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4.178.186.250
In my disgust with digital format I have went to vinyl & going to purchase a RTR in 500-600 range. I am complete newbie w/ RTR's, but I am going to dive in for better or worse. Any suggestions will greatly be appreciated.........
Follow Ups:
You've received some really good advice here BUT at that price range, you are in a nebulous 'neverneverland' of broken promises and dreams. If you want a studio quality machine, that will get you into the door of a very dirty/used one at auction somewhere. Expect a good tech to add another $400 to bring it up to light speed. Your price range would also buy you a mid priced consumer deck from the days of lore that has been restored at some point. If you were to aim a little higher at say, $750-900, you stand a good chance of finding a top consumer deck that has been recently restored or a pro studio deck that is still ticking, but will need some help in a yr or so.
If I was doing it all over again, I'd go for the pro deck that has lots of parts still around-stay away from defunct exotica, like my Tandberg unless you seek major adversity.;-)
Thanks for all the help..it will help me in my purchase. I am fairly sure it will take more than 1 unit to get the hang of it. I wish to record myself, guitar player wannabe of 30+ year & playback & even FM & vinyl recording..Biggest thing is playback. All I know is my JVC QL-7 w/ so-so cartridge beats any modded to heck& back NOS DAC I have & I am just sick of digital sources. Stuck them all away & FM mono thru Mac MR-74 & my $ 100.00 vinyl rig thru variouse very decent tube gear is what I do now. So the journey of tape is soon to start for me.
I would suggest a 4 track machine, while 2 track do sound better for the most part any pre-recorded tapes will be 4-track. Also if you are recording your own stuff LP’s, Cassettes, CD’s, Radio Broadcasts then for the most part you do either 3.75 IPS, 7.5 IPS, I have machines that do 15 IPS, but because of limited time to record I never use that speed.
A 4 track auto reverse machine will allow you to listen to about 3 hours of music at 7.5 IPS and 6 hours at 3.75IPS (I don’t use the slower speed because the sound quality suffers too much, but at 7.5 IPS it is hard to tell the difference between the tape and the original LP).
The main reason I have R2R is to archive LP’s and to listen to them for extended periods when I don’t want to keep getting up and turning over a record. So depending on how you want to use the machine I would recommend the following:
1. A machine that can use 10.5” Reels (more recording time)
2. A machine that is a 4 track machine with 3 heads
3. A machine with auto reverse (more un-interrupted playing time)
4. A machine with 3.75 and 7.5 IPS speeds (some pre-recorded tapes are at 3.75, though the quality of those tapes tends to be low).
All that said, I would look for a Teac machine like the X-1000R or X-2000R, not because they are the best sounding, but there is still parts around to fix them (Teac actually still stocks many of them) and there are a lot of people around that know how to work on them. I picked up a Teac X-2000R from VintageTx that was completed restored for $800 including shipping (these things are heavy so figure about $90 for ground shipping).
Just get some simple and basic to start, you can always upgrade later, I started with a Pioneer 1011L, then moved on to the Teac X-2000R, then got a Akai 747DBX, Pioneer RT909, Technics 1500, Sony TC850 Revox B77 MkII, Teac X20R and Tascam 44 it is really easy to get caught up with R2R’s. The meters bouncing, the reels turning, god I love the smell of tape in the morning.
One last note, if you purchase from eBay or Craigs List make sure the person selling the deck knows how to pack it properly, these decks are easy to damage in shipment.
Jeff
What you buy depends on what you want to do with it.
Whether in the market for a new or used machine, there are good reasons for buying a machine which does what you need. What are yours?
Are you recording from LPs? Do they need to be of the highest quality, or just of the highest quality you can afford?
Are you recording live music? Do those recordings need to be of the highest quality you can afford, and be edited/EQ'd/copied?
Are you playing existing tapes? You'll need a machine which accommodates them.
One poster said to get a machine which can run at 15 ips. Another said that 15 ips might not be necessary, but to avoid 3-3/4 ips. Every decent machine I've seen in the past 40 years has at least two speeds. Whether 7-1/2 and 15, or 3-3/4 and 7-1/2, really depends on what I said earlier: what do you want to do with it?
Applications aside, get a machine which can be serviced by competent professionals.
HTH
Ebay is a good source for commercially recorded tapes.At any given moment there are 1000-2000 tapes on auction.Try to follow the auctions as a lurker for a few weeks before you jump into the fun.
2 track reels are much more expensive,but are better sounding.
In any case,buying tapes sight unseen is always a crapshoot,but the occasional marvelous tape makes it worthwhile.
Keeping a well maintained tape machine is essential.
Figure on a few hundred for service after you have acquired a machine.
I am not sure that the 15 ips speed is necessary,as the good sounding commercial tapes are recorded at 7.5 ips.
3.75 should not even be considered for decent listening-this is unambiguous.
Enjoy.
Raanan
I wont suggest brand names because everyone has an opinion there. But some technical details:
Go for one with a speed of 15 ips, usually this will mean a machine that can take 10.5 inch reels too.
Go for half-track, rather than quarter track.
All the serious hi-fi machines have 3 heads, so don't settle for a 2 head machine at all (shared record/replay head)
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