The $900 for the vpi aries rim drive or $1700 for the teres is somewhat daunting without knowing what to expect (and considering what else could be purchased). I have a rek-o-kut idler I may start to play with. The friend that sold me the 2-track tapes sold me the klh model nine's and the quad esl 57's (both needed work), he said that it was an opportunity for me to experience something that I might never hear in person and never know about (he said before the internet you had to write letters, make phone calls etc to track some of this earlier equipment down). I was able to repair the model nine's (one needed a rebuilt power supply), thanks to the internet it was only a week before I was finishing the repair (and thanks to david janszen's generous help through email). I still have the pots of beeswax in my oven (for the last few months), I need to repot the power supply!
I downloaded the manuals and thanks again for the link, look forward to learning more about these machines.
I had intented on getting the bottlehead tape head kit, there are so many things to spend money on, after buying the br-20's a friend called me about a garage sale he ran into where they were bringing out stacks of jazz vinyl, they were all reissues from the 1980's (all mint blue note, prestige, fantasy, impulse etc), but they were $6 each which is a good buy (he had bought them when cd's hit the market and tower was starting to dump their vinyl), in any case I spent around $250 which I feel was justified because of the condition.
I may have to look into using a phono preamp with a modified front end as opposed to the bottlehead kit just because of my budget and it appeals to my sense of this being a hobby that requires research and trial and error.
As a coincidence before I had any decks and just my tape collection someone on audiogon had a bottlehead fully modded rs1500 for sale (all upgrades, flux heads, everything), he was asking $1800 (it was $2100 for the upgrades alone). The coincidence was he was here in my own town. I was able to get ahold of him, I should have taken his offer to come over to listen to master tapes that he had but unfortunately did not take down his number (but the community seems small so will probably figure it out someday). Anyway, I asked why he was selling the deck and he said he moved on to the studio decks and had a studer and ampex and felt they were superior to the modded rs1500.
I really would like to come across a diy on how to do a higher end external head amp (like the bottlehead tube repro or cello), that is probably a fantasy I guess! I'm sure if I take the time to read through all of the posts on this forum I will get a better idea of what is possible in terms of diy (suprised at what is hiding in some of the threads).