In my personal experience, I suggest you look at a Revox B77 2 track 7.5/15ips, at the minimum. If you’ve got the budget, then go for Revox PR99 MKII (or MKIII), and then look at the more expensive (but much better) Studer A810 (which I currently have). All of these are easy to find parts for, and there are a number of good techs around (and they are not too expensive to ship to a tech). The Technics has a parts problem if you should need one of the transport logic chips (no longer available). The Ampex ATRs and Studer 820s are great, but very expensive and so big and heavy, that if you can’t fix them yourself, you’ve got a big problem. The Otari 5050 series machines are also very reliable, have parts availability, and not too expensive. In other words, you should seriously consider parts and technician availability for your purchase; not how cool or esoteric the recorder might be. And if you buy from a private party, my experience is to expect some initial service costs right after your purchase if you really want the recorder to perform correctly. The statement “All functions work” is NO guarantee of its actual performance. If you want to play vintage tapes, then you need to look for one of these machines in ¼ track format (all the above mentioned recorders can have their heads changed for this, and some Otaris offer both track formats). Someone has already suggested the TapeHeads forum, and if you want to pursue vintage tapes, then check out Ken Kessler’s articles in Copper Magazine. And yes, ½” track at 15ips is a beautiful “sonic thing.”
