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Top three best consumer and prosumer reel to reels in your vision, designwise

I tossed mine in the trash some years back. Never even thought of it having any "Vintage" value. Huge mistake! I truly hope someone fetched it out before it hit the crusher. It was in perfect condition except for the capstan rollers being sluggish. Had the nice rosewood case, dustcover and all! I truly thought at the time that since the advent of digital tape I would never use it again. Not to mention the boxes of old live 7" reels that I had that were recorded in clubs that had some excellent music on them and some others that I had recorded on the X1000 connected to the board on some friends' bands in the 80's. Irreplaceable stuff that I would love to have back! :(
 
For me it would be in the looks department:

3) Pioneer RT-909 Silver and blue, especially with silver reels and silver nab hubs, the deck almost looks like it was machined out of a block of billet aluminum.

2) Technics RS-1500 What can I say about the Isoloop drive. There is a weird perfection to it. It's SO different it's just cool!

1) Studer A810. That machine just LOOKS like a reel to reel should. Big and strong with all the controls well laid out and big enough for normal fingers. They didn't skimp on anything, even those lovely BIG VU meters. The tactile feel of it just exudes quality. It's barely acceptable performance isn't half bad either....:D
 
The Revox C270 has my vote. It looks great, sounds fantastic, it's built like a tank and superbly easy to service.
600_revox-c270.jpg


And... can your deck do this?
ReVox-C270-02.jpg
 
Nice thread....great decks. I am posting here as I am about to get back into RtR. I will be getting a Teac X2000R silver. It looks to be in excellent shape and my guess is very little use, I have not heard it yet.
I am ok with that as I don't even want to mention how much I am paying for it.....
Probably within a week I will have it and see what it can do.....I probably will be asking a lot of questions once I get it connected.....
 
For me, #2 better than #1 on still having spare parts available. #1 is an excellent machine, like #1 will need recapping if not done recently. #3 is on my avoid list unless cheap and near mint cosmetics and works perfectly. Heads unobtainable to boot and some will need them with a heck of a lot less than 10,000 hours on it. The ReVox C 270 is a great deck, but not very many of them built. Parts for it will be scarcer than the B 77/PR 99 family with age. P.S. The Isoloop drive was not invented by Technics, it was invented by 3M's Mincom professional division, and first used on the M 79 studio machines. Technics latched on to a fine idea.
 
I see some super high end Pro Studio and mastering decks mentioned in a thread about consumer and prosumer decks?????

Fostex, Otari and maybe Tascam would fit the "Prosumer Classification" much better then.
 
Ultralyd said:
I see some super high end Pro Studio and mastering decks mentioned in a thread about consumer and prosumer decks?????

Fostex, Otari and maybe Tascam would fit the "Prosumer Classification" much better then.
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I did say it's all about the looks of consumer and prosumer decks, but, I also said that if someone needs to add something related to performance any info is welcome... I don't know about pro decks though, but if for some people a pro deck has the right looks then it's fine! My favorite top by now included a pro deck too :)


Also, the way I like to see off topic is a bit different. I see it as the "black hole" of a topic, something that keeps it running, as if it's missing, the topic won't "hold together". It's good as long as it's not too much.
 
Even thought it has many faults, my X-2000R makes beautiful music and is a joy to watch as the big reels spin. :music:

I am forever on the hunt for NOS heads and hope someone makes a production run again. :scratch2:

DSC00459.jpg
 
jbrainey said:
Even thought it has many faults, my X-2000R makes beautiful music and is a joy to watch as the big reels spin. :music:

I am forever on the hunt for NOS heads and hope someone makes a production run again. :scratch2:

DSC00459.jpg
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That's something to smile at... I always wanted the x-2000R, but never had the chance to touch one. :)
 
The Scully LJ-10 was released in the same time frame as the late 3M isoloop decks but before the Technics RS 1500 was introduced. The LJ-10 is also playback only. Comparing Fostex with an Otari is not an apt comparison. An Otari is a professional machine, not prosumer. Vastly more reliable than a Fostex analog machine. Better Tascams beat out Fostex. The ReVox decks while marketed to consumers also, are really much more professional than consumer due to their close relationship to lower end Studer machines.
 
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Is tape media still out there for purchase??? There is an X10R on CL in my area and I have thought about it, but I gave away all my media long ago. I had an X10R before my X1000 so I am familiar with it.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
The Scully LJ-10 was released in the same time frame as the late 3M isoloop decks but before the Technics RS 1500 was introduced. The LJ-10 is also playback only. Comparing Fostex with an Otari is not an apt comparison. An Otari is a professional machine, not prosumer. Vastly more reliable than a Fostex analog machine. Better Tascams beat out Fostex. The ReVox decks while marketed to consumers also, are really much more professional than consumer due to their close relationship to lower end Studer machines.
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I agree that of the three mentioned, Fostex is the bottom.
Fostex is merely a "Home-Studio" hobby deck.

But If you want to put Otari in the category of pro decks, I would claim that it's in the bottom of that category.
 
Tascam would be the bottom in their lower end lines, better than a Fostex. Do remember that the Studers, the Ampex top end, the MCI, the 3M, and their ilk live much easier lives than most Otari machines and ReVox decks did. The top dollar studio machines had maintenance staff which kept them routinely looked after. The Broadcast decks like the Otaris and ReVoxes got a head cleaning each shift and if lucky an annual major servicing. Most of the time, they were ran 24/7/365 until a failure or a major sonic defect. Something which a prosumer deck could not live long at.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Tascam would be the bottom in their lower end lines, better than a Fostex. Do remember that the Studers, the Ampex top end, the MCI, the 3M, and their ilk live much easier lives than most Otari machines and ReVox decks did. The top dollar studio machines had maintenance staff which kept them routinely looked after. The Broadcast decks like the Otaris and ReVoxes got a head cleaning each shift and if lucky an annual major servicing. Most of the time, they were ran 24/7/365 until a failure or a major sonic defect. Something which a prosumer deck could not live long at.
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Where's the like button? :thmbsp:
 
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