Reel to Reel Tape

@johnss...appreciate the content of your posts -- thanks!

three items I forgot to mention,

1. the heads make a huge difference. If JRF has heads for your deck, send him the head block and get at least their top end playback head.

http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/
2. Athan ball bearing rollers and guides.

https://www.athan.com/
will lower the wow and flutter and give smoother running of the tape acorss the heads.  They also sell on ebay for more common units.

Head load resistors - Use Vishay VSR foil resistors to load the head. Also works wonders on MM/MC cartridge loading positions too. You will never hear your MC cart be so quiet.

best to all.

I’ve been using a dbx 224 and dbx 3bx with a Teac X-10R for about 35 years.  I love the sound.  I’ve had the heads replaced twice and have tried to maintain it in near mint condition.

Unfortunately, I had about 30 Ampex reels go bad from age before I new to convert them to digital.  I lost years of 70’s and 80’s era album recordings and custom mixed songs. I still have about 15 Maxell reels of that era so all was not lost.  

I’ve used a dbx 224 noise reduction unit and dbx 3bx range expander with a Teac X10R reel-to-reel for about 35 years.  Recording vinyl through the 224 makes the playback tape hiss free and to my ears the reel sounds better than the original.  

When I purchased a keeper album back in the day, the first thing I’d do is record it.  Trust me, there’s nothing like it.  If you’ve never heard a good reel recording, you are missing a real treat.

More than anything, I miss EE blank tape.