Vintage Products

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

RedGrant — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:54:56 GMT

Peter :

The 1200 and 1600 do look good and are not bad tape recorders - high end domestic.

The English fellow in youtube had 1600 up to spec. To my ears, the playback quality was better than the vaunted Tandberg 64 series.

More airy, spacy, and more detailed sound.

Compared to Revox E, F, G series, to my ears, it was different, but overall equal. Less euphonic, or brighter than the Revox, but more detailed, better separation.

Btw. The English fellow has both F, G series Revox, and Beocord 1600 on youtube so I could compare their sound more or less consistently.

Besides, he commented how surprised he was at the sound quality of Beocord 1600.

Peter :

The 2000 and 2400 are semi-professional though and a class above. A good tape recording is indistinguishable from the source. The 2400 is built to an incredible standard - think Beolab 5000 or Beogram 4000 and then think even better and heavier!

Well, the sound quality must be awesome.

Peter :

Not as pretty though! This was mine!

Lucky man, if you ever want to sell it, please let me know. I think one way shipping to U.S. should be about 77 pounds? at today's exchange rate?

I'm trying to get a hold of Beocord 2000 from consignment store in the states for $50, but no response yet. I don't know whether it's functioning, much less up to specs.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

Peter — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:50:42 GMT

The 1200 and 1600 do look good and are not bad tape recorders - high end domestic. The 2000 and 2400 are semi-professional though and a class above. A good tape recording is indistinguishable from the source. The 2400 is built to an incredible standard - think Beolab 5000 or Beogram 4000 and then think even better and heavier! Not as pretty though! This was mine!

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

RedGrant — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:58:12 GMT

Wow! That is a nice picture of Beocord reel to reel. So far all the pictures of Beocord r2r looked kinda frumpy...kinda anti-B&O.

Your picture above makes it look sleek and modern.

There's an English fellow in youtube, called "Servington" or something like that who specializes in fixing vintage r2r. He even had Beocord r2r on it, and the sound was fantastic. Not exactly warm, but still, plenty spacy and airy, the kind of sound only r2r can provide.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

Friedmett — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:46:04 GMT

Well the price was around 20 US$ so why not? It was the first of 2 markets in my city and I had not really found anything either of interest that day. Then ad my experience of nothing/never heard to my knowledge + a B&O unit.

Comming home I was pleasantly surpriced to find the Beocord 1600 in perfect working order. The counter does not work but that's all.

I got no real experience with reel to reel but I find the Beocord 1600 good enough. I'm just too biased with all the rest of my B&O collection so its more like another good sounding medium to use.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

RedGrant — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:09:06 GMT

Friedmett:
I'm not a reel to reel fan. It was cheap and I never had one so I got it.

Ah! So you had to climb the mountain, just because it was nearby, and not too high.

Friedmett:
I'm not a reel to reel fan.

Have you ever listend to a good reel to reel? Sonically, to my ears, there's nothing like properly tuned reel to reel.

Even with frequency response far below other mediums, reel to reel (so long as they're properly tuned, and are prettecy decent to begin with in stock), they sound far superior to other mediums to my ears.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

Friedmett — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:43:50 GMT

Only 3 tapes with music I dislike.

B&O collection to big?

I'm not a reel to reel fan. It was cheap and I never had one so I got it.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

RedGrant — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:40:47 GMT

Friedmett:
I got a Beocord 1600.
Its working fine but I don't use it much.

How come?

Friedmett:
Another great tape place:

http://www.tapeheads.net/index.php

Thanks, I've been a member already.

Thanks to you all for info.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

Friedmett — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:12:00 GMT

I got a Beocord 1600.

Its working fine but I don't use it much.

There was 3 tapes with it. One is empty but the rest has music from when Beocord was new so I guess it was recorded at that time.

Another great tape place:

http://www.tapeheads.net/index.php

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

yachadm — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:01:10 GMT

The Yahoo group 70sAudioMindset is a wealth of info on Reel to Reel, with many expert techs resident.

Also sources of new and NOS tape. Well worth joining for your requirements.

Menahem

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

casdave — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:22:39 GMT

If you need to find R2R tapes and accessories you are best to go on German Ebay. It does nto take long to work out who are the regualr sellers, and you can add these to your favourites.

If you want to seach for these on EBAY uk then you need to use he German words, such as Tonbander etc for the keywords.

If anyone else want to put on other R2R keywords in German I am sure that would be helpful to the OP.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

RedGrant — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:41:27 GMT

Does anyone have experience with Beocord 2000 series K versio?

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

scuba — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:10 GMT

Thank you for ligthening my upp a litle on the B&O R2R subjekt,i cant wait to get it home an mounted on the wall, i have this (maybe unhealty) urge to wallmount my vintage B&O items,and i saw in the users manual that i came whit some kind off wallbracket so i have to make one of those. I dont think it will be the main musicsource in the house so it want be a problem if i have to use some time hunting for parts.

Jon

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

SWISS_2 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:59:26 GMT

Scuba;

I used one for years without problems. This was the European B&O model, DIN plug, with an optional smoked plastic cover that snapped in over the reels. Before the Beo 5, and CD, Mp3, etc. this was about the only way a HI-FI enthusiast could sit back in his or her Eames chair, smoking jacket on, pipe in hand, a glass of good wine in the other, and enjoy 6 hours of non-stop music ( until nature called or the phone rang ). Purchased in Berlin, full DM price, + no discount.

As Peter points out above, you may find the hunt for parts and reel recording tape an " exercise " these days. If the heads are worn, or the machine in need of service the musical experience may sound a tad dull, speeding up, or slowing down. I recall swabbing the heads now and then with a drop of Glenlivet, or EToH2 for a good clean sound. Note too that the treasure boxes of reel-to-reel tapes one comes across now and then can, and do demagnitize over the years.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

mediabobny — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:19:06 GMT

Two accessories that come to mind are a head demagnitizer and a tape splice kit. 'Checked eBay and saw them both on there.

I've always owned a RTR (Pioneer RT 707). No cassette player will give you that much play/record time on a single cassette.

Re: Reel to reel for dummies

Peter — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:28:51 GMT

They are excellent! Good wide tape and fast tape speed makes for plenty of headroom and good quiet and dynamic recordings. On a 2400, the recording was much the same as source. However good tape is tricky to find and the tapes are a pain to handle! You'll not have a problem using them but I doubt they will become over used!! Hate to say this, but you will be lucky if it works - they almost all need servicing - either the heads will be worn or the brakes will be shot. The service manual on site is a good one!