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What is the best Reel To Reel machine ever built?

Everyone who has listened to master tapes or dubs knows about the well balanced sound they provide. But it is also important to have a fine tape recorder or playing machine to enjoy the tapes' qualities in a good system.
Maybe my question was raised once before but the relevance of the topic is now greater as the tapes are back to more and more audiophile friends, especially those who are owning excellent phono chains.

I have seen many big & professional machines being recently offered and sold on e-bay, Audiogon and other platforms and I am discussing within a small group which machine is really the "holy grail" among the R2Rs. So why not here. I am interested in findings.
thuchan

Showing 5 responses by bifwynne

bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Thuchan, please elaborate on how the R2R application is coming back. What is the source material and where can you buy it?? I have zero knowledge about R2R, so a brief education would be appreciated.

FWIW, I remember in the "old" days when high end R2R machines were made by Crown, TEAC and Tandberg. I never got into that end of the hobby but these machines were works of art, especially the Crown which was the Cadillac of the day.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Thucan, is it stll possible to pick up a like new rehabbed Crown or Tandberg R2R? If so where?? Here on S'gon or eBay??
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Hey R2R mavens, got a question. Just checked eBay and saw there a number of Crown R2Rs: (1) a Crown 800 and (2) Crown SX-724. Both drive only 1/4" tape. Are these good units? Is 1/4" tape the tape of choice, as compared to something wider?
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Lew, I agree 100% with you. Anything built by Crown back in the 70s would last forever. I still have two Crown amps that refuse to die: I gave the DC300A to my son; I keep the D150A Series II as a back up. Both amps went to the factory for a check up -- just a couple of caps and resisters were replaced and both amps perform at original factory spec, which is pretty impressive in its own right.

For nastalgia's sake, I would love to pick up an old Crowm R2R that's still in great shape, but to what end?? I am not interested in making tape back-ups of music and I'm not even sure where I could pick up pre-recorded tapes. But it was a different time back then -- much slower than what's going on today. And Crown was the standard bearer.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Ralp (Atma Sphere) -- if you catch my posts and Lew's comments, we would appreciate it if you would weigh in on the quality (sonics and build) of the Crown and Tandberg R2R machines back in the 70s. As I recall, they were SOTA, but mostly for the consumer market. I think Crown may have served the pro market too, but I don't have any experience with that application.

How would rehabbed old Crown and Tandberg machines compare to some of the SOTA gear listed above?
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