Gentlemen,
What a wonderful day in the neighborhood it's been. This morning Robert and I FINALLY made the trip to the DC metro area radio station, to commendeer some of the last radiostation owned/retired RtR decks on the east coast. More accurately, I escorted Bob on his journey. Being new to all of this, these pro decks are a little beyond my comfort level. That being said, even I could appreciate the engineering and smooth tape handling that they all displayed. We were able to test each one of them and were given quite the royal treatment, but more on that later. The Otari MTR-15 was the most impressive piece. It was the one most recently retired and although a little dusty worked beautifully. What took both of us by suprise was the sheer size of this machine. You feel like your sitting at a studio board when it is in front of you. Those bright VU meters lit up, on the head unit, and it was love at first sight. Next up was the Sony APR-5000. At a much more manageable size it was still very similar to the MTR-15. The tape path seems very close to an isolated loop design as well. I do believe that this is the deck Bob has chosen to work with. While the big Otari may be a better machine, I think the size of it was a little putting off to him. Last, but not least was the MX-50. Digital counter, simple tape path, it reminded me very much of a beefy/pro 5050 IIB. All three are on included rolling carts. So, if there is no room in your rack, they can be rolled in and out of the way.
So to put you all out of your misery, we acquired all three machines. Convinced that it would be a tragedy for our little band of brothers to loose the opportunity to get such great used pro gear, or at least have access to parts, Bob took the risk of initial outlay with faith that there would be interested buyers among you. Now, obviously these machines have been in storage at a radio station for as long as five years, so they are a little dusty. Need the heads aligned, a couple of pots cleaned and who knows what other tweaking and minor repair. But seeing as how most of us are modding the machines for project use anyway, they are all great starting points for those with the room and inclination for a pro machine TP experience. Cosmetically they are clean! I was hard pressed to find a scratch. Like I stated earlier, Bob seems to have adopted the sony but I will leave those details for him to negotiate with you guys.
We were treated to a complete tour of a radio station that was built in 1932 and has not changed much beyond newer equipment added. This place was a museum of vintage radios and transmiter equipment. Old Philcos and Silvertones. Vintage broadcast turntables with old 78 lacquer still on the decks. We immediately regretted not bringing cameras, but our tourguide (one of the engineers who often works in the building alone) invited us back later this week to pick up a few missing accessories and gave us permission to shoot as much as we wanted. We will post pics next weekend.
What a phenomenal experience it has been. The radio station, the machines, the engineer, but most of all meeting Bob face to face and spending a sunny Sunday with him. Lunch with him, at one of my favorite DC spots, was the best part of the day. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Seeing as Brother Bob is a collector of machines, as are so many of you, his new acquisition prompted him to release one of his other babies. So I am now the proud owner of a new (to me) Otari 5050 IIB. My very first deck. I will now stop living vicariously through others and begin my own sick journey of tweaking and obsessing.
Thank you Bob, thank you Tape Project and thank you radio station guy. This has been one of the greatest in my young audiophile life. There is a GOD and he knows my heart. And he prefers ANALOG! :-)
Peace be with you all,
Bhek