Originally Posted by lucey ➡️

Search around man, I have to work now. Here's all I can say...

Studers were the industry standard for reliability, fast punches, duplicate outs in some cases, lots of microprocessor modernity built in there. If you're going full time with tape they're to be considered very seriously. There are many models and each has been talked about here at length. Search A827, A800, etc, that will get you started.

Otari is a reliable work horse brand with a few models to choose from and they have one model that is supposed to sound pretty good, cant recall it, haven't heard it. Someone will chime in for you I'd hope ...

Ampex MM1200 is a transport that is known to drift tip and tail, but some of them are rock solid (meaning like an Otari). Not solid like a Studer, never that solid. Others have a Constant Tention Kit upgrade that can make them solid. If you get one and use SMPTE with a Microlynx you can lock to SMPTE and solve all the drift issues, as well as have a great remote that can do punches for you. They are built simply and are reliable if the machine is upkept occasionally by you and runs all the time ... the tone is there. The things they need help with are 1. rolling guides. 2. CT board or Microlynx. 3. Switcher relay cards can be dicey. Manually tweaking the transport is a feel thing that's near impossible until it becomes easy and no biggie.

MCI JH16 can be phat, but they often have molex and IC socket issues, so you need to be sure it's working well.

Older machines can be made more modern with heads form Flux Magnetics, but why bother unless it's a JH or MM as you want the coloration.

Recapping the audio path helps the MM1200 and may help others.

The sound of tape machines are one part hardware, and one part set up, and another part how you hit it. You can't get around the hardware but you can tweak the set up on ANY machine to sound as good as it can sound, to you, with tape choice, and bias/rec/repro eq set up

If you are new to this I hope this machine is for personal use, if so, it can be fun and rewarding. For commercial use get a Radar or some AD16Xs and be done with it! If you want to stay all tape you have to balance reliability with tone. I still think the MM1200 is the best compromise, but others will rightly say they prefer Otari or Studers. Studers are usually more money and you need a tech that knows the machine, in any case until you learn a lot about them. Each machine has a different balance of what you can fix and tweak yourself vs what a tech is needed to do. And this changes as you learn, but transport cards on any machine will always need a tech.

It's not for the faint of heart, and saving money up front is no indicator of a good deal. For my own example, for priovate recording of my wife and I we have a fully tweaked 1983 MM1200 that was renovated by ART Service for Bob Ezrin in 2000 then sat around on the West Coast for a couple of years. It has 16 trk Flux and 24 track Flux head blockss, Rolling Guides - all, on both 16/24 blocks, new pinch roller, all audio caps recapped, a Microlynx, a spare Mictrolynx and MM1200 cables for both, a 25' so-called "remote cable" for the MM1200 transport, a short MRL, a long MRL, a number of spare cards and a spare card cage (4ch), all the extender cards, 13 PURC card spares in addition to 24 bias cards, and it has the CT Kit .... I would sell it for maybe 10 or 12k. Is that alot? Not if you know the machine and understand that it has everything it could ever need.

So if you spend $2000-3000 as is common you might get a great MM1200 that holds speed and is rock solid with nice heads, or you might get a project deck that needs a relapping for $600 and lots of other work, and even then may never be as stable as some 'other' deck. Some of them just run better from the factory. If you spend $1500 on an Otari it may be stable, but sound very average. You might be happy. You might get a JH 16 that needs $2000. You might be happy. You might spend $5000-7500 on a nice Studer than needs a relap and will run forever? You might be happy there too.

It's a big world and for you a crap shoot as you need more information than you will be able to get in the short term. Get the idea?


Good luck, and take your time. Or dive in and hope for the best as you dig it out!