Pricey but we’re stuck. I’m afraid of used because of stretch.
In the end a test tape is worth the $ imho there is a big difference in sound when a machine is set up properly. Like sweet creamy butter made from mother’s milk.
Thanks again man! Yikes, I see what you mean about the cost, but also agree with your reasoning. We're new to tape-based recording, as the ATR was given to us by a friend at a studio in Germany which has closed down. So we're trying to work things out from scratch.
ATR Master would be my choice but the SM900 will be good for over there. MRL tape can be ordered through JRF Magnetics as that is how I get mine. 2" tape is going to be expensive as all the tape has to be good as all track have to be perfect in their print.
There is not much to see at my place like some of these guys put pictures up. I am more overloaded and with little room to work most of the time but we can go get lunch if you drop by.
To take all this equipment in and have a large roomy space like they had at Teac I would need an industrial sized building and then the overhead would sky rocket. I don't think Teac service ever had even 100 unit in back log but they had 4 to 5 technicians. I have about 180 for 1 guy.
In some cases where a manual was needed I would get a hold of a fresh looking original and Fed Ex it over to Stereomanuals for it to be reproduced. He does a wonderful job and send the original back so it can go back to the source. I have done this in 2 or 3 decks so far. I did get two reproductions at that time. I asked Rick if he ever sold a 48 deck manual that I had him do and he said he sold like 14 of them so it does the World good to be able to reproduce these.