Wow. I never realized tape decks were that expensive. Especially back in the day. Phew.
Well of course cheap single motor two head decks could be had for $100 to $200 range and up to around $500.
However you have to understand in the days of analog spending more on equipment brought a huge increase in sound quality. The digital age has changed that.
To be pro a deck had to be built with precision engineering, have three motors and three heads.
In the early seventies my three Revox machines would have been in the $700 to $800 range. These were domestic but used extensively by pros. All of those A77 were purchased as wrecks, or with a serious problem. I restored all of those personally. In addition to that, if you did not own extensive test gear, and expensive laboratory alignment tapes then you had to take the machine to the dealer at least once a year for calibration. I did my own. These trips were costly.
My semi pro Revox A 700 cost me around $1500 in the early seventies. The pro MK6 Brenell I put together from bespoke parts for around $1000. I see the Brenell prices were not published and all were price on application!
The cassette recorder was a huge problem due to very narrow tape width and very slow speed.
So to even approach Hi-Fi quality was very expensive. My three head, three motor TEAC cost me $1200 in the early eighties. Alignment was a huge problem, so the high end machines came either with auto calibration, or built in test tone oscillators and a means to set record bias and Eq with a front panel screw driver presets. The NAKS were $2000 and up.
Add to that all brands of tapes required individual calibration, even if they were of the same tape type. With the open real machines I calibrated for Ampex Grand Master and kept to it. For cassette I would recalibrate, but stick to BASF tapes as far as possible.
In the world of tape life was neither easy or cheap. Tape prices were also very high for open real. Even buying tapes in bulk pancakes, and putting together the 10 1/2 inch reels from parts running costs were over $20 per hour.
Those were the days! I started making my first live digital recordings in 1984, which was cutting edge back then. In fact I was among the first in the US to broadcast live concerts from digital recordings. At that time the BBC had a significant lead, at huge expense, which incurred the considerable ire of Margaret Thatcher. The BBC research and engineering budget has never been anywhere near as plush since.