I've seen several Tascams at local junk shops and have always had the best luck with them. Badluck with Revox. I've never used a Tandberg or Akai, although I have heard good things about the latter. The TEAC's are ok as far as reliability, but they don't sound so great. Many of the Tascam's are quartz clocked. You should do a little research in the pro-audio world though - some of the reel to reels record stripes on the wrong side, and play back that way as well - carry over from the mono era. So basically you would only get half you music (as in: out of one speaker with some analogue bleed). It is also not possible to say that one company designed this way and another never did. If you were to pay top dollar, this would not be a problem, but if you are going for curiosity and cheap, you have to worry about it.
Most PRACTICAL, yet good sounding REEL to REEL ???
I occasionally find pre-recorded reel to reel tapes in my local thrift stores and garage sales and am thinking it's crazy not to pass them up.
So what I'd like to know is - What deck would you experienced R to R'ers recommend as:
1. Reliable
2. Good to excellent sonically
3. Not too pricey, as this is only experimental for now
4. Still repairable locally when need be
(Pretty much in that order of importance.)
I assume that a Teac would likely top this list for combined score on all three, but know zilch about which models, etc. Any comments would be appreciated.
So what I'd like to know is - What deck would you experienced R to R'ers recommend as:
1. Reliable
2. Good to excellent sonically
3. Not too pricey, as this is only experimental for now
4. Still repairable locally when need be
(Pretty much in that order of importance.)
I assume that a Teac would likely top this list for combined score on all three, but know zilch about which models, etc. Any comments would be appreciated.