Hey, I'm sure the one from kingdom.com will work fine too and it's not really a ton of money when you think about it.
I know what you mean about having a blast with reel to reel. I've bought 3 decks over the past 6 months, two sweet Teacs and a nice Revox A77. I have a decent prerecorded tape collection and I've been scoffing up a few here and there on ebay. Some of those old recordings/performances are really a treat and the sound quality rivals the best sources currently available for cheap. Hey, so what if you have to clean the heads now and then, and go through "all that hassle" of threading the tape?! Certainly it's no more trouble than vinyl's maintenance rituals and the price of admission is even sweeter. I don't know anyone that's broken a head while threading a tape, but I do know of many instances of stylus/cartridge destruction due to a momentary bobble. :)
I know what you mean about having a blast with reel to reel. I've bought 3 decks over the past 6 months, two sweet Teacs and a nice Revox A77. I have a decent prerecorded tape collection and I've been scoffing up a few here and there on ebay. Some of those old recordings/performances are really a treat and the sound quality rivals the best sources currently available for cheap. Hey, so what if you have to clean the heads now and then, and go through "all that hassle" of threading the tape?! Certainly it's no more trouble than vinyl's maintenance rituals and the price of admission is even sweeter. I don't know anyone that's broken a head while threading a tape, but I do know of many instances of stylus/cartridge destruction due to a momentary bobble. :)