Top three best consumer and prosumer reel to reels in your vision, designwise
- Thread starter Bigcatlover
- Start date
Lately I have been getting very fond of this deck
A reel to reel has basic design requirements that just lends itself to just being ugly starting out of the gate. (To see these pulled off is a wonder.) I equate them to a Sansui 9090,Tandenberg etc......"They have no business being as drop dead as they are." ....just look at these things?
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KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
That Ferrograph was beautiful. I think the company would have survived longer if the 7 series didn't have to be rushed into production to keep Ferrograph competitive. Love their styling. In late 1967, ReVox announced the A 77 open reel. The deck was a hit due to it's high performance, styling, features, and sound quality. Ferrograph was still making the Series 6 machines which were the last of the old school Ferrographs. They were durable, superbly built reliable semi pro decks but lacking in modern styling. ReVox offering a comparable machine in every way and better looking and more modern looking made the Ferrograph brass do a modernization project to get their machines up to contemporary desires. It had to be developed quickly and the Series 7 was hastily done.
The new Ferrograph was eagerly awaited in all the UK. Enthusiasts loved the styling and the features. But the love affair soon went away. Rubber pinch rollers which used to last many years all of a sudden needed replacement in less than a year, heads which used to last 30 years all of a sudden wore in less than a year. Ferrograph sales plunged as owners and loyalists got weary. After a lot of machines got new heads and pinch rollers and the replacements didn't last like old, Ferrograph introduced the Logic 7 and had 10 1/2" reel capability for the first time. The decks were slow sellers and the company fell on hard times and was sold to Wilmot Breeden who kept the name alive a few years and NEAL took over. The once loyal Ferrograph owners took to buying Tandbergs, ReVox, and the Japanese machines. A pity as the Ferrograph machines with improvements would have sold well.
The new Ferrograph was eagerly awaited in all the UK. Enthusiasts loved the styling and the features. But the love affair soon went away. Rubber pinch rollers which used to last many years all of a sudden needed replacement in less than a year, heads which used to last 30 years all of a sudden wore in less than a year. Ferrograph sales plunged as owners and loyalists got weary. After a lot of machines got new heads and pinch rollers and the replacements didn't last like old, Ferrograph introduced the Logic 7 and had 10 1/2" reel capability for the first time. The decks were slow sellers and the company fell on hard times and was sold to Wilmot Breeden who kept the name alive a few years and NEAL took over. The once loyal Ferrograph owners took to buying Tandbergs, ReVox, and the Japanese machines. A pity as the Ferrograph machines with improvements would have sold well.
Bigcatlover
Monstah
Lately I have been getting very fond of this deck
That's a dream which became real :|
jan_stevns
Super Member
Catcher10
Prog-tastic!
I never posted pics of the X2000-R I received....I think she is tremendously musical looking, simple to use and sounds fantastic.
This deck was purchased brand new in 1983 by the owner I got it from and the only thing I needed to do was change the belt.
Super nice deck....no complaints from my end.
This deck was purchased brand new in 1983 by the owner I got it from and the only thing I needed to do was change the belt.
Super nice deck....no complaints from my end.
Skylab
Watcher of the skies
Looks awesome, Jose! Congrats :thmbsp:
Looking over all the posts, I am reminded that there were so many great looking decks made, and they sounded marvelous if in proper order.
I have come to realize that R2R still holds the greatest fascination to me, of all audio gear. Something about the combination of mechanical and electronic in one piece just gets to me. It moves and makes wonderful sounds-like a TT, but even more mechanical.
Someday I hope to get myself a Studer A820-it's fascinating to watch the transport work, simply marvelous design and execution.
For now, I will 'make due' with my RT707, RT909, and Teac 1000R.
I have the dust cover for the 1000R, and it is the best looking cover on a deck that I have ever seen. Ain't no Studer, but it does have RTZ :yes:
Thanks for all the great pics. I hope to add mine soon.
I have come to realize that R2R still holds the greatest fascination to me, of all audio gear. Something about the combination of mechanical and electronic in one piece just gets to me. It moves and makes wonderful sounds-like a TT, but even more mechanical.
Someday I hope to get myself a Studer A820-it's fascinating to watch the transport work, simply marvelous design and execution.
For now, I will 'make due' with my RT707, RT909, and Teac 1000R.
I have the dust cover for the 1000R, and it is the best looking cover on a deck that I have ever seen. Ain't no Studer, but it does have RTZ :yes:
Thanks for all the great pics. I hope to add mine soon.
Tinman
Super Member
Show off! LOL! :tresbon:
Barncats
Super Member
I have had limited r-t-r experience myself (owned a Sony TC-350 1966-70 and a Tandberg 3000 1970-80) but in my view the most gorgeous deck of all is the Braun TG-1000.
Dieter Rams made it in two versions, one all-black and one silver-and-black. My best friend had one in the same years I had my Tandberg and although I always felt mine had a slight edge in absolute sound quality, there was no contest about which one was better looking or more pleasurable to operate. My impression is that they did not age well (my friend loved his but eventually Braun service was unable to repair whatever kept going wrong with it), and there may not be many spare parts, but boy are the Brauns beautiful pieces of industrial design! And that *was* the original purpose of this thread, nicht war?
(The last image I'll upload is a computer-generated file and not a photo, but it captures very well the feeling of the machine when you see it in person -- an expanse of matte black, completely serene, punctuated with the control buttons in white, a pale gray/putty color and then a couple of flashes of intense green and red, all buttons very subtly dished inward to welcome the soft ball of one's finger.)
Dieter Rams made it in two versions, one all-black and one silver-and-black. My best friend had one in the same years I had my Tandberg and although I always felt mine had a slight edge in absolute sound quality, there was no contest about which one was better looking or more pleasurable to operate. My impression is that they did not age well (my friend loved his but eventually Braun service was unable to repair whatever kept going wrong with it), and there may not be many spare parts, but boy are the Brauns beautiful pieces of industrial design! And that *was* the original purpose of this thread, nicht war?
(The last image I'll upload is a computer-generated file and not a photo, but it captures very well the feeling of the machine when you see it in person -- an expanse of matte black, completely serene, punctuated with the control buttons in white, a pale gray/putty color and then a couple of flashes of intense green and red, all buttons very subtly dished inward to welcome the soft ball of one's finger.)
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But not as pretty , and well designed as the 765 model -
maybe but the TX-880-2 weighs 30 lbs more
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rlovison
Well-Known Member
Catcher10
Prog-tastic!
'Tanks..!
Bigcatlover
Monstah
I've got the ATR-60-8 right here :
I never thought of Tascams as being studio machines either, until I've got the chance to own one myself and check it out (I wouldn't usually buy 8 channel machines but it was a bargain I couldn't miss, even though... It's not in full working order). I still don't believe all of them are full pro machines though, but some might just make it into a full pro studio... I'll explain later.
When I got it, it wouldn't record or play a thing so I had to fix it. With some help from people here on AK, I managed to fix it. A surge have been sent through the audio cables and the whole IC control circuit was damaged (luckily it was just the control). ICs needed replacement, together with a few diodes and caps. Now it works, I have 4 fixed audio cards and 4 still to go, but two of them are badly damaged. I'm not using it in a pro environment so I only recorded mastered music on it, using two tracks/two channels at a time, and swapping the cards around for further stereo recording. I will hopefully find some good working cards someday to replace the damaged ones, but there is no rush, I can still use it when I want to.
With the repairing/maintaining process, I've had the chance to study the recorder and it turns out to be a weird half pro/pro combination IMO. The transport is definitely a pro. It's a tank. The preamp was unexpectedly well built too. No wonder some people said they lasted 20 years only with maintenance, but sound-wise... I don't know really. The 4 track/4ch HS version is definitely better sounding as it runs the tape at 30ips/15ips and uses half inch tape. Mine uses half inch tape too but has 8 tracks. That's not very pro :| But not disappointing either. If well calibrated, those cards are working good together, delivering acceptable sound even without the dbx module.
DBX on a pro/semi pro deck? actually, it depends on the engineers. For a deck that needs it, a well-set dbx may sound quite impressing from what I've heard, but personally, I can't see dbx on a pro deck...
The ATR-60-8 works like a pro but sounds like a high end home recorder. I wouldn't put this recorder in a full pro studio. Not even the ATR 60 16 channel, because it's the same story... 16 tracks on one inch tape.
However, the 4 channel and two channel ATR60's , high speed versions, are a different story. Those may count as money saving full pro decks. Also, the ATR-80 is a impressive model with pro features. There is the ms-16 as well, but I would personally go for ATR60-16 if I had to chose (better quality, more features).
I also own the Revox B77 mk2 HS, two track version.
Now this is Tascam's opposite, home transport but sounds like a pro. lol (I'm joking, but it seems to sound better than the Tascam yet it doesn't have the same tape precision).
I guess there is not much left to say about the Revox
We all know what they're capable of.P.S. It's missing the head cover that's why it doesn't have it on, I'm searching for one right now. And those amps being one on top of the other, they have fans mounted above them so they don't get hot.
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