General Asylum: REVIEW: Otari MX 5050 BII Tapedeck by Auricle

Model:	MX 5050 BII
Category:	Tapedeck
Suggested Retail Price:	$?
Description:	Professional Model Reel to Reel Tape deck
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by Auricle on September 02, 2010 at 11:38:29
IP Address: 66.65.7.94 Add Your Review
for the MX 5050 BII

The deck is essentially a "prosumer" deck. It is built like a brick outhouse with good tape handling and brakes. On paper the flutter specs are not quite as good as the Technics 1500 series but in practice little difference can be heard.

It has a number of options and some idiosyncracies that need to be noted.
1. Though the deck is three speed it only does 2 speeds at any one time. A higher set (15 and 7,5 ips) and a lower set (3.75 and 7.5 ips). For my purposes the deck stays set to the higher set.
2. Though it will play 2 track and 4 track tapes that is also switchable. Most of the 5050s will only record half track.
3. It shares the bane of all tape decks from the early 1970s on. Transister electronics from the shrill, grainy days. The only way out of that is to modify the deck to take the tape heads into a better preamp section.
4. The XLR out is usually (though not always) wired in a non-standard configuration and that requires attention if you are to use XLR to RCA conversion.
5. The deck is capable of rather high output that can overload some preamp sections. There is a switch to lower the output.

For a home user who still tapes a great deal, the Teac 1000r or 2000r has more utility, especially with built in DBX.

The Tandberg 10X series and the Technics 1500 series are less fuss with very good sound but not as rugedly built and with no IEC equalization.

The Crown 800 series has better sound when in perfect nick but requires even more fussing than the Otari.

Revox should be competition but my personal experience has not been that good.

Those decks are the competition. When compared on basic sound and build alone (not considering auto reverse, DBX, Dolby, etc) the Otari is close to the Crown. If one converts to tape head out the Otari transport is more robust than all except (perhaps) the Crown. Crown parts are truly made from unobtainium and Tandberg parts are getting there, so this really becomes the deck of choice for Tape Project tapes.

Do I love it? Not really but it is, I believe, the best one can do without going to a rebuilt Ampex ATR102, Denon, Nagra or the like which would be thousands more.

Product Weakness:	Awkward to use, sound quality of built in preamplification.
Product Strengths:	Build quality

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Tried several
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Out being modified
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Special custom table
Speakers: Empire 8000, EV TRX
Cables/Interconnects: B&H, Audio Metalurgy GA-0s.
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Ronstadt (Tape Project), pipe organ (Fox)
Room Size (LxWxH): 18 x 12 x 9.5
Room Comments/Treatments: Draperies, furnishings
Time Period/Length of Audition: 8 hours
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Scientific grade isolation transformer.
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Tried several
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Out being modified
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Special custom table
Speakers:	Empire 8000, EV TRX
Cables/Interconnects:	B&H, Audio Metalurgy GA-0s.
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Ronstadt (Tape Project), pipe organ (Fox)
Room Size (LxWxH):	18 x 12 x 9.5
Room Comments/Treatments:	Draperies, furnishings
Time Period/Length of Audition:	8 hours
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Scientific grade isolation transformer.
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner