Reel 2 Reel

not to brag (i don't even have two of them hooked up to anything) but i have FIVE, including a teac A-6100 two-track master recorder, a teac x-2000R, a teac x-2000M, a tascam br-20, and an otari MX-55N.
almost bought a nagra-D-II on e-bay but chickened out as i do not have enough knowledge to use a 4-track machine that can be interfaced with a win-tel computer. true-24 bit resolution and tons of knobs and switches, 4 VU meters, a rotating digital head- nowadays nagra uses a hard-drive instead of tape, but that's not as much fun to look at...

dear jsman, i compared the transports on the otari 5050 and the otari mx-55n, and there is no comparison. the mx55 ff- rew- and plays and comes to a gentle stop "on a dime". the 5050 i saw had jerky starts and stops. not bad enough to cause any problems of course- it is still much better than teacs and entry-level tascams. compares nicely with studer decks (although people do get emotional over which is better, german or japanese engineering and sound quality). BTW, an mx-55 in good shape will cost you some major money.
as for AMPEX, PLEASE! that stuff is for recording engineers!
i bow in humility before anyone with the ability to set up and use ampex's, scully's, MCI's (sony's professional line), etc.