Reel to Reel

The old Ampex stuff is built to run for years 24/7. Properly refurbished, the old Ampex transports will last indefinitely if owned and operated by an audiophile.

A tape machine that is a bit of a sleeper is the Magnacord. They were made in 7 1/2 and 15 ips versions, although seems to me the 7 1/2 ips (with 3 3/4 as the slow speed) is a bit harder to find. There was the 724 and 1024; like any older machine they will need to be refurbished, but are capable of exceptional quality and are useful as field recorders, as its actually possible to pick them up with one hand.

They have a beefy chassis and 3-motor design, not unlike a compact Ampex 350 transport, but with the all-tube electronics built into the same case. If you have the input transformers, a balanced input for microphone is available. I've refurbished a few of these over the years and they will take a Studer A-80 to the mat with ease. While not as feature-laden, the transport is actually more solid and the tube electronics simply out-perform the A-80 (BTW, the A-80 is no slouch and is one of the better transistor units I've heard, despite its clunky appearance; we have one in our studio that we use quite a lot).

We've done tape EQ for a few customers, so they could run direct from the head to the preamp. So far it seems as if that works quite well. Its nice if you can get a new tape EQ unit, as often 3-motor transports may not need that much work, but the electronics might, especially if its an older tube unit.

BTW tape heads like cartridges are a balanced source.