Reel to reel

New tape machine;


        https://newatlas.com/thorens-tm-1600-reel-tape-machine/59269/

Orpheus.

Nice tutorial.

But the new Thorens deck?
Pretty impressive somebody is actually making a new one in today's age.

But $13500?
Hope the regular run after the first 100 are a LOT less!

Crazy price, but considering all the R&D that was necessary, perhaps a reasonable MSRP, but way out most audiophile's budget (including mine) just to play 1/2 track tapes.  Recording is not an option.    

@Uberwaltz, if you choose to pursue Ralph’s good suggestion, you can find the service manual for your deck at hifiengine.com if you register there, or if you are already registered there. It is linked to on this page:

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tc-377.shtml

On page 20 of the manual (per the page numbering of the manual itself, not the page numbering of the pdf) it is indicated that R316 and R416 on the "Playback Circuit Board" adjust the maximum line level output voltages. A photo illustrates where those pots are located. There is no indication, though, of how much range those pots provide.

If your deck is presently adjusted per the procedure the maximum output voltage is 0 dbu, which is only 0.775 volts. And that is with a 100K load impedance; if you are driving a low impedance such as 10K or 20K (10K is the recommended minimum) that voltage would be a bit less.

Another possibility I thought about but rejected, btw, would be driving your amp from the deck’s headphone output, using an adapter. However while there is no indication of how much voltage the headphone output can supply, at least one of the two headphones recommended in the owner’s manual has an impedance of only 8 ohms, which I think makes it unlikely that that approach would help. If the deck were designed to drive high impedance headphones the maximum voltage of that output might have done the trick.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al

Yes I did find Ralph's suggested method to be a good place to start and with the info you have provided it should indeed be possible to see if there is any more voltage to go.

As far as headphones go I did think of that as well but as with my easy to drive cans even at full output the volume was still low I discarded it for same reason.

This is a project I will undertake tomorrow morning and hopefully the pots are not maxed out. I doubt it as it looks like this deck has seen very little use or even been opened up.

Thank you!