Hello! I need a bit from help. I know very little of these wonderful machines.
I have possibilities of buying an Akai GX-1900 reel to reel machine.
I want to know if this machine can playback the pre-recorded 4 track consumer tape albums; and 2-track "inline" tape albums. I have several of these tapes and I want to listen to them.
Any type of help I am to them very grateful.
Thanks. Acquaforte.
Reel to reel machines are not something to venture into unless you know what you are doing.
These machines are now very old, and all if not recently restored, will need it before putting them to use.
I will give you a little history.
Before the stereo LP tape machines were the only way a consumer could hear stereo.
The first machines had spaced heads, staggered head machines. The only problem was there was no standard head spacing, so different machines were required for different brands of tapes. The most popular in the US were RCA tapes, and
The Voice of Music Company of Benton Harbor Michigan made machines for these RCA tapes, and later in line machines, and even some that could be switched.
The best US machines were made by
Ampex of Opelika Alabama. Another major US manufacturer was
Magnacord.
In the UK
Brenell had a staggered head machine for a while. The sought after domestic machines in the UK were Brenell, a number of decks built round the Wearite deck, the most famous of which was the
British Ferrograph. Most high end systems of the fifties and sixties in the UK contained one or other of these machines.
There were numerous lower end machines, a popular one was
Truvox.
There were quite a few European manufacturers, but the most famous, and undoubtedly the best manufacturer of tape recorders of all time was Herr Willi Studer of Switzerland. He made professional machines under the Studer Brand, and semiprofessional machines under the
Revox brand. A lot of revox machines were used professionally and were the back bone of radio stations around the world in the pre digital era.
Now back to track and head formats.
The first stereo machines were staggered head, few remain, though there are collectors of Voice of Music machines. I have a few staggered heads, given by owners I have digitally resynchronized the tacks for, to archive to CD and or a two track in line tape.
The next advance was the the in line head, where the track heads are one above the other.
Now machines come in various configurations. There is always an erase head to erase a tape, so it can be recorded again. Usually in cheap and domestic mid price machines, the second head does double duty as the record and play back head. Better machines have separate record and play back heads. This allows for off tape monitoring, in addition tape head gap widths can be optimized.
Now these machines were two track and the tape played in one direction only, and tapes should be stored tailed out to prevent print through.
Tape speeds were 1 7/8 speech only, 3 3/4 ips, poor music quality, 7.5 ips quite good and adequate domestic quality. 15 ips excellent quality and allowed for full modulation to 20 kHz without tape saturation. Some professional machines had 30 ips. Only high end domestic machines have 15 ips. These old 7 1/2 ips two track stereo tapes command very high prices on eBay.
In 1959 RCA developed the four track stacked head. This has side one left and right channels on tracks 1 & 3 and the side two on tracks 3 & 4. So the taped play in both directions. However this "advance" came at the expense of downgraded signal to noise ratio and increased distortion from tape saturation. However these tapes swept the the two tracks off the market. Later Dolby B encoding improved performance considerably. A Dolby B decoder is required to play these tapes. There are a few machines mainly some Reovx A77 MK IVs that have built in coder/decoders.
At the end of the reel to reel era Barclay Crocker produced some tapes, mainly from the Decca and Argo catalogs in dbx II code. A dbx II decoder is required to play these and these decoders are very rare. I have a collection of dolby B and dbx II pre recorded tapes, two track and four track tapes.
Now a two track machine will only play two track tapes. A four track machine will only play four track tapes. This is very important for you to understand.
IF YOU WANT TO PLAY TWO AND FOUR TRACK TAPES YOU NEED 2 DIFFERENT RECORDERS.
Now in the 70s we had the Japanese onslaught of very inferior machines like the one you are considering. The only Japanese manufacturer to ever produce machines comparable to Western machines was Otari in my view.
We have suffered under an onslaught of Far Eastern Junk, ever since that period, and had to make do with a lot of product that is not as good as it could be. Now we are in a financial pickle in which this is a big contributing factor.
Now the
machine you are considering is a combination reel to reel machine and cassette machine. It is belt drive. Those machines in my view never achieved true Hi-Fi performance.
Now all reel to reel machines are very old and need thorough restoration. Tape machines are very complicated mechanically and electronically. I don't know how you are coming by that machine, but eBay prices are over inflated. That machine is worth a max of $100 unless recently restored.
The best machines to go after are the Revox machines. These are three head with direct capstan servo drive, and have fantastic speed stability. It is speed stability (wow and flutter) that is one of the biggest Achilles heels of tape recorders. Constantly have to set head alignment is the other.
Here is view of my machines.
If you click on the link below, you can get to an album and see more detailed views. The Revox A700 and the Brenell Mk 6, a very rare machine, I have had since new, and kept them carefully maintained. The Brenell machine was built specially for me, and has four heads. It has a fourth head that is a four track play back head. So the machine can play and record two track stereo, but also play back four track tapes. The Revox A 77 recorders are restorations. Two of them were as extensive as you can get.
One other issue. You will not be able to record on the machine you are considering as tapes for that machine are not manufactured. ATR are making tapes again, but not with a bias characteristic that would be in reach of that machine.
If you want something better after reading this, I have a couple of A77 standard speed two track machines that I can restore. I have a very nice Revox B 77 four track that needs restoration. I have an A 77 four track head block and boards, that would allow me to convert one of the A77s to four track. One A 77 is a Mk III and the other a MK IV. If you are really interested in becoming a dedicated reeler, then I could restore one or two machines for you. A machine never leaves my shop that does not meet or exceed manufacturers specifications. I stopped working on Far Eastern machines some time ago, as they are thrown together and a misery. Revox machines are a pleasure to work on.
I have had the dbx one and two decoders since new. The Advent Dolby B unit was a restoration project. The Dolby A units were eBay acquisitions.
I hope this information helps you.
