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RMAF 2016: J-Corder Reel to Reel/Technics

amirm

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Panasonic had lent a lot of support to J-corder, presumably for the implicit support they provide in refurbishing and enhancing their old Reel to Reel tape recorders. This suite was quite nice as far as amount of vintage gear in it.

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Love this old scopes running in "XY" mode:
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I don't even remember this old black technics gear:
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Love this lo-boy deck below the larger one:
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P_M

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Hi Amirm,
fellow reel-tape'r here (GX-635D). I saw your review of the Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck. I have a Nakamichi CR-3A.
Would love to see a review of a reel tape deck too! You could record some clean signals on a new tape first and then play it back on the same deck to reveal its recording and playback capabilities.
 

GrimSurfer

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I'm pushing the Hipster Panic Button on this one...

Reel to reel decks appeal to my inner electro-mechanical nerd. They were appealing on many levels, the most objective of which was their potential for higher DR, better frequency response, and lower wow & flutter (or equivalent) relative to vinyl.

I have no doubt that J-Cordner has a great machinist and tech on hand to refurbish these decks... but the prices, relative to the format's inherent limitations, are rather high.

The reel (sic) market for these decks are those stuck in the 70s, or wishing they were. Having lived that dream, I enjoyed it when the days of tape stretch, stray fields, bad adhesives, and carrying ludicrously heavy reels and take ended.

Were the decks beautiful works of electro-mechanical art & science? Yup... and they still appeal to me on an emotional level. But I can no longer get my head around why anyone would ever go back...
 
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amirm

amirm

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Hi Amirm,
fellow reel-tape'r here (GX-635D). I saw your review of the Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck. I have a Nakamichi CR-3A.
Would love to see a review of a reel tape deck too! You could record some clean signals on a new tape first and then play it back on the same deck to reveal its recording and playback capabilities.
Hi there. I do plan to do that. I have an MRL test tape already so no need to record first although that may be good to test too.
 
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amirm

amirm

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But I can no longer get my head around why anyone would ever go back...
I only have a few recordings. Those that I do, have no digital equivalent. I have gone through my own library and that of Tidal and the digital versions are quite bad compared to this second gen master.

I play it once in a while and it sure is a great experience to watch the reels turn.... :)
 

P_M

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Thanks Amir, looking forward to it!

But I can no longer get my head around why anyone would ever go back...
In many ways its like the experience of owning/driving a vintage or classic car.
 

GrimSurfer

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In many ways its like the experience of owning/driving a vintage or classic car.

Please explain? I'd be interested in lhearing more about these "many ways".
 
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anmpr1

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Old cars are best left to memories. Usually bad ones. Especially if you are talking MGs, or Fiats. Even Japanese had their problems. Owned a '76 280Z that was atrocious--British Racing Green paint crackled to spider webs, vinyl seats tore at the seams, foam dash cracked horribly, antenna motor stopped working. But compared to my MG Midge, and 124 Spider, the Datsun was first rate, all the way. LOL

Reel to reel is one of those things that makes no sense. Today. First, where are you going to get parts? Second, open reel tape is scarce and through the roof, price-wise. NOS and old tape formulations are hit and miss. Mostly miss. In my experience, consumer machines were built to last a few years, and then it was Goodbye Charlie. Back in the day I contacted Studer/ReVox when they were in Nashville about overhauling my B77. This was, I guess, 1984 or 85. They quoted me $500.00 for basic maintenance, heads x-tra, should they be needed. And if you are going to the trouble to send it off, you might as well get new heads. A new B77 was about 2 large in the mid '80s (almost 5 grand in today's inflato dollars), and the brand wasn't 'discounted' like the usual consumer thing. I could see where this was taking me, and quickly put an add in the local newspaper (no Ebay back then). Let it go, with about 30 boxes of reels (Maxell, TDK, Ampex/Quantegy and some others I don't remember). FWIW, there are open reel tape simulator plug-ins you can get pretty cheap, if you have mixing software and want to 'experience' the good old days. That is the only way I'd get near open reel.
 

anmpr1

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When I bought my Otari, they were still making them (last company to do so). They stopped last year though but I imagine parts will be available for quite a while.
I used to see Otari decks in professional settings. Radio stations and production facillities. ReVox sort of spanned the gap between consumer and pro (the Studer line). There was a small industry focused on updating ReVox boards, and in fact there are still a few folks out there that sell updates for these machines. I don't want to leave the impression that open reel machines are not fixable, but they are expensive to maintain, and they always need maintaining. On the other hand, there's not much out there that looks as impressive as an open reel machine. In my estimation, even something as 'lowly' as a Pioneer RT707 quarter track at 7ips sounds better than any cassette. Even top of the line Nakamichi decks.
 

RayDunzl

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My Deck:

Tuesday, ‎January ‎8, ‎2019

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anmpr1

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Panasonic had lent a lot of support to J-corder, presumably for the implicit support they provide in refurbishing and enhancing their old Reel to Reel tape recorders. This suite was quite nice as far as amount of vintage gear in it.



Love this old scopes running in "XY" mode:

I don't even remember this old black technics gear:

Love this lo-boy deck below the larger one:

1559730758721.png


I owned two versions of the Pioneer. One 707 and another 701. Silver aluminum. Never saw the black face in person. They both failed after a few years. Too bad, as the form factor was very ergonomic. You could usually fit two albums on a 7 inch reel, quarter track. The opposed meters were easy to monitor. They were not unique, as a few decks in the late '50s and '60s used that layout, but much easier to work with than the usual side by side, thing. They were large, which helped. The meters on ReVox decks were small, but I'm sure their ballistics were better.
 

GrimSurfer

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Well the model shown has a price tag of $13,000, so one would hope the ballistics of their meters are better.

LOL
 

JS Hoover

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I once saw a J-Corder gussied-up Technics where, seriously:facepalm:, they'd taken the blue background scale meters out of an old Akai GX-260 and had switched them into the Technics(!).
 
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