I've got an old Ampex F44 that was in mint condition too
You can hardly hear them run with your foot in your ear.
Sure, sure,.. laugh it up boys!
Seriously though, when I think about all the trouble I go through to get rid of those little vibrations and noises in my Technics (the ones I can only hear at night), when all I really need to do is leave that Ampex on in the same room and problem solved. I know a guy that was trying to get me to take his 8 track Ampex 440 off his hands and that wasn't the quietest machine I've ever heard either.
Studer/Revox seems to deserve their reputation as among the best crafted machines you can buy. Probably owing some of the credit to the German steel industry which was generally considered tops in production and machining when I was growing up.
And what's up with the extreme quality that seemed to run rampant with portable r2r (Nagra and Stellavox). It seems like one moment, the Lomax's were dragging a Roberts or Ampex 600 around the Appalachians and the next, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was using a Nagra to record wiretaps in Col. Sanders' cellar. That's a pretty significant jump in quality ( I know that Uher made some excellent machines at 1/4 of the price). I guess it might've been the time coding that necessitated a steady transport. If anyone has any reel to reel history on this subject, I'd love to hear it.
There were a lot of wonderful r2r machines that I only know bits and pieces about. Scullys, Magnecord, Telefunken, 3M, Sony/MCI. If you have a machine that you treasure, I'd love to hear why. Or if you've had experience with one of the "rare birds" of open reel, (like a Stephens for instance) I'd love to hear what you thought.
I think that the ' Reel to Reel Tape Machines' forum would be a better place to post that sort of thing, but if you've had an interesting experience recording on location, tell me a story about it. I don't think you'll find a better audience for this kind of thing.
