Sony Rather than break down the Sony RTR decks by model, it’s easier to break them down into single motor decks, and 3 motor decks, as the common failures differ significantly between these two...
READ MORETechnics
Technics made some excellent reel to reel decks, from about 1977 to 1985 or so. These were the high end ‘Isoloop’ decks with the unique U shaped tape path. The tape handling is excellent,...
READ MORETeac X series
The later reel to reel decks from Teac were called the X series. Both 7 and 10.5 decks were made, in single and auto reverse models. All are excellent performers, but do have common...
READ MORETeac
While Teacs overall are reliable decks, and a similar 6 button transport was used many consumer and semi pro models that was bulletproof, they have a number of common problems outside of those listed...
READ MORETandberg
Tandberg was considered a very high end brand, manufactured in Norway, and they were great machines when they were being sold. Unfortunately now, they are problematic machines, usually with multiple problems when they come...
READ MORERevox/Studer
For those that don’t know, Studer is the parent company of Revox. The Revox brand was marketed as high end consumer stereo equipment, the Studer brand more for pro audio and studio use. Tube...
READ MOREPioneer
Pioneer started with a series of decks in the late 1960s called the T series, with the T-6100 and T-6600 being popular units back in the day. These single motor decks sounded good back...
READ MOREEuropean Decks and Recorders (Grundig, Telefunken, Saba, etc)
As much as Japanese decks were sold in North America, German and other European brands were sold in Europe, and many European decks found their way to North America as well. Since Germany invented...
READ MOREDokorder
Frankly, I have nothing nice to say about Dokorder. The parent company was Sharp, and they came out with a number of decks over about a 15 year period, designed for both the consumer...
READ MORE