I acquired a well used MX-5050 this week, which brings the total to four sitting on the shelf. I gave this one to Shawn to work with, to get a feel for how they go together and adjust, so we can address the many requests we have for Otari technical help and mods.
This one has needed a lot of TLC, which is perfect because it's making us go through everything and bench its performance in comparison to the properly set up 5050s we have here.
After a few days with the machine I have some observations for the folks who often want me to explain my choice of the Technics over the Otari for our mods. The Otari is definitely easier to get into. It is laid out with the technician in mind, like a pro machine. It looks more hunky inside.
In terms of pulling tape, I have no reservations about my choice of the Technics. Even though the Otari has what looks to be vastly superior brakes, we have found that with our mod the Technics brakes are just about the same performance-wise and possibly even a little easier to fine tune. In terms of tape path friction, once again with our mods the Technics seems to have less of it than the Otari, though the mods make alignment of the tape path more tricky. A stock Otari can fast wind faster than a stock Technics, but our friction mods seem to make the difference a lot smaller. The big fat capstan on the Technics and the rubber of the pinch wheels seem to be of better materials and finish than the Otari.
This particular 5050 was not running with great stability, at first it was drifting like crazy. We ended up attributing most of that to mucked up, grabby brake pads, some to a brake drum that appears to have a slight wobble on the shaft, a pinch wheel that was needing a bit of smoothing, and possibly a wee bit of bearing wear. After we played with all these issues we have shaken out most of the 2-3 sec wow we first saw in the 10 & 15kHz bands of a tone tape. I have not seen a similar wow issue with any of the Technics machines. Some times we see a small drift or wobble on the strobe with a Technics, but it doesn't usually translate to a visible aberration on the scope, so it could be that the strobe markings are a little inconsistent. Of course the Otari doesn't have a strobe on the front, so it's hard to make a comparison.
The head cable inside the Technics is a nice shielded twisted pair. Inside the Otari it is coax. The head block is very easy to yank on a Technics, but not enough harder on an Otari to quibble about.
That's my observations so far. I'm not calling the Technics a vastly superior machine. I'm just observing that the Otari is a good machine, but not particularly superior to the Technics either. I do find the modded Technics to be a better tape handler and to sound smoother than the stock Otari. We will continue to play with the 5050 and try some of the tape path friction reduction techniques we have done on the Technics. If we find anything encouraging we will report our results.