This past weekend I walked across the street from our house with Becky and went to an estate sale. In one of the rooms there was a stack of electronics. There on a dresser was a Reel-to-Reel machine in almost perfect condition.

The week prior I had been working with some Reels of language data in the archive. We have two machines but one of them does not work completely. Some amazing stuff. So now it sits on my desk and I am using my Marantz PMD 661 to digitize all sorts of Reel to Reels. Today I was looking up this model online and found it on Ebay for $300 and in Germany on Ebay for 500€, not bad as I paid $35 for mine. I finally found the manuals online for Free! It seems that somebody is trying to sell print offs on ebay for $11 each. But here is what I found.

Specifications

Track system: 4 track, 2 channel stereo/monaural system

Maximum reel capacity: 7″ reel

Wow and flutter: 0.08% at 7.5 ips

Frequency response: 30Hz to 24kHz at 7.5ips

Distortion: less than 1.5%

Signal to noise ratio: >50dB

Heads: 3 heads

Motors: 3 motors

Dimensions: 430 x 425 x 230mm

Weight: 19kg

One of my concerns is with the 30Hz playback.

Was this standard for reel-to-reels or was there better recordings done but I will never know because of the model of playback machine I have?

Another concern I have is about the heads:

If they are magnetized will they erase my tape? How do I tell if they are magnetized?

Here is a listing of Reel-to-Reel machines by AKAI.

Here is a youtube video of the same model I have.