I’m 100% Green to Reel to Reel and really looking to get into it.

[Jeffbrown17]

I (like most on this forum) consider myself to be something of an audiophile and I’m looking to get into the tape side of things. I’ve been collecting vinyl for years and am currently managing a record store, so I’m no stranger to gear and how expensive this hobby will be. I’m looking to get a deck but I’m not sure if I should go with 1/2 inch tape or 1/4 inch tape, or what the real difference is I’m guessing the 1/2 inch is more HiFi. Ive done some brief looking and stumbled across the popular staples in the reel to reel world like the technics RS-1500 but obviously I don’t have that like of money at hand. I’m wanting to know what decks you guys think are the hidden gems that don’t cost an arm and a leg since I am just starting out. I plan to plug it into my McIntosh Mc2105 power amp and C-26 pre amp, with a set of klipsch KG-4s and a set of McIntosh ML-1Cs if that matters at all. Any information or advice helps thanks!
-Jeff.

 

[Inscrutable]

FWIW, I had a half dozen or so, and have kept the Pioneer RT707, considered a good all around performer and among the most reliable (could say same for 909 if you want 10” reels and prefer that form factor/look).

Technics, Otari, Revox, Teac ‘A’ series … all possibilities too, and I’m sure will have others more experienced/knowledgeable chiming in here.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Welcome, thanks for the equipment list. Inscrutable pretty much nailed it. You can go to ways with this, and that it is finding a deck that has been completely gone through, or finding a used deck such as any of the A series of TEAC units and take that to a person who could restore it mechanically. That brand is usually the most available out there. I have a good friend here locally in North Carolina who specializes in repairing and restoring reel to reel decks and is a very good technician, he has about 60 or so decks on hand that he is already gone through and sells them occasionally ,I will send you a PM with his contact information.

 

[Legrace]

Depends a lot on your needs. If you are looking for best SQ then yes 1/2 track high speed (ala RS-1500U) is the way to go. But what makes these particularly desirable is they also support 1/4 format playback allowing one to also access the much larger library of prerecorded material that's out there. Another Technics option is 1520-U, same capability but adding even more bias and eq options. The flexible capability makes these decks highly desirable, but as you note the downside is they also tend to go for big bucks.

A couple very good quality 2T machines also offering dual capability are Teac A-6100 and Otari 5050. The former esp I would bestow hidden gem status.

Then there are the many 1/4 track only machines one can choose from. Good for making mix tapes for background music as recording duration increases as double the tracks. But you give up some SQ. If I want background material for a party etc I prefer to default to any of several streaming options that I have available.

If you have audiophile tendency then 2T is probably the way to go IMO.

 

[oldvinyldude]

The Teac A series is probably the best bang for the buck.

A properly adjusted 1/4 track machine at 7.5 ips will give great results. Any deck will need competent servicing to get the best from it-but once this is done, you should get many years of service. Bear in mind that components in decks are 30-50 years old by now. Values drift, transistors get noisy.

Part of that servicing should include setting up the machine for the tape brand\type you intend to use. The factory settings should work well with better tapes of that era. You can also choose to buy new tape. Whatever your choice, send along a reel of tape with the deck, so it can be adjusted for that brand\type. You will not get top performance without this matching of tape to deck electronics.

Even if you get a good deck for free, it costs quite a bit to get it up to snuff. It's an expensive hobby, for sure.

If you decide later, to move up the quality chain, you can likely get most of what you spent, to pay toward a pro or semi pro machine. I would not bother with 1/2"-it's overkill, in my opinion.

1/2 track running at 15ips is going to be better (given that deck is set up properly as above), but how much better to your ears, is hard to say. With that configuration, for instance, you will be using 4x the amount of tape per minute of recording. Tape cost\sonic benefit may not be worth it to you.

Hope this helps

 

[KentTeffeteller]

If you're just dubbing records, or playing consumer format 1/4 track tapes. Get a 1/4 track consumer format machine. Agree with the recommendation of either a Pioneer RT-707 or a Teac A series machine. 1/2 track recording costs more, tape is run in one direction. And agree with 7 1/2 IPS being more practical. 1/2" tape is not practical for you. That is going to be $60 a pancake without reel each.

 

[Rdenney]

Don't confuse 1/2-inch vs. 1/4-inch with half-track and quarter-track. The latter all use 1/4" tape, and half-inch tape is used for laying tracks in a studio (4-8 channels).

For the best playback performance from super-expensive dupes of studio masters, half-track is the only choice. Most multi-track recordings were (and still are) mixed down to stereo on half-track machines. These play in one direction only, of course. Just as important is higher speed, 15 or 30 ips. And to have any capacity at those higher speeds, you'll need to support 10.5" reels. This is the realm of Otari, Studer/Revox, and Tascam, it seems to me.

If you want to record your own music from LP's, the above still holds, but you can get really excellent recordings also at 7-1/2 ips using high-quality high-bias tape and a deck in good condition that is calibrated to that tape. This opens the door to less-expensive machines, and quarter-track machines can do this quite well. To avoid cross-talk between the two directions of tape in a quarter-track machine, only record in one direction. You can play half-track tapes on a quarter-track machine, by the way, but you won't get all the benefits of the wider track.

But, as stated above, if your use cases include vintage commercial pre-recorded tapes, or old tapes made by amateurs back in the day, quarter-track is the only option. In that land, I think Teac and Pioneer rule the roost. The A-series Teacs are probably the easiest for the hobbyist to service.

Rick "state of good repair is more important than brand, though" Denney