Adam's Reel-To-Reel Page
Welcome to my reel-to-reel tape recorder page! All the decks on this page work, at least to some degree. Even though I've been toying with cassette decks much of my life, r2rs have always intrigued me, ever since I picked up a Sony portable (long since deceased) in a trashpile, and had many hours of fun with an Oral portable (stopped playing back one day, but I still have it's outer case as a memento), as well as a Panasonic RQ-555 (developed problems similar to those of the Oral).
Here's a pic of my current home deck, a Roberts 1740X. Approximately equivalent to an Akai X-150D, this is one of their early "cross-field" head decks (check out the big knob with the X on it!). This deck works fairly well, but the motor doesn't have enough torque to run when there's too much tape on the takeup reel during playback (has similar problems with fast-forward and rewind).
Here's a pic of my main 3" deck, a Sony TC-905A. Looking a bit like an oversized Walkman, this capstain-driven wonder is an interesting deck. Probably one of the first tape decks to have an automatic level control, as well as voice-operated mode. I usually use this deck to record music from the computer, as well as my own guitar-playing. Has a docking bay made to recharge nicad batteries (this thing uses four AA batteries, which makes for short battery life) and contains a speaker/amplifier, but the amplifier portion has low output problems.
This is my other 3" deck, an Aiwa TP-50R. The only rim-drive r2r deck I've owned which has worked somewhat-properly. Due to it's cheap design, it's nearly-impossible for it to play tapes which were made in other machines without speed issues (despite that nearly-useless speed control). I mainly use it for recording my guitar-playing.
Site Navigation:
Go back to the other stuff page!
Go back to the main page!
