Tape Trail

Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: Want a RTR;Recommendations

Posted by Bill Way on October 16, 2015 at 10:07:45:
I think Dave Pogue got it right - the Otari MX5050 B2-II is a good bet. I was astonished how good it sounded for 15 ips half-track playback, even with its stock repro electronics.

I liked the hubs/hold-downs - worked great for NAB reels, and also worked great for small reels (you just slap them on top of the reel and twist/tighten the center part.)

Build quality is outstanding. Tape handling is OK, not great; some of these seem to have tape tension that's on the high side, and I've never found anyone who knew how to adjust it.

Parts, heads, pinch rollers, all widely available, and not at Studer prices. Actually, beat-to-sh** 5050's are often on ebay at prices that make them good candidates for "parts" machines.

Accessibility to boards, motors, etc. inside is excellent. You can get a complete printed service manual - check around on tape forums; some guy does an excellent job of reproducing them, including the fold-out schematics.

By far the best sound I've had at home was that deck feeding a Bottlehead Crack/Speedball amp with Senn HD800s. It really did blow everything away.

The Studer PR99 and B67 may sound slightly better, and certainly have more sophisticated transports, but they (and parts for them) come at a considerable cost.

Good luck.

WW