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

KentTeffeteller said:
FONSguy,

One of the best machines ever in it's class, the Crown 800 series. One of the best broadcast/semi-pro/high end audiophile machines made. Easily the best machine then for the money. Still more than good today. Built Missionary Tough in the best Clarence Moore tradition. And sounds great. Reliable and easily maintainable.
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I really dig the flat out industrial look of those decks.

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Notice too, there's no unnecessary useless junk features present on a Crown, what there is present does useful things and contributes to making high quality recordings reliably for many years. Big beefy motors, designed to be serviced and maintained when necessary. Missionary Tough (Designed to work in hostile environments in remote corners of the world, doing the work of the Lord). Designed to be common sense, designed to be dependable year after year, and sound great doing so. Also a company who did not make outlandish claims about their machine's performance. And it was guaranteed to meet or exceed those performance limits. In short, all business, no BS, not designed to be cute or pretty. Built Crown Tough (See YouTube for Crown Drop Test)
 
k2apache6.0 said:
I couldn't disagree with you more, those TEAC black XR's look fantastic!
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Looks are great, but I much prefer reliability, maintainability, and spare parts when I need them. Teac/Tascam, X, and DC capstan motor is a delicate design which will at some point in time, will fail thee. And with the dwindling parts supply, be a future problem. Not the most rebuildable of motors. AC motors all around, if you please. And beefy if you please. I like tape machines which work, and are built to stay working and perform great when you want to record or play a tape.
 
dr*audio said:
The Revox C270 has my vote. It looks great, sounds fantastic, it's built like a tank and superbly easy to service.
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And... can your deck do this?
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Nice machine, but ReVox built very few of these to begin with. And be mindful of the fact, that few were made, spare parts may be fewer. Technically, a PR 99 something would be a better option on parts supplies and future maintainability.
 
Studer revox. PR-99, , Ampex AG 500-2/4, Tascam. As a sneak under the fence selection Crown 800. Though its heads and electronics and bias amplifier can't interface with the low-noise high output tapes from TDK and Maxell.

Anything Ampex made with a handle on it that you can lift is a semi pro model. The ones you can't lift are the Pro studio models. You realize Ampex will put a handle on anything and call it portable. Well maybe excepting a MM1000. I still would love to have a MR-70-4. Just to look at. I gave up on tape back in the 80's.
 
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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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Are you using yours 24/7???
 
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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Well, the BBC in the UK used TEAC A3300 and A7030GSL in their Bush House studios in Central London. I know as my brother sold the decks to them, so I'm guessing the techs at the Beeb decided they were up to broadcast standard, from the perspectives of both sound and reliability.
 
Bigcatlover said:
Hi, long time no see!

This is something I have always intended to ask this community, but never had the time to.

Finally my chance is here.


Let's go straight to the subject. In further posts, I would like you to enlist the three recorders of your choice in a top of 3 positions, a top of your own requirements. What does the esthetic work of such machine need to comprise, in order to fit within the barriers of your taste? Also, let's not forget this is about consumer and prosumer recorders, and their visual desing! (I apologize for a confusing title)

Furthermore, name the little detail hidden in the esthetics of your recorder, that have attracted your attention in the way which makes it deserve the given position. Tell us a few words about each of them, and, if you feel like two or more recorders equally mach in your vision, therefore more than one of them will fit the same place, you are free to do so. Also, what feeling does your choice deliver to you and how does it relate to the semblance of your chosen machine?

Do you own any of those recorders? If not, does the look of that specific r2r matter enough to rise the will of owning it? And, does this apply to other choices as well?

Questions and questions :D This thread is more about esthetics, but if sound performance alter your view in any way, or you just want to say something about their technical performance, any info is welcome.


I shall now set my own t3 (top three)


The look of a reel to reel, for me it must be strong in the first place... Tape is the best recording medium out there, one of man kind's best achievements, some people say that it even records feelings... and it does. You need to look at a machine that will go with you, as it delivers music to your ears... Something that will rhythmically alter your mind and induce so many moods and thoughts, that you might sometimes feel like you're out of reality, in another world, and let's face it! We are all going through that when we listen to music, aren't we :)

I will start with the third position:

It's definitely the Akai GX-646 Black. Though I do not own it, and I'm not a fan of the Akai sound anymore, the way it looks makes me simply want one! In my eyes, the special point in it's design is the central placement of the pinch roller, which makes it rise from the shadow and gives you a simple way to remember it. When the 646 engages in play mode, if two TDK reels are fitted on it, and maybe with a pair of Sony NAB adapters, it gives you the feeling of both old and new, then you feel like recording any kind of music on it! Those 747-like VU meters absolutely make the difference between the 636 and 646, they give it a more modern look, and it doesn't hide the controls like 747 for example. This also keeps it away from the older design of the GX-635 as well. The whole body of this recorder, smaller than many others out there, makes it perfect in size for many applications, while holding all of the controls a consumer recorder might need. For me, it's the best example of modern looking recorders of their age that is available at a good price to anyone that wants a fair recorder to have fun with.

I can't say more about the 646, this is it, third place.




Now second place:

The the mighty, king of them all, Sony TC-880-2

The Sony doesn't only look like a masterpiece, but it's also a technical masterpiece as well. Some people say it's the very best sounding consumer (or more exactly, prosumer) tape recorder ever made! I have never owned one, and there is a small chance I ever will, but the tc880 became very special in design for me. Viewed from the right angle, it just gives you something to think about, and it almost speaks to you... Every corner, every knob, every light that hits it reflects it's perfection. The way those capstans and tape guides are arranged in perfect mirror of each other, it just feels how gentle it is to tape, and also, it is such a powerful design, it just keeps you starring at it! I am proud that people have managed to create something that gives so much feeling, every TC-880 truly has a soul...




And the first place, as weird as it might sound...


The Ferrograph Logic 7, with Dolby



THIS! No matter how I look at it, no matter how I think of it! It simply hunts me. Sometimes, I see it in my dreams, other times I keep on looking at it for hours, and I can't believe what I see. I don't even know how to describe it... It leaves me speechless. If I zoom in, I see the mightiest, and best proportioned reel to reel ever to emerge from man's mind. The way everything is placed is unique, perfect mirror! You feel both channels, this recorder controls YOU if you don't know how to control it... When I look at it, I feel like I have a mountain in the front of me, and the way they named everything... And those tape tensioners, just WOW. Every single detail is just in perfect match with the other, to form what is in my eyes, the very best looking tape recorder ever made!

And that speed changer... And, no more talking about all of those functions! Technically, it's just perfect for a recorder like it. And the secret, in my eyes, are the two mpx and Dolby switches. They are placed in the center of all this perfection, and as you probably guessed, there is also a version that lacks those two functions, therefore you don't have any switches placed there. And, for me, the whole image of perfection is totally blown away if those are missing. That is the little detail that completes this masterpiece, and without it, it worth's nothing in my eyes.


I simply have no more words to describe it, but it's a feeling that no other reel to reel gave me before, ever, and I've seen a few... I do not own it, but I will, definitely, I don't know how, I don't know when, but I will own it in a way or another. I must have something that strong, I need it... And it's not about the sound quality... It's just the design. Imagine how it will look like with a pair of revox NABs with hubs fitted on them, and gothic style reels (things like that actually exist)







So there you have it. I'm sorry if any of those images are property of yours, and if you find them, please tell if you want me to take them down for you! They have been used only for showing more details of the Logic7.



Thank you for reading, and I'm waiting for your answers!

Sergiu
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These pro sumer machines are cool to look at but for what the costs are to acquire one, a person may be better off dropping the "sumer" and stepping right into pro machines. I love the look of an X2000R or M but at the current prices, may as well step into an MTR-10, which is a much, much better deck designed to run 24/7.
 
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