Reel to Reel help

[Baguetty]

I recently bought a reel to reel on an impulse and because I love music, without realizing how much the actual tape was for it. I'm curious (and I realise that this could defeat the purpose considering that the reel to reel system is HiFi because of the reels themselves) if there is any way for me to connect an auxiliary from the machine to my phone or computer so that the machine can play music directly off of my device and not tape. I tried using a red/white RCA to 3.5 cord I had but it didn't work, because why would it I guess. Can anyone help me with this dilemma or maybe assist me with some insight as to how these machines work fundamentally so that I can play music without spending more on reels than the machine itself?

 

[oldvinyldude]

I don't know-probably possible, but it makes no sense to. I gather you have the deck connected to a receiver\preamp\amp, so you would just go into an Aux in or Tape in connection, bypassing the R2R altogether.

If you have an all in one deck (it has small playback amps and speakers), and that's where you want to hear your phone, etc., then cord from phone to line in on deck, then set source\monitor switch to source.

 

[MRL_Audio]

Huh? What model deck do you even have? If I have this right you want to just pass a signal thru the deck with no tape? Why?

 

[eddisc]

reconsider your purchase before you end up w/2,345,678, tapes scattered around your listening room

 

[Baguetty]

Huh? What model deck do you even have? If I have this right you want to just pass a signal thru the deck with no tape? Why?

Honestly, I just want to find a way to make use of it. Its not an all in one (speakers either don't work or don't exist, but I have a way to connect it to others) and I don't really want to spend more than $50 on tape since that is how much I paid for the machine itself.

 

[Baguetty]

I don't know-probably possible, but it makes no sense to. I gather you have the deck connected to a receiver\preamp\amp, so you would just go into an Aux in or Tape in connection, bypassing the R2R altogether.

If you have an all in one deck (it has small playback amps and speakers), and that's where you want to hear your phone, etc., then cord from phone to line in on deck, then set source\monitor switch to source.

I do have an amp, but its not working properly with this machine. Idk why it's not plug and play but it isn't... I'm looking for a name for the machine but it had been re-finished (half of the reason why I bought it lmao) so there's no marking on the front or back.

 

[tapetech]

Very difficult to decipher your post.

So you want to record music on your RTR using your phone or computer as the music source?

 

[Baguetty]

Yes, I would like to do that. But I was also curious if I could play music from one device through the rtr to the speakers. Like just using a rtr as a passthrough. I know this ruins the quality and I may end up getting tapes later so that I can utilise it to the fullest, but I'm just trying to find a way for it to run in that manner. Apologies for my ignorance with stuff like this... Thanks for helping!

 

[tapetech]

What do you hope to accomplish by running the audio through the tape deck with no tape? I see no purpose for that. Tape decks are for playing back prerecorded tapes and for recording your own tapes.

 

[62vauxhall]

Only two R2R recorders from my far distant past were equipped with a built in amp and speakers. Neither had AUX inputs to amplify external sources. The amp and speakers were strictly for playing back tape recordings.

A few weeks ago I wound up with an Akai 8 track recorder with a built in 10WPC amp. No speakers, it has 1/4” output jacks for those. But It too will amplify nothing except what is recorded on a tape.