Roberts reel to reel decks?

[TigerTEAC]

Hey everyone,
I just bought a 1965? Roberts 997 tube reel to reel deck off eBay a few weeks back, and am loving it! I had a few questions on it. Who made these decks? If I remember correctly, they were the American subsiduary of Akai, a Japanese company. Akai has had some bad reputation for poor quality, simply built machines, but this one I really like. No problems with it. I also have an Akai 1720L solid state deck I really like, it's a good home stereo deck. I use it for listening to prerecorded tapes on my home stereo, and I have a Roberts 1725 (my first tape deck,) which was an absolute nightmare. This one has really great sounding heads and tube amps in it, etc. The cross field heads really made a difference. Here's a live video of me playing a song on the machine on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=349033315917790

Thanks.
Ryan

 

[orange]

Roberts was the distributor for Akai for some time IIRC and as such their decks were much the same except for the badging. Roberts was also related to Rheem and Califone of I'm not mistaken as well.

Yes, Rheem, the furnace maker and Califone who made the audiovisual gear for your elementary school (i.e. the record players you heard the discs for filmstrips BEEP on) and those banks of headphones and mono cassette players as well. My Califone phonograph was STEREO with the other speaker in the lid and the speed could be adjusted like home gear as well IIRC again.

 

[orange]

PS Why does it look like it's missing parts between the two recording sections?

 

[TigerTEAC]

PS Why does it look like it's missing parts between the two recording sections?

I just sprayed the pots before recording this video. I need to put the knobs back on.

 

[TigerTEAC]

Roberts was the distributor for Akai for some time IIRC and as such their decks were much the same except for the badging. Roberts was also related to Rheem and Califone of I'm not mistaken as well.

Yes, Rheem, the furnace maker and Califone who made the audiovisual gear for your elementary school (i.e. the record players you heard the discs for filmstrips BEEP on) and those banks of headphones and mono cassette players as well. My Califone phonograph was STEREO with the other speaker in the lid and the speed could be adjusted like home gear as well IIRC again.

Huh! Rheem was (and still is) an air conditioning maker. My Roberts 1725 has a Rheem logo on it, interesting.

 

[TigerTEAC]

PS Why does it look like it's missing parts between the two recording sections?

Oh, and the plates are off of the front plate to reveal the tubes, and help them to breathe.

 

[orange]

Huh! Rheem was (and still is) an air conditioning maker. My Roberts 1725 has a Rheem logo on it, interesting.

That's because they were co-owned, and they started out making steel drums for the petroleum industry (one of the founders came from Standard Oil). branched out into water heaters (they introduced glass lining that greatly impoved the life of water heaters), bought Ruud in 1959 and innovated in AC units and in the 1970s heat pumps etc.

Rheem Califone is the name of the former division that produced Califone and Roberts products (Roberts are rebadged Akais).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheem

 

[TigerTEAC]

That's because they were co-owned, and they started out making steel drums for the petroleum industry (one of the founders came from Standard Oil). branched out into water heaters (they introduced glass lining that greatly impoved the life of water heaters), bought Ruud in 1959 and innovated in AC units and in the 1970s heat pumps etc.

Rheem Califone is the name of the former division that produced Califone and Roberts products (Roberts are rebadged Akais).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheem

My goodness! Rheem has had quite the history!

 

[Bradrock]

I had friends who worked at a Rheem barrel plant just a couple miles from my folks house at Belleville Mi.
Late sixties/early seventies. 20-30 miles from Detroit ( I forget).

 

[TigerTEAC]

I had friends who worked at a Rheem barrel plant just a couple miles from my folks house at Belleville Mi.
Late sixties/early seventies. 20-30 miles from Detroit ( I forget).

@Elite-ist Mr. Nando, what are your opinions on these decks? I know what Mr. Palermo @Skywavebe 's opinions are!
Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Elite-ist]

Often, the tubed amplifiers are desirable for DIYers to use for other projects. As far as the specs for W&F and FR - not overwhelming. But, they are quite inexpensive to purchase and I don't know much about the servicing end of this model. I have had a couple of more modern Akais - GX4000DB and GX-747 - and they were quite dependable, but I did sell them both.

Nando.

 

[BlazeES]

Often, the tubed amplifiers are desirable for DIYers to use for other projects. As far as the specs for W&F and FR - not overwhelming. But, they are quite inexpensive to purchase and I don't know much about the servicing end of this model. I have had a couple of more modern Akais - GX4000DB and GX-747 - and they were quite dependable, but I did sell them both.

Nando.

What? Are you saying that your museum is without any R2R's Nando?

 

[Elite-ist]

Tony: I kept only one Akai - a GX-221:

But, I do have three Pioneer open-reel decks - RT-707, RT-909, and, most recently, an RT-2044:

I have a few other nice table-top models, too, including a Dual TG-28:

Nando.

 

[WOPL Sniffer]

Some cool old Iron there boys... I just ordered a pinch roller rebuild from Terry's Rubber Rollers, got a couple reels of SM900, and SM911 tape and going to start working on my 2 decks. A 2 track big boy, and a 2 track with auto reverse... I got a lot to learn. I think the shiny side goes to the heads.... ????

 

[Elite-ist]

Perry: The dull side (usually, brown colour) goes to the heads.

Nando.

 

[Elite-ist]

Perry: You are going to enjoy hearing an open-reel recording - especially, on 2 track at 15 i.p.s. speed.

My RT-707:

And RT-909:

Nando.

 

[WOPL Sniffer]

Thanks Nando, The last deck I owned I bought new in the PX in Wildflecken Germany 1979. It was a Teac X7R... It was fun.

 

[BlazeES]

You're out of control Nando.

 

[Bradrock]

And not a speck of dust................

 

[laatsch55]

Not EVER
...