    HDOM Well-Known Member

    I see, i think also that no many variety of music was found reel to reel remaster these days? Take paco lucia, julio iglesias, abba, chick corea, etc in r2r?:shrug:
     
  2. Catcher10

    Catcher10 I like records, and Prog...duh

    You should get one, they are really nice to play with.....I have a lot of fun playing with mine! :agree::cool:
     
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  3. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Looks like Ferrograph is now an electronic displays company ...

    Ferrograph

    [​IMG]
     
  4. Warren Jarrett

    Warren Jarrett Audio Note (UK) dealer in SoCal/LA-OC In Memoriam

    Location:
    Fullerton, CA
    All rtr machines, that you buy used, are in need of some professional attention. Even when the owner claims "perfect condition", unless he has recent receipts, the deck will need new heads, a new motor and/or new capstans etc, to really sound as good or better than CDs and records.

    So I only buy a deck if it looks very nice, but the owner admits doesn't work. Then I pay a talented tech $800 to $1500, to make it work (and last) just like new.

    I paid $350 for my last beautiful but dead Otari mx-5050, then $1200 to make it run and sound truly excellent. My friend paid $1200 for an Otari that was claimed to look rough but "PERFECT" in operation. It actually needed $1200 in repairs, so his total of $2400 was overpriced in the long run.
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2018
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  5. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    found this picture of Quincy Jones and Sarah Vaughan.....
    cool photo, nothing pro here though!
    [​IMG]
    appears to be this model from Grundig, the TK 830
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2018
  6. Manimal

    Manimal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern US
    I look at that pic and think “I wonder if he knows he’ll be worth half a billion dollars some day” crazy
     
  7. sbayle

    sbayle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lexington, MA USA
    Not hardly. I used a Revolution A77 tomorrow record all the wonderful concerts put on by my friend Nancy Talbot, founder of the Boston Friends of Bluegrass and Old a Time Country Music. You don’t record a Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Frank Wakefield et al on a cassette deck!
     
    McLover likes this.
  8. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    None of the above were offered on open reel in the USA, too late.
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  9. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    These tapes from Tape Project are also 15 IPS, 1/2 track, 2 reels and IEC EQ. Not for play on consumer machines save for a very few. Mainly for professional or semi professional machines only.
     
  10. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    I preferred ReVox, Magnecord, Crown, and Teac to any Akai machine ever (promised more spec wise than actual performance, horrible USA agent with fair to bad support on out of warranty machines). Teac's best were excellent 3 motor/3 head reliable machines which sounded great, had superb parts and service support for many years. Sony's better 3 motor/3 head high end models were excellent. Crown made superb machines which were workhorses with excellent sound. And tank like durability and reliable as an anvil.
     
    The FRiNgE likes this.
  11. augustwest

    augustwest Forum Resident

    Location:
    los angeles, ca
    I had a Teac model. Ended up selling it in the early 2000's for around $25. Time marches on.
     
    H8SLKC likes this.
  12. frummox

    frummox Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    First exposure to reel to reel machines was a kid in my high school AV club who had his own Wollensak and was willing to record my bad guitar playing. One of my college roommates had a Sony which got me into home-brew bedroom recording. When I got out of college in the 70's I scraped up the bucks to by the same Sony (with detachable stereo speakers) and recorded sound on sound, endlessly bouncing. When that gave out bought a TEAC 4 track and a little TEAC 4 track mixer which I used until the motor burnt out on the deck. Eventually ADATS (little used) then finally Pro Tools. When I had the Sony I still didn't have a decent cassette recorder so I would borrow friends records and record them on reels which to my ears actually sounded pretty good. The TEAC had two speeds and was also very handy at the time for slowing down difficult musical passages. I would occasionally see albums available on reel to reel but was never tempted.
     
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  13. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    My band started out with a 3 inch reel Wollensack, and soon discovered it was not suited for recording music. Our next attempt was with a Sony 2 head TC-255, least of all we didn't know the more expensive three head models would not have served as well. The TC-255 did a nice job recording our practices, and eventually doing sound with sound (synchronized L & R channels) I still have the tape of three originals we did, no mixer, no monitors. We did it on the fly using a Deluxe Reverb and a Coral PA head. The quality is miraculously good, not perfect, a little bit of Sony pre-amp clipping here and there... try feeding the speaker out into that little Sony and then try to control your playing! :laugh:

    edit: I remember now constructing a resistor attenuator in a metal box.. The Deluxe Reverb was our mixer/ monitor. (Guitar, Bass, and vocal mic plugged into it) The drum mic plugged into the Coral head. (Deluxe Reverb ext speaker jack plugged into channel 1) All we had to go by was the VU to guess the level. It worked somehow!
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2018
  14. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    not my picture, but I've had one of these since I picked it up second hand back in 96' for about 200 dollars!
    It's exceptional! It worked flawlessly, had very little wear, and cosmetically perfect.
    It's only had one service about 10 years ago, and it's still going strong!
    I think it needs an updated calibration, and it needs a new VU globe, other than that...
    Sounds great! I give it a run once or twice a month for a few hours just to keep everything moving and capacitors
    charging etc etc....
    The good thing about these too, there are plenty of them around, always good later down the track if in need
    of parts.
    I'd take this to the grave with me if I could.
    [​IMG]
     
  15. HDOM

    HDOM Well-Known Member

    Yes
     
  16. caracallac

    caracallac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    3 of my uncles were big into hi-fi back in the 60's and 70's and over the years they had a number of mostly Philips and Sony reel to reels, although one did ended up with a Revox A77 with his Quad system.

    That particular uncle was a semi-professional musician and used his tape recorder to make live recordings of himself and his friends. When he died in the mid 90's our family and friends were able to sit around after the funeral with a few drinks and listen to them all sing again. Magical!
     
    bill44 likes this.
  17. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I'm surprised I never got into reel-to-reel.

    Ripping LPs to Cassette did the trick for the car I guess, so I'll assume this was the reason for not getting into it.
     
  18. H8SLKC

    H8SLKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    My grandfather listened to symphonic music on a reel to reel in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. I can remember the machine but cannot remember the sound it produced. Was there hiss in the playback like there is with cassette?
     
  19. ShallowMemory

    ShallowMemory Classical Princess

    Location:
    GB
    My Tandberg series 6 half track stereo tubed IEC EQ was used to record concerts from BBC Radio 2 and 3 on in addition to dubbing lps from and sounded great on Maxell UD at 7 1/2 ips (19.1 cms). It wasn't expensive but beautifully made and finished as you'd expect of a Scandinavian company's product.
     
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  20. ShallowMemory

    ShallowMemory Classical Princess

    Location:
    GB
    You wouldn't want to change sides rethreading the tape driving! Anyway, for what you wanted - taking your music on the road - cassette was ideal and could sound very good.
     
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  21. Wes H

    Wes H Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    I have a later cousin to your Sony TC 388-4 machine... the TC 788-4.
    It has some of the same functions, but with 10.5" reels, 3 motors, and 15 ips speed. Still performs beautifully. A few years ago I took it to a tech for service, but I do most of the maintenance myself.

    [​IMG]
     
  22. Another factor in reel-to-reel popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s was the large numbers of American amred forces personnel doing tours of duty in Asia and the Pacific. The retail electronics markets in the Far East- Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea- presented huge purchase bargains when compared to US stores, where many of the highest end products weren't even available.And a lot of Americans stationed overseas took advantage of those bargains. The PX and BX stores here in the States were often fairly well-stocked with many of those models at substantially discounted prices, too.

    I never got into reel-to-reel, but my impression is that it's something like vinyl and turntables: there's some extra affort involved that looks like a lot of extra effort involved, but once you're doing it hands-on and get used to the procedure, it feels like a simple routine after a little while. There are some extra maintenance factors, but they don't involve a lot of time and effort- except when compared to the hardware of popular consumer level digital formats, which is all but effortless to operate.
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2018
  23. tdvanb

    tdvanb Forum Resident

    I didn't, couldn't but that doesnt mean I didnt want to buy one. I can only think of one reel to reel in the 70s that I remember seeing in my little town. It was at a "Wilsons", store, which later changed their name to Service Merchandise. They had a sound room with some pretty nice stuff as I recall, including a Pioneer RT 707 or 701. They had it playing a factory Eagles album to demo it ( The long run 3 3/4 ips tape). I was well aware of this machine, because I was an avid reader of Stereo Review and on the first two pages of the magazine at about this time, was the advertisement for this deck. I wanted one so badly I could taste it but no way, no how, no cash. I wouldn't mind having that eagles tape right now just for old times, but the price on some of those last pre recorded tapes has gone through the roof. Fast forward to today, I have many 7 1/2 pre recorded reels (70's rock tapes baby). My decks include Quads and stereo reel decks picked up on the cheaps. All worked with very little mantainance because I don't think people played them very much after the "new" wore off. Can you believe I have Two Teacs (X2000r and X1000r) among 5 Akai's (2 mint quads) and 2 Fostex A4's all aquired very cheaply. The most expensive was my X1000r. I paid $199 for it from a thrift, an offer I made after telling them I would buy it as is. I explained that if they sold it with a warranty for $300 (what they wanted), it would probably be cannibalized and returned as "Not working". The guy thought about it and later told me I was right and that had happened to them before. Before I made the offer, I told the guy he ought to buy a belt for it, then sell it on ebay for $1000, but he didn't take my advice. I bought it because when I tested it and it worked for a short period and then stopped working. I knew it was just a belt. The heads looked brand new and the only flaw was a scratch on the top of the plastic head cover, but the rest of the deck was pristine ((wood cabinet and black face). Those heads really got me to reach for my wallet. Now I have me another way cool deck (X2000r aint bad either). By the way, has anyone with a good reel deck ever recorded a high res stream with it???
     
  24. TarnishedEars

    TarnishedEars Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Seattle area
    I've always been fond of the big Sonys. They are really wonderful-sounding machines which are beautiful as well.
     
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  25. HDOM

    HDOM Well-Known Member

    japan japan my friend :cheers:
     
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