[78-L] half track tapes

Sammy Jones sjones69 at bellsouth.net
Sun Aug 9 13:29:58 PDT 2009


> Of course if you can get a Studer, GET IT!  But repair parts are
> becoming EXPENSIVE.  I also like Ampex, but Studer is the Mercedes or
> Rolls Royce, Ampex is the Caddy.  Otari is the Honda or Toyota.
> Wollensak was the Rambler.  Webcor was the Pinto.  VM was the DeSoto.
> Pentron was the pits.
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

Mike, what do you and others think about the Technics 1500s and 1520s?  I
realize it was intended to be used by high-end consumers and
modestly-budgeted professionals, but it's always worked wonderfully for me.


The University of Georgia School of Music used one back in the reel to reel
days to record concerts and recitals, and that's where I first used one.
The engineer at UGA (who is the guy who gave me his personal 1520) also
recorded on Betamax with a Sony PCM encoder.  He adopted DAT in about 1995,
which ended the Beta recordings and began to phase out the reel to reel
stuff, too.

The fact that it can play and record in both half-track and quarter-track,
in three speeds, and takes standard and NAB reels makes this a very
versatile machine.

Sammy Jones




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