Rising prices for studio quality R2R machines

Looks like the bargains have almost disappeared now. Prices for studio machines i.e. Studer, Sony APR, Telefunken, Otari etc have firmed considerably in the last 2 years. Whereas you could have bought a decent Sony APR 5000 machine for £500-800 then, you would be looking at £2k plus now. Same for Studer A807s which have almost doubled in asking price in this time.

I suspect that interest has been revived enough to increase demand. With only a limited supply of machines (most were put in skips in the 80s and 90s as studios went digital), it is just the old fashioned law of supply and demand.

Also very few decent machines now on eBay :(

Al,

Personally if I were looking for a turnkey machine, I would probably buy a refurbished Telefunken M20/21 from Hilpert in Germany, who were the German service agents for Telefunken. German Radio stations and broadcasters used these instead of Studer. Great machines with excellent tape handling (precision controlled like the A80 and A820 rather than forced guide tape path used in almost every other machine)

http://www.hilpert-audio.de/audio/in...te_aeg_m20.htm
http://www.hilpert-audio.de/audio/ge...3SStereoSI.htm

Charlie

They are really nice looking machines Charlie, thanks for sharing

I agree the prices have gone really high now but you do still get the odd one go by unnoticed for not too bad a price
There are some really nice studer A810s on Craiglist london but I don't trust that site.



Alan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 337alant

They are really nice looking machines Charlie, thanks for sharing

Alan

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I chatted to Stewart (Lodgesound) about the Telefunkens before he sadly passed away. He said that they were excellent machines, good transports and excellent sounding. Some were made specifically for the German radio market, where the tape heads point in the opposite direction to a normal machine - with the tape wound with oxide emulsion facing outwards. Many were made in standard format though.

Charlie