Reel to reel. The format from hell.

Dave in Va.,
Would you let us know what the "full meal deal" is for your 909 when you get it back?
Did you send your 1050 to Jeff Jacobs?

Dave,
I sent it to a guy named Bernard Morrisey in Illinois.
I hope to get the 909 back soon. It's been in the shop for a month.

I'm getting antsy to run my 7.5 ips pre-recorded copy of Tubular Bells!

Dave_in_Va wrote:Dave,
I sent it to a guy named Bernard Morrisey in Illinois.
I hope to get the 909 back soon. It's been in the shop for a month.

I'm getting antsy to run my 7.5 ips pre-recorded copy of Tubualr Bells!

Well Dave in Va, you know what they say about waiting and anticipation. It makes the heart grow grumpier

https://ultraanaloguerecordings.com/new/shop-by-category/

Just when you thought it could not get any better....

My Studer B67MKII is in superb condition these days and my recordings onto tape, to my ears, are about as good as they're going to get. This of course depends on the condition of the vinyl, but from CD, to me, they are faultless.

Have you bypassed the internal preamp for play back direct from the heads?

Yes, using the tube tape head preamp I build and sell.

I was looking at that on your website. Very much enjoy my Aretha pre I purchased awhile back so I have no reservations about your products.

My deck is currently in the shop. Needs some brakes and a belt replacement and an overall looky loo.
The tech doing the work is very good so I asked about bypassing the pre for playback but he wasn't convinced it was a good idea..
The Tape deck is a Sony TC-765 in pristine condition. Heads are as new. Since I have hijacked this thread what do you think about bypassing on this machine? Should I look into a better machine.

Have recorded vinyl direct from my phono pre to the Sony and I'm hard pressed to tell the difference from vinyl playback.

Back to heresy:

Making a decent NAB Equalized head-amp is a trivial exercise, and has been so since the early 1960s. Gone are the days when Crown, Ampex, Scully et.al. sold decks without such built in, other than for professional purposes.

Much as making a decent phono head-amp has is a trivial exercise and has been since the early 1960s. What has mystified it in the eyes of the typical consumer is that Vinyl and Open-Reel tape is no longer common, and Tape was never common prior to cassettes. So, now there is a veil of mystery cast over an essentially simple device

My apologies to the op and everyone for taking this thread off on a tangent.
I will start a new thread to further the discussion.

Cheers!

No need to start another thread. You are safely under the "open reel" umbrella.

Just to keep it real (pun intended), did you know that B&O collaborated with Dynaco to release a tape-deck?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/0f/20/050f20f1ab9ebcc75ba3d12b9505b07b.jpg

But, getting back to your Sony. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT bypass the on-board head-amp. You will realize no possible benefit in any "home setting", you will introduce noise, and you will be unhappy.

If you want a bare-ass deck, start here, and be prepared to spend 2x again on cleaning and restoration services.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Scully-280-1-4-2-track-Stereo-Open-Reel-Tape-Recorder-15-30-IPS/264310013453?hash=item3d8a1abe0d:g:Ll0AAOSwCZZcziwF

Peter,
thanks for your message. In regards to modifying my Sony I would not do that. Given it's condition it would ruin it's value.

My thoughts were to purchase a machine more suitable for experimenting with much like what you provided linkage to. Thanks for that also!

At this point I have many "Irons in the fire" so not high on the list. I do keep an eye out for equipment for all of my projects.
I'll check out your link.

Tip of that hat to you!

Just got my RT 909 out of the shop yesterday. It's recapped, adjusted and the bias has been set for ATR MDS 36 tape.
It looks and sounds great. So far I've only ran some pre-recorded tapes on it but will do some recording today.
The 7.5 ips pre-record of Tubular Bells sounded really super.

Adding a playback head bypass is not a trivial thing, it is easier to make things worse than to enjoy any external playback preamp, be it tube or solid state.
For those in the know to come up with a working tape head or phono cartridge preamp is perhaps not that difficult, aka trivial.....however, to end up with a well performing preamp, and not just a well designed circuit, but also a well laid out and built enclosure, which is just as important (sometimes even more so), for a high gain preamp, is perhaps not such a trivial thing to easily get right.
Cramming it all into a box without much thought will inevitably always result in a negative outcome!

I appreciate what you are saying. I have built much of my audio gear but modding the tape deck is something I would have done by someone with experience with this change. Not many in my area if any.... although there is someone near Indianapolis with some background on this subject.
About 3.5 hours from me....

Just got my RT 909 out of the shop yesterday. It's recapped, adjusted and the bias has been set for ATR MDS 36 tape.
It looks and sounds great. So far I've only ran some pre-recorded tapes on it but will do some recording today.
The 7.5 ips pre-record of Tubular Bells sounded really super.

Very nice machine! Looks great! Hope you enjoy that for many years.
ATR has a nice selection of tape. I have been buying the pancake's they sell.

Cheers!

Dave_in_Va
Congratulations! Your fun is just beginning, seriously.
I've putting some of my well-cared-for Beatles, Stones, Doors and Fugs vinyl on to tape with the Revox, also at 7.5" two-track, ATR tape, and the whole smash sounds just great. It's fun to fondle the vinyl again.
ATR is the only recording tape manufacturer in the United States. Betty Spitz took over the company upon the death of her husband and has continued to grow ATR in a very positive way. So a U.S.-made product by a company chaired by a woman, and it sounds fantastic. That's a trifecta IMHO.

It's pretty sad to resurrect a thread where deepee99 was the last poster. He was a good guy and is seriously missed..

Way back in post #31 I said I had sent an RT 1050 to a guy in Chicago named Bernie Morrisey. This is just a heads up to anyone that runs into him and thinks about having a deck worked on.
Run, don't walk away this guy. He's a 100% bad guy and ripped me off badly.
It was probably my worst internet gear experience and I've been fooling around with buying stuff on the net for about 25 years.

I know these posts stay online forever so I just wanted to make sure no one else has to go through what I went through with this jerk.

Thx, Dave : That is exactly what DeePee would've said. ( looks like your system has really moved forward since I see it 3 years ago ) Dale