Two that sound great and don't break the bank are Tandberg and Technics. There are others that have either great electronics OR great transport but usually not both.
The Tandberg and Technics both sound good, the Technics is one of the best for low flutter due to it's closed capstan system. The one I use is the 1520 which has IEC and NAB equalization, meaning it plays Ebay tape and the new releases from Tape Project with the flick of a switch. The 1520 is also balanced and the way I run mine, but I suspect it would be much better if I could afford to ship it off to Tim at EAR for his ultimate upgrade.
Then again, if I had $10K to spend I would just buy an Ampex ATR, but that would not fit (investment wise) with my less than 200-300 tape library titles.
Honestly, it's difficult to build a library of reel to reel, all the cool titles produced when reel to reel could be bought are still very limited compared to LP and CD. New releases are almost non existent.
The Tandberg and Technics both sound good, the Technics is one of the best for low flutter due to it's closed capstan system. The one I use is the 1520 which has IEC and NAB equalization, meaning it plays Ebay tape and the new releases from Tape Project with the flick of a switch. The 1520 is also balanced and the way I run mine, but I suspect it would be much better if I could afford to ship it off to Tim at EAR for his ultimate upgrade.
Then again, if I had $10K to spend I would just buy an Ampex ATR, but that would not fit (investment wise) with my less than 200-300 tape library titles.
Honestly, it's difficult to build a library of reel to reel, all the cool titles produced when reel to reel could be bought are still very limited compared to LP and CD. New releases are almost non existent.