What is the best Reel To Reel machine ever built?

Lew, I agree 100% with you. Anything built by Crown back in the 70s would last forever. I still have two Crown amps that refuse to die: I gave the DC300A to my son; I keep the D150A Series II as a back up. Both amps went to the factory for a check up -- just a couple of caps and resisters were replaced and both amps perform at original factory spec, which is pretty impressive in its own right.

For nastalgia's sake, I would love to pick up an old Crowm R2R that's still in great shape, but to what end?? I am not interested in making tape back-ups of music and I'm not even sure where I could pick up pre-recorded tapes. But it was a different time back then -- much slower than what's going on today. And Crown was the standard bearer.

I don't know how a fully tweaked and top of the line Crown would compare to the Studers, Ampexes, MCIs, etc, that have come up in this discussion. But I do think that Ralph would have one if he thought it competed sonically with those big boys.

Thuchan, Several years transpired between the day I sat aghast listening to the horrid first generation Sony CD player that had replaced all those Crown tape decks and the day I asked my boss about the fate of his tapes. By then I was ready to jump on them myself, if he by some luck had stored them away. I forgot to say also that when I heard the Crown cum first-generation tapes, he was using Bose 901 speakers driven by a huge McIntosh amp. When later I heard the Sony CDP, he had also truly upgraded to giant Dunleavy's. So he had much better speakers in the latter instance, yet there was no comparison in sound quality to what I had heard earlier from the very lowly Bose speakers. The Dunleavy's enabled one all the better to appreciate the shortcomings of CD in those days.

He was a renowned scientist and a true music lover, an aficionado and patron of all local concerts, a man who entertained some of the great artists in his home, including conductors and soloists who might be performing at the Kennedy Center in DC. Sometimes they played for him. (All the names escape me now.) Yet he could not hear how terrible the Sony was and could not therefore appreciate his grievous error. He often made fun of me (in a nice way) for continuing to listen to vinyl. In turn, I could never bring myself to tell him what I really thought about his ultimate choice in source material.

Ralp (Atma Sphere) -- if you catch my posts and Lew's comments, we would appreciate it if you would weigh in on the quality (sonics and build) of the Crown and Tandberg R2R machines back in the 70s. As I recall, they were SOTA, but mostly for the consumer market. I think Crown may have served the pro market too, but I don't have any experience with that application.

How would rehabbed old Crown and Tandberg machines compare to some of the SOTA gear listed above?

Wow, that's one hell of a story, Lewm!
I'm glad I had the opportunity to enjoy it, vicariously :-)

Best,
Sam

I don't think Crown was into audiophile level quality. I repped them from 1980 to 1990 or so. The family was into missionary work, and Crown recorders were designed to be simple, repairable and operable in difficult environments. They used to set up broadcast facilities all over the world (and also built transmitters they sold mostly direct).

Brad