Reel to Reel Machine for 15 ips playback


Looking for recommendations on a reel to reel machine for 15 ips tape.  I'm new to reel to reel so mainly looking for reliability and ease of use.  Mainly concerned with playback no recording right now.  

Mara machine?

Refurbished Ampex or Studer?

chauncey

I owned a Revox A77 recorder for about ten years. Got it brand new for $500. It had built in Dolby processing and at 7.5 IPS it did a credible job on the system I had at the time. It fell apart and I gave it away.  I can record anything including albums in 24/192 digital much more reliably. 

The Ballfinger M 063 H2 goes for $29,000. Beautiful machine. Not for me and I can afford it. I raid the record collections of my friends and copy rare limited editions like the 45 rpm complete LZ collection. You can not tell the difference between the copy and the original. All you need is an Apple computer, and a certain program called Pure Vinyl. You can have both for $2500.00. Why would you ever spend $29K on a complicated machine that is going to need expensive maintenance down the road and be worth close to nothing in the end when you can do better for much less money. Yes, prerecorded tapes sound great, all 5 of them, all audiophile tripe as mentioned by professor @whart above, not to mention the price tag. For one tape I could buy about 15 records or 30 HiRes digital files.

The Tascam BR20 is another machine worth considering. It has good heads, and is extremely well build, though I'm not sure about spares availability.

As regards the whole analogue tape thing, I really struggle with the economics of it. A small collection of say 100 tapes is knocking on the door of $40,000.

That buys one heck of a turntable and access to vastly more software.

Consider a restored Studer A810 from http://www.reeltoreelhaven.com/

The Otari MX series are very nice, but the differences c/w Studer in sound, build, and transport are evident. It’s a B quality versus A quality comparison. 
 

 

  I have a Studer A810 for sale.  Has not been serviced but it records and plays back. Good condition.   

@mikelavigne

What kind of budget would you expect to find a used ATR-102 both in good to excellent condition?  Also does AK have a website for his hot rodded units?  What kind of budget should I expect to spend on a hot rodded unit?