TEAC Reel to Reel player help

[Lottie]

Hi there,

I am hoping someone will kind enough to help me out with a little problem I have regarding TEAC reel players. The problem I have is that the missus has her eye on a TEAC A-2300 SD, which in itself is not really a problem. The thing is I need to find out fairly quickly how good this model is and how it stands up against the A-2300 S, SX and SR and what the differences are. I am happy to get her a player but would rather spend a bit extra and get a quality model, especially as it's going to be on view, and I do not want a constant reminder

Please help,

Thanks,

L

[ironbut]

Hi Lottie,

Welcome to the forum.

The 2300 series are pretty old and I doubt if there are very many out there that won't need a good bit of work to make them run up to spec..
If I were looking for a machine in their line up, I'd look for one in their X-series machines which are more modern and built to a much higher standard.

That said, I always advise folks to take their time and decide (the best they can) what they want from a reel to reel.
There are so many decks out there to choose from that until you have a grasp on what you're going to be doing with it, then it's easy to get a machine that'll just end up being a boat anchor.
Bear in mind that most of these machines are over 25 years old and many of the critical parts are mechanical in nature. So, just like a car that you find in a barn somewhere, you can't expect it to start up and play perfectly right off the bat. Some time and work will be needed to get it running well.
So, if you're going to have to do this work or pay to have someone else do it, you should do everything you can to be sure it's the right machine for you.

Perhaps you should have her come on this forum and say what she wants from a machine.

[TomR]

The 2300SD had onboard Dolby, which to my knowledge was the only Teac machine to do so. 

This guy used to have refurbished decks for sale:

http://www.angelfire.com/electronic2/vintagetx/index.html

I've never done business with him, personally, but I think he might run one of the Yahoo RTR groups. Name of Rolf, maybe?

[Lottie]

Hi there and thanks for the replies,

I have spoken to the girlfriend and it turns out that when she was at school in 1986 she saw a film that captivated her. She has started up a fan club, opened up an online page and collected a lot of merchandise including the Japanese and German versions of the film, which are exaclty the same...just dubbed. Anyway, during the pivitol scene of the film there is a dance/party scene where a TEAC A-2300SD is featured supplying the music. She wants one of these players as it featured in the film and only wants to use it to play the soundtrack back. Not sure how she is going to get the soundtrack on tape, but I was told that was for her to worry about, and she is very resourceful when it comes to that movie.

So, it has to be a TEAC 2300. However, I have managed to talk her into being a bit flexible with the model. I am assuming that the 2300 S was the base model, and has been mentioned previously the SD had the Dolby option. What I am wondering is what made as SR model a SR and what made an SX a SX model. If the SD is the only player with Dolby, did the SR and SX only have one extra feature than the S and what would these differences be? Also, if there a particular model that commands a premium for some reason.

Thanks in advance.
 

[ironbut]

Interesting motive there Lottie.
I second TomR's suggestion that you check with Rolf over on Vintage Texas. He usually has a ton of machines there and even if he doesn't have a 2300 refurbed, he probably has one waiting to be. He can tell you the differences between all the models right off the top of his head too.
I've never bought a machine from him, but I've gotten parts, manuals and advice and I've always been happy with what I've gotten.

[steveidosound]

What was the film? If you can find and rent it, you can dub the soundtrack to R2R tape...

I think that Teac 2300 series was the 7" reel lower speed version of the 3300 10.5" reel machines. I had an A-3300SX 2T (2 track/15 ips.) and the 2340 was the smaller 4 channel version of the 3340. Perhaps dolby and auto reverse were the options.

[kitjunkie]

The SR has auto reverse and the SX is an updated version of the S.

By the way, what's the movie?


Steve

[Lottie]

Thanks for all the replies and information.

The film in question is called Fire With Fire and is not available on DVD at the moment.

So...the S in the base model, the SD had dolby and SR auto reverse, the makes a lot of sense. How is the SX and updated version of the S, that is what was updated exaclty to amke it a SX? I assume it has no additional features and so are we just talking better components?

Thanks again.