Thinking of taking the plunge into reel to reel... advice?

nobody

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#21
Sooooo very sweet, Dave. You chose what I feel to be a great deck and would certainly not mind having one of those in my kit. Tape sounds okay on it?
Tape sounds great on it. Recording doesn't look too daunting now that I'm playing with it. Need to get some leader tape it appears. And yeah, I've read a bit about sticky tape. Will need to figure out the tape side of things soon. I did read you could "fix" the sticky tape so if that happens, I'll give it a shot.
 
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#22
Dave, in the off-chance you come across an Akai GX-635D for an excellent deal, that would be worth considering. I had an Akai GX-747, but the 635D would be less money to buy with the same quality.

Nando.
Akai made some very nice decks. I was fortunate to own the 635D and the 636.

Ron
 

eminence1963

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#23
Very good...... NO GREAT choice of RTR:headbang:
Now that you got the bug, your gonna what another and another and another:laughing1:
 

Retrofett

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#25
Great score on the Teac, My main RtR is a Teac and I have nothing but praise for the brand. But as sad by others Reels are a bug and once you get bit you just keep aquiring, It's great actually!

I have 2 others that are in need of repair once I get around to it. Akai X150D (golden oldie) and a Sony TC355.
 

Nick Danger

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#26
Great score on the Teac, My main RtR is a Teac and I have nothing but praise for the brand. But as sad by others Reels are a bug and once you get bit you just keep aquiring, It's great actually!

I have 2 others that are in need of repair once I get around to it. Akai X150D (golden oldie) and a Sony TC355.
Hey Mark- glad to see you made it to our neck of the woods! Gonna be firing up a few more open reels over here pretty soon and you may need to come back by to check 'em out.

You're gonna like this forum, my friend.
 

Retrofett

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#27
Hey Mark- glad to see you made it to our neck of the woods! Gonna be firing up a few more open reels over here pretty soon and you may need to come back by to check 'em out.

You're gonna like this forum, my friend.
Agreed just may have to do that! Especially seeing how many blank MD's I now have I may have you fill'em while I'm there!
 

Fast Forward

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#28
As a Teac owner I'd say you made a wise Choice,, this guy did a swan dive off a fed Ex truck and after replacing the wood Sides has performed perfectly for the last eight years
 

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Elite-ist

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#29
I think our buddy, Douglas, has inspired an "Open-reel Revival" of sorts. I haven't seen this much renewed interest in R2R on this forum. It may have started with Douglas' blog, followed by his recordings of a few 7" jazz mixes onto Ampex 632 stock for a couple of us members, including a tape for Dave, who didn't have a R2R until today.

Dave: You worked quickly to get a deck - a very nice purchase, indeed. Isn't it nice to have a complete ready-to-run component? It's a lot less frustrating when you get a unit that's going to give you many hours of musical enjoyment without the hassle of having it repaired because of budget constraints. You end up saving more in the long run and when it comes to doing the odd maintenance work in the future you won't be bothered by it.

Douglas: You get an opportunity to try an Akai GX-635D! Auditions can sometimes lead to acquisitions. Your friend bought a 747. They are commanding high prices these days. Mine sold on consignment last year for $1,350 at Innovative Audio. I bought the GX-747 more than 8 years ago for.......$50........ and still got to use it for these past eight years. Here's it is pictured as from IA's web site with all the goodies I included with the deck, excluding the Teac take-up reel:



Nando.
 
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Nick Danger

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#32
I think our buddy, Douglas, has inspired an "Open-reel Revival" of sorts. I haven't seen this much renewed interest in R2R on this forum. It may have started with Douglas' blog, followed by his recordings of a few 7" jazz mixes onto Ampex 632 stock for a couple of us members, including a tape for Dave, who didn't have a R2R until today.

Dave: You worked quickly to get a deck - a very nice purchase, indeed. Isn't it nice to have a complete ready-to-run component? It's a lot less frustrating when you get a unit that's going to give you many hours of musical enjoyment without the hassle of having it repaired because of budget constraints. You end up saving more in the long run and when it comes to doing the odd maintenance work in the future you won't be bothered by it.

Douglas: You get an opportunity to try an Akai GX-635D! Auditions can sometimes lead to acquisitions. Your friend bought a 747. They are commanding high prices these days. Mine sold on consignment last year for $1,350 at Innovative Audio. I bought the GX-747 more than 8 years ago for.......$50........ and still got to use it for these past eight years. Here's it is pictured as from IA's web site with all the goodies I included with the deck, excluding the Teac take-up reel:



Nando.
I agree with you that Dave was wise in getting his first deck all ready to go and with a warranty, no less! His next one can be a fixer upper;). The 747 is a very, very, very desirable deck and I am excited to try out it's older sibling. This could be a dangerous thing as I have already bought 2(possibly 3)open reel decks in the past week or so and am quickly running out of space.
 

Elite-ist

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#33
Whoa... Douglas...you haven't kept us up to speed on what's new in your stable. If you had, I missed it. I know you were selling MD gear to make room for R2R equipment.

Nando.
 

Nick Danger

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#34
Whoa... Douglas...you haven't kept us up to speed on what's new in your stable. If you had, I missed it. I know you were selling MD gear to make room for R2R equipment.

Nando.
No postings of my recent scores yet. I was hoping to get some pics of my kit and new decks once the Akai gets here which I hope will be in a few days.
 

Elite-ist

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#35
Akai made some very nice decks. I was fortunate to own the 635D and the 636.

Ron
Ron: I think the 636 is as close to the 747 as you can get. Do you have just the one Sony?

No postings of my recent scores yet. I was hoping to get some pics of my kit and new decks once the Akai gets here which I hope will be in a few days.
OK, I didn't miss anything, then. Of course, I will be expectant of the details when the time comes, Douglas.

Nando.
 

orange

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#36
As a Teac owner I'd say you made a wise Choice,, this guy did a swan dive off a fed Ex truck and after replacing the wood Sides has performed perfectly for the last eight years
If you have any more of those TDK reels to spare...
 
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#37
Ron: I think the 636 is as close to the 747 as you can get. Do you have just the one Sony?





Nando.
Hi Nando,

The 636 was a beauful deck. I had the matte black one. Actually, there was one more deck, the 646, in between the 636 and the 747 and for some reason it's really rare to see one, which is some-what of a surprise, because they did sell very well from what I have read.

I still have a rack full of Sony's in the playroom, plus several spares. The one in my avatar with the black reels is the TC-765.

I'm just down to the Sony decks now. I finally got rid of all the Pioneer decks a long with the Teacs. So my stock pile is down to about 30 pieces of gear left. Hopefully, most of that pile will go this year.

The only thing I'm still looking for is the dust covers for the 700 series. I have two for the 75X series, but the one's for the 765 and 766-2 have eluded me.

Ron
 

Nick Danger

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#39
Hi Nando,

The 636 was a beauful deck. I had the matte black one. Actually, there was one more deck, the 646, in between the 636 and the 747 and for some reason it's really rare to see one, which is some-what of a surprise, because they did sell very well from what I have read.

I still have a rack full of Sony's in the playroom, plus several spares. The one in my avatar with the black reels is the TC-765.

I'm just down to the Sony decks now. I finally got rid of all the Pioneer decks a long with the Teacs. So my stock pile is down to about 30 pieces of gear left. Hopefully, most of that pile will go this year.

The only thing I'm still looking for is the dust covers for the 700 series. I have two for the 75X series, but the one's for the 765 and 766-2 have eluded me.

Ron
Love to see some pics of your rack, Ron! The later model Sony open reels are about as common as hen's teeth.
 
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