Nothing has been posted here for about a month now, so to keep this place running I thought I would ask what tape machines Members used to use before they reached the dizzying heights of Studer, Otari and Sony.
I'll make a start, but my journey is comparatively modest.
In 1969 I started with a Collaro tape deck for which I built a Mullard-designed Sterns valve recording/playback pre-amp (the one with a 'magic eye' recording level indicator)
This was a 3 motor design and was supplied by Collaro on an OEM basis to other domestic consumer electronics manufacturers, such as Elizabethan.
I recorded a few tapes, but didn't use it much, so gave it all away to a tape enthusiast.
At the same time I had access to, and use of, the Akai 4000 and Tandberg 3000 machines. I thought the Tandberg to be the superior machine.
The next machine (around 1978) was a Brenell tape deck for which I built some solid-state record and replay electronic designs that had been published in Wireless World magazine.
Again a 3-motor deck, the Brenell was well regarded, but IMO was not much better than the Collaro. Like the Collaro this set up didn't last long.
Move forward to 1979, I was given a Ferrograph 632 two track machine using all triode electronics.
Built like a battleship and displaying some British design 'quirks', this machine was put to much use, recording plays, poetry and spoken word off the radio. However it hasn't been used since I moved to using cassettes ; and now the rubber idler wheels have perished. Replacements have been bought, but not fitted as I can't see how to do it, so the machine now resides in the cupboard under the stairs.
A year later I bought a Revox G36 (736) from a colleague at work for £25.
A superb machine, which not only could take 10.5" diameter spools, but used push buttons for function selection, as distinct to the clunky and heavy action of the Ferrograph. The frequency response was wider, though the connectors used on the Revox were very poor quality and not up to the standard of the 1/4" jacks of the Ferrograph.
Despite the superiority of the Revox, I didn't get on with it and sold it on.
I then was given a Uher Report 4400 portable tape machine, complete with microphones.
Again this was not used much as I didn't really want a 4-track machine and the size of the tape spools that can be used is limited to 5". I thought I might use it to make 'field recordings', but never got around to it, so I gave the machine away.
Finally in 2008 I achieved an aspiration of mine: a Nagra IV-S portable tape machine.
Despite being limited to 7" diameter spools, and having a few operational quirks (deliberate, given its intended use in the field), I use this machine to replay the tapes I had made on the Ferrograph.
Apart from a brief flirtation with acquiring a Studer C37, something I eventually resisted due to scarcity of spares and doubt that it would be used it to its full capability, that's my reel-to-reel history.
What's yours?