# Remembering Reel to Reel



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

How many had or still have a reel-to-reel tape deck? I had a Revox that I bought used in the early 1970s. I always wanted one of the Crown 800 series machines (wonderful sound, mechanics and beautiful tape handling) but never could afford one.

Of course, I had to have the 10 1/2" tapes on the metal reels and large hubs. Great fun to see those babies spin around on FF and REW. Of course, finding a specific song was an excercise in frustration. The tape counter would only get you within a minute or so at best. 

I remember having several pre-recorded tapes. No Dolby NR back then, but at 7 1/2 ips the tape hiss wasn't so bad, at least for the times.

I sold the Revox several years later and bought a Nakamichi 582 cassette deck, which sounded every bit as good as the reel-to-reel.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Well, the Nak was close, but no way that it could match an open reel machine at 71/2ips unless it was worn or poorly calibrated. Never owned one, but worked on and sold many of the Crown, Revox, and Tandberg units back then, as well as tons of Naks.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I owned a Fostex B16 Reel to Reel 16 track recorder up until 5 years ago. Loved it! I used to do recordings with it at our church studio and the ability to play with the pitch and record on the fly to single or multiple tracks was very handy. Now I just use digital media recorders.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

When I worked in radio we used a really nice Tascam unit, was much easier for editing commercials than regular cassette decks until we went fully computerized when better software came out. The only unit I personally own is an old Revere tube unit with a foot pedal activator that I still use for recording log tapes for amateur radio. I love the little funky round level meter that uses a plasma arc display to show the recording level.


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## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

I never owned one, but always wanted a Revox B 77 MK2.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

Mike P. said:


> Revox B 77 MK2.


Did the MK2 add Dolby? Mine was the original.

Gotta tell you about an embarassing moment. About 35 years ago, I ran the sound system for my church's choir. We used an old 2 head, manual transport Sony reel-to-reel with an music track with which the choir sang. I spliced clear leader tape between each song so that I could find the beginning of each one during rehearsals. I used the same tape for the performance. 

There was a speaking part right before one song in the middle of the performance. I had cued up the tape and had it on pause. Instead of turning the lever to play, I hit FF. That got me flustered and the choir director and about 1,000 people were staring at me as I was frantically trying to get the tape back to the right position. I missed the clear leader as it flew by in REW and ended up at the beginning of the previous song. I hit PLAY and of course got another round of stares. Finally, I got it started at the right place and the performance resumed. Oh, for even a CD at that time!

I had mentioned to the choir director several times that we really needed a 3 head machine for monitoring. Well, during all this he said into his microphone "Would someone please buy us a 3 head machine!?" Not that that had anything to do with my flub...


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

lcaillo said:


> Tandberg units


I had completely forgotten about Tandberg reel-to-reels. I had their separate preamp, amp, and tuner a long time ago. Great gear at the time.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Funny story, hjones!

Anyone checked eBay recently? Apparently there is still a loyal constituency using reel-to-reels. I was shocked to see the prices that that the more desirable 10” models are commanding!


Personally, I love reel to reels! :jump: If I could find the slightest use or justification, I’d still have one in my system today! I always thought they were the ultimate cool and drooled over them for many years. I finally acquired an Akai from a pawn shop near my house back in 1985 or so, a GX-625 or something like that. Only a 10-1/2” would do for me – those big reels were much cooler than the dinky 7” ones! Forget the price I paid, something between $125 and $200, I think. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t one of Akai’s better models. Not that I would have cared – as far as I was concerned, any 10-1/2” reel-to-reel was high end! It was mesmerizing watching those big wheels slowly turning! 

That Akai was the pride and joy of my stereo system for many years, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it, recording jazz music on radio shows for three hours at a time (@ 3-3/4 ips) and editing the songs I liked down to cassette. I recorded a couple of reels, one of light jazz music I used for background music at parties, and one of Christmas music for our annual family get-togethers. At the slower 3-3/4 ips speed it was the ultimate jukebox! 

Eventually of course I was able to accomplish the same thing with a CD changer, and without all the time involved in recording. So the big Akai was retired to the closet. I think I flat wore the thing out – it eventually got more and more noise, and IIR a lot of flutter. I reluctantly threw it out several years ago, not having enough use for it to justify a repair bill. Seeing what these things are selling for on eBay these days, I regret that now!

Here’s a picture, along with the rest of my system at the time. It was tricky taking it (35 mm film) at just the right exposure to show the wheels turning and all the LEDs lit up on the rest of the gear!







​

Regards,
Wayne


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

That was a great looking machine, Wayne. Nothing like those big reels.

Did you try an outboard DBX unit with it? I did on my Revox for a while and I think that I experimented with recording DBX encoded LPs and then playing them back from the tape.


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## DougMac (Jan 24, 2008)

I started with a Voice of the Theater RTR back in 1964, back when I was 13. I still have tapes I recorded on it. In 1966 I upgraded to a Viking 87RMQ Super Pro, I was a deck with separate pre-amps all mounted in what looks like a suitcase. I still have it, but it needs some work, although the belt is still good! 

Since the Viking had seen better days, about 8 years ago I bought a TEAC (I believe 2300) from ebay with the intent of transferring all my tapes to digital. I did some transfers but other projects kept me from completing it. The deck is packed up.

Two years ago a friend at work mentioned she had her late dad's RTR. They tried to sell it at a garage sale, but they couldn't get it to run. She said it was $50 and I could return it if I couldn't get it to go. It turned out to be a nice Akai 4 channel (remember Quad?) deck in cherry condition in the original box. I think it was user error, because I got it to fire right up. When I carried it out to the car, she said: "You're not done yet." She included a Sansui Quad receiver in its original box, two Sansui speakers and a box with 50 BASF tapes, 8 of which are sealed.

Finally, I was in a pawn shop and noticed a neglected RTR over in the corner. FF and RR worked but it wouldn't play. The owner wanted $75 but I got him down to $50 since it didn't function. It was a TEAC and looked nice, but I was unfamiliar with the unit. When I got it home I looked it up, it's a TEAC X-1000R! It took a $15 belt, a $4.00 transistor and a little de-Oxit to get running. It's cherry except for a scratch on one of the knobs. I called up TEAC and they still have them in stock! Another $6.00 and I've got a lovely deck, complete with 10.5" reels, which I've longed for forever.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

You folks are making me want to start scouring e-Bay and pawn shops:daydream:

I also remember Sony's failed Elcassette (3 3/4 ips?) and the somewhat more successful DAT (mostly for pro use from what I remember). I never owned either. Seems that Sony even had a car DAT deck at one time, but it was rather pricey.


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## cavchameleon (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi. I still have mine -works great (when I use it, which is almost never lately). It's an Akai GX-77.


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## rotfan (Feb 19, 2011)

I also have a reel to reel tape deck. Crown 700 series with 4 channel playback (modified
for 7 1/2 ips and 15 ips)


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## mickeyharlow (Feb 26, 2011)

I bought a Kenwood two channel in 1969 for $250. It was the last one as it was being replaced by a four channel unit. Loved that tape deck, until it was stolen. I was really upset because of the time that I had spent in making tapes. I had one tape that was stolen that comprised the early songs of R&B before R&R. That is one tape I wish that I still had.


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## Kral (Mar 6, 2011)

I have mixed memories of my experience with a Crown SX724. The incredibly fast rewind speed took a little getting used to. It used "dynamic braking", which involved running DC through the motors. Toward the end of the tape, when the rewind speed was at its fastest, a small loop would form in the tape between the heads and the takeup reel. The first time I observed this, I made the mistake of "helping" the braking along by touching the playout reel to get rid of the loop. The result was disastrous! I ended up with several layers of tape wound around the hub. I learned to live with the tape loop. It never created a problem; it just scared me! I just sold the machine on Craig's List for $100.00. It had gone unused for about 30 years.
.
I have mixed feelings about the reel to reel era. I made some excellent recordings with this machine, but I was absolutely shocked by the poor quality of the prerecorded tapes being pawned off on unsuspecting customers. The tape hiss was awful. After buying a few of these dogs, I went back to vinyl with no regrets.
Kral


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## Theresa (Aug 23, 2010)

My dad had a Sony "Portable," weighed about 30 lbs had a cover and couldn't be trusted to stand up so it spent it's time on it's back. Made many tapes in LP. I used to record jazz that was on after I went to bed on Saturday night. There were also one prerecorded tape, Handel's Messiah. I used that thing from Jr. High through young adulthood. My later cassette decks had better performance but not the charm of the spinning reels of tape.


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## acollins (Feb 10, 2011)

I bought a beautiful Teac X-1000R off an internet classified ad about 15 years ago. The thing was in mint condition and came with a couple dozen high-end tapes (some unopened) all on big 10" metal reels. It also came with a wired (!) remote and an impossible-to-find hard acrylic transparant cover that protected the front and extended over the reels. The deck could even be played with the cover on. I bought this for about $400 (can't believe I just sent this money through the mail trusting the guy to send the unit). About 10 years afterwards I sold it on eBay for twice as much as I'd payed for it originally. I replaced it with a Sony Minidisc deck. Much more convenient and easy to use, but I sure miss the look of that big silver reel to reel deck.


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## HTFanboi1200 (Apr 6, 2011)

Haven't used mine in over 10 yrs. (Teac 3340S) still have the box for it,lol.


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## Ronm1 (Apr 22, 2006)

I had a Sony player then an Akai deck followed by a realistic 8trk recorder and cassette. Eventually a nak deck.

1st 71/2 prerecorded was Jeff Beck's Truth, bought in a Roda Px.


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## netbui (Jan 9, 2010)

My father picked up 2 Tandberg reel to reels at a garage sale. They were in great condition, I don't remember what model they were but he still has them now even though my mom just thinks they're a total waste of space in the house. I do remember them sounding a little better then a regular cassette but that was a long time ago.


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## NickH (Nov 22, 2010)

I have 2 tape decks a revox pr99 and a akai Gx77. The revox is a half track machine so I can't play many tapes on it and I can't afford tape project tapes. I admit there a bit of a novelty. I want to do more with them but at the moment I don't have the space to play with them.

Hopefully that will change in the future.

Nick


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## Theresa (Aug 23, 2010)

I had (my father bought it but never used it) a Sony "portable" reel to reel in the late '60s and through the '70s. It took standard sized reels but had a removable cover and handles, apart from that it wasn't portable. I have to say that cassette decks I had, when using Dolby, were a match for it even at 7½ ips. I miss it though just because of nostalgia over the enjoyment it gave me.


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## Picture_Shooter (Dec 23, 2007)

NickH said:


> I have 2 tape decks a revox pr99 and a akai Gx77. The revox is a half track machine so I can't play many tapes on it and I can't afford tape project tapes. I admit there a bit of a novelty. I want to do more with them but at the moment I don't have the space to play with them.
> 
> Hopefully that will change in the future.
> 
> Nick


Thats the same unit my father owned. I helped him sell it last year. Mint condition and he got $150 for it off on craigslist.


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## informel (Jun 21, 2011)

I have a reel-to-reel at home and believe it is a teac 2000 or something like that (I'm on a businees trip right now).
I showed that to a young guy who did not know what it was and then suddenly he said: Oh yes I remember seeing that on TV in 911 show :rofl:


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## Superior Audio (Feb 27, 2008)

:foottap:


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## Superior Audio (Feb 27, 2008)

I have 3 for sale actually; 2 Akai 4000DS MKII and a JVC RD 1696.:T:bigsmile:


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