What type of reel to reel?

[Nic-15fl]

Im wondering if there was any reel to reel players from the 70's thats stereo and is not so tight holding on the reel, does there exist a kind of tape player thats gentle to recorded tapes?

[Ted Kendall]

If gentleness is the main criterion, a single motor Tandberg or a Beocord 2400 would probably be favourite. Sony 377 in good adjustment is pretty benign, too.

[TIMTAPE]

Whatever machine used it needs to be working to specification.

Do you have a particularly fragile tape that you need to play or is it just that the machine you have is rather brutal on tapes?

Tim

[Radio Wrangler]

The professional grade of machines might look rather brutal with their very high winding speeds, but the actual stresses on the tape were carefully controlled. They were, after all, intended to be used to play heavily edited tapes with lots of splices. The better ones had servo control of tape tension, but even those with simpler arrangements were fine. Behind the high speed winding were three-motor decks with controlled motor torque, well designed and gentle brakes, and a tension damper to absorb shocks.

You can pick up Revox A77/B77 for reasonable prices. Just change some capacitors and go.

David

[ben]

For smooth handling, I'd forget the mechanically operated units and invest in something with logic control.
The gentlest transport I have ever come across, of dozens of reel to reels, is the Philips N4420 (N4504) series. They don't actually have brakes, instead each spool table is electronically regulated. There are two tension arms also which are part of the regulation system. It's impossible to stretch or break a tape with it!

[toshiba tony]

i have a n4506 which I refurbed last year, rebelted and ungunged the tension arms and replaced the idler, it's very gentle with tapes, some of mine are very old and it's a great machine, used daily.

[Nic-15fl]

Sometimes on this teac tape player i have the tape sits a bit tight on the machine even after a good forward and rewind it stil sits tight on it.

[Restoration73]

Some thin tapes can stretch during fast spooling. As mentioned already, you need a
3 motor machine with solenoid brakes preferred.

[Nic-15fl]

what kind of model is shelf freindly?

[radiotechnician]

As to the forces that a tape experiences, there is also the storage tightness to consider.A machine that slows down the main motor on rewind might result in layers that are wound looser than others.

That was common 60 years ago. Imagine such a tape found these days with such 'warpy' layers.

The approach today might to have a machine to play tapes to recover the program. And another machine to spool the tapes.

If you wanted to go back to late 50's , the most gentle machines I am aware of are the Philips series starting with the TR-3 and evolving through the EL 3515, to the EL3536.

I have serviced all of these, lifting the behemoth 3536 may be difficult now.

The reason these machines are gentle, is the take up turntable lowers onto 3 gum rubber tips on a spinning drum driven by an extremely long flexible belt that turns both drums in opposite directions. Those drums are spinning at the same rate, the moment the power is switched on. In the case of three speed versions, the drum speed does not depend on the tape speed. Play tension is applied by a felt surface slipping on a spinning plastic disk.

The thumbnail shows this arrangement.

[Nic-15fl]

Is there any logic controlled models you can get in europe and thats friendly to be on a shelf?

[ricard]

These machines might be gentle with the original rubber studs, but by now they will have perished, and any replacements will have to be of alternate materials which may or may not have the desired friction properties. Plus when stopping, there's an ordinary mechanical brake, again with rubber parts which may need adjusting. Quite frankly, I wouldn't consider an EL3515, 3541, 3542, 3536 or similar machine gentle with tape.

Single-motor Tandbergs can be gentle, but if the clutches are out of adjustment it can lead to large loops of tape forming which will have to be taken up manually before going on to the next operating mode. Three motor Tandbergs are better, but still have mechanical brakes (which seem very reliable however) and no tension adjustment on the reel motors. I have one 9141X with the newer (faster) motors and it produces a very uneven wind. My other 9141X has the Papst external flywheel reel motors and is much nicer to the tape, but the motors are slightly under powered, so especially when it is cold the machine winds very slowly at the end of a reel.

I second the opinion that a three-motor machine such as the Philips N4504 series, or Revox A77 will probably be the most gentle, also when considering the effects of aging on the drive mechanism. Machines such as these with some form of regulation will probably survive the best, rather than relying on decade old mechanical friction components and adjustments.

[ben]

Originally Posted by Nic-15fl

what kind of model is shelf freindly?

How big's your shelf?

Anyway, ...The Philips I mentioned before... you can lift it with one hand!

I agree wholeheartedly with ricard. Age is a major factor, irrespective of the original design of the machines. They are now 30 or 40 years old and age does not do any favours for the friction components.
I have had such problems with Grundigs, Telefunkens and single motor Tandbergs. They all had wear and needed adjustment also. Even the 3 motor series 5000 units (of similar vintage as the 9141x) in the lab rely on brake bands, and the motors have no regulation (the tension arm microswitch cuts the reel motor voltage from 100v to 60v but only happens if the tape breaks or comes off the reel)

[WreckTangle]

For shelf-mounted and reasonably gentle on tape I'd go for either a late model Akai or Revox. I love the Philips EL3515 (2-track) and EL3541 (4-track) but these are not stereo machines and unless you spend an inordinate amount of time refurbishing and adjusting their mechanisms they are very likely to damage your tapes because of the way the reel tables go up and down. I've seen the reels actually catching on the tape on a badly adjusted machine.

If you have especially fragile or valuable tapes then it is a good idea to make a lossless digital copy from a continuous play through of the tape before risking repeated stopping and fast winding. If the tape has not been played in a while then you might get a better copy after you've played and rewound it a few times but I'd still take a copy on the first play in case something terrible happens.

[Nic-15fl]

Well, the machine does need to be a stereo unit, most of the reel to reel's i have are record radio stuff and most is in stereo.

[Restoration73]

If you are dealing with old tape which has delicate old splices, most of the 3 motor units do not have pressure pads to hold the tape against the heads during record and play.
The pads are a maintenance problem, and decks without them (Revox, Teac, Akai etc)
normally have reasonable head access to permit editing should you require this.

[Nic-15fl]

The tapes don't really have splices but my teac 2300S has been tangling some of them. Some of them are early magnetphon tapes.

[ben]

In that case, care is needed. Those early tapes may have width irregularities,either through crude manufacturing or age defects, causing them to jam against the guides in the tape path. I had this a few years ago with an ancient tape, it just refused to run smoothly and kept stalling the take up spool. I think threaded it bypassing most the recorder's tape guides.

[Nic-15fl]

Im thinking its just due to age of the tape, the machine itself is ok, but not really gentle on the tapes, i was thinking on replaceing it with a better one anyways.

[julie_m]

If you're worried about snapping the tape, why not dispense with the take-up spool altogether and just pay out the tape into a plastic bucket?