What Should I Do With a 1966 Denon Tube Reel 2 Reel?

Someone sold me a 1966 Denon tube reel to reel four track tape deck for next to nothing.

Somewhere along the line I think either a cathode bypass cap or a grid coupling cap is gone (I'm getting @1.8-2.2V in the meters that slowly ramps up) and there is a minor problem with one of the tape guides.

Should I fix it or turn it into a crazy stereo preamp?

Should I sell it?

You should decide that not us faceless friends

My experiences with reel-to-reels hasn't been exceptional. I look at it and see a project that I'm not sure is worth finishing on the restoration side.

I've never heard a Denon reel to reel, so I wouldn't know if it was really up to audiophile standards in the first place. If not - - hack job time.

I see a nice tube PSU and a chassis and most of the components to make a nice little stereo preamp.... 4 12AX7 and a pair of 12AU7.... Vintage jacks, switches, knobs, & meters... etc

I would probably gut it and do a two-tube-per-channel thing with a cathode follower/transformer output. I could use the 12AU7s after a transformer for mic input if I wanted to.

Restore it, you could use is it as an effect unit...recording stuff to it and bouncing back to DAW. Tape is the ultimate warming device.

rebuild it, get a syncer box and stripe track 4, configure your daw to chase MTC and record into it on track 1/2 with your new analog tape plug-in (ya plug it in.. get it?) :razz:

Kiira

Ah the good ol days of striping SMPTE to tape with the computer chasing drop outs and speeding up and slowing down.....ha ha ha ha.

Naa.. I fear that it's a four-tracks-on-two-sides-of-the-tape i.e. a stereo unit. But it'd probably still make a good mono effect. Or a stereo tape delay, if speed is variable..

if all else fails, you could just put it in your studio for ambience! :grin:

It IS a "four-track-on-two-sides-of-the-tape" four track unfortunately. I'd love to bury a sync track on the analog - -

I can run my clock as slow as 8kHz so it sounds like a nifty idea. I only wish I could record in stereo and still get it in sync.. Maybe I could combine a 10k sync track with a bass track and cross over the 10k back into my clock...

Although what I'd ideally like to do is use it for is combining the bass guitar and the L/R rhythym guitars, OR I've been feeling the pain of not having tape compression for my stereo drum mix... I can't see a way of cutting out 10k or even 12k there, as I like my guitars & cymbals "Supersonically Delicious" Nabisco (tm)

The only reason for me to fix it would be to run a sync on one track and get some mono tape compression...

That sounds kinda boring and not really worthwhile, 'specially since I get pretty decent results if something is 'tubey and warm' before it ever gets to my DAW.

Forget about striping SMPTE - how about a simpler solution? Simply use it as an insert in a stereo track, start the tape running, and re-record the tape version onto another pair of tracks. Line it back up to fix any latency, and voila! Insta-phat.

re-record the tape version onto another pair of tracks. Line it back up to fix any latency, and voila! Insta-phat.

Click to expand...

Doing this without sync is a nightmare!

> What Should I Do With a 1966 Denon Tube Reel 2 Reel?

Does it even run?

I say: Flight Test.

Try running in sel-sync mode. You are going

DAW track->R2R in record->another DAW track

In real time - in other words, you are only using the tape for its compression characteristics, monitoring directly, and going right back into the DAW. There is no drift.

[quote author="underthebigtree"]Try running in sel-sync mode. You are going

DAW track->R2R in record->another DAW track

In real time - in other words, you are only using the tape for its compression characteristics, monitoring directly, and going right back into the DAW. There is no drift.[/quote]

I doubt a '66 consumer machine had sel-sync but I might be wrong.

Tape delay is cool if it sounds okay, you know tape decks have this beauty-in-garbage-out thing goin' on. If you want a pre it's usually the first tube on the mic in and the last half of the playback line amp, add iron and stir. I would bet both mic/line and playback have an identical first gain stage, with maybe some extra eq parts on the playback, then 1/2 a 12AU7. If there's a full 12AU7 in front of the record head, the last half drives the head. So, from play heads I'm betting one 12AX7 and 1/2 a 12AU7 to unbalanced out; from mic in one 12AX& and one 12AU7; trace the line in and I bet it skips at least the first half of the 12AX7 if not the whole thing, gets about 8-9db of gain from 1/2 a 12AU7 to the record head driver.

'66 this thing would have been optimized for Scotch 111, not much slam there; more bets: it's got no eq adjust, no record calibrate, maybe playback hf and lf adjust, proll'y bias adjust, maybe bias calibrate and meter calibrate. To align it you'll need to buy a $130 alignment tape for 200nwb/0 db, you'll need a scope, a oscillator w/ attenuation for unbalanced in, a vtvm rms ac meter and a Simpson 260. If you can't find a free manual online you'll pay $45 for a xerox of one and it might not even have a scheemo in it, that or dig the Sam's out of the library. If you need belts you'll have to go on a belt safari, woo hoo.

Ugh, strip it for tubes, sockets, shockmounts, iron, knobs, pots, switches meters and throw the thing away.

Buy an Ampex ATR700 on eBone. Servicable, (it's a Tascam) slammable, (to a degree) says Ampex on it (elevates your street cred.)

Did I just age myself w/"street cred?"

I'M A TAPE KIND OF GUY!!!! I SAY RESTORE RESTORE RESTORE!! EDIT

the ever dreaded double post>>see next post

GARY

I'M A TAPE KIND OF GUY!!!! I SAY RESTORE RESTORE RESTORE!!

Lots of good reasons to do it....THEY KNOW>>>>analag, underthebigtree, gyraf, and most of all kiira!

.....as PRR would say ...FLIGHT TEST!!!!!!

JUST DO IT MAN!!!!.... This old f*rt says NOTHING SOUNDS LIKE TAPE!!!!!
:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

GARY

[quote author="gar381"]I'M A TAPE KIND OF GUY!!!! I SAY RESTORE RESTORE RESTORE!!

Lots of good reasons to do it....THEY KNOW>>>>analag, underthebigtree, gyraf, and most of all kiira!

.....as PRR would say ...FLIGHT TEST!!!!!!

JUST DO IT MAN!!!!.... NOTHING SOUNDS LIKE TAPE!!!!!
:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

GARY[/quote]

Oh c'mon man, it's a Denon. Take your medicine.

I like toast but I'm not going to rebuild every ancient toaster I run across. I like old cars but I'm not going to the trouble to restore a '74 4 door Maverick.

All this asian consumer stuff was built to a price point. A '56 Ampex 601 would most like kick the snot out of this thing and I wouldn't want one of those. He'll never be able to bias this thing up to Quantegy 456, there's no way it has that much oscilation muscle.

Sure, try it out, but if it doesn't work strip it and throw it away.

I forgot to mention, if the heads need lapped you'll pay John French at least $350 to lap and align them in the block. So, manual, alignment tape, head service we're close to 6 Ben Franklins, no spares included. And he'll never be able to resell it for 2. Ampex.

bradzatitagain

Slap me slap me slap me!!! THANKS MAN I needed that!!!

Reality......You are totally right :grin: :grin: :grin:

Just thinking of the 'Ole Dayz..and of that Beautiful sounding 440 in my basement!!

:green:

GARY

[quote author="gar381"]bradzatitagain

Slap me slap me slap me!!! THANKS MAN I needed that!!!

Reality......You are totally right :grin: :grin: :grin:

Just thinking of the 'Ole Dayz..and of that Beautiful sounding 440 in my basement!!

:green:

GARY[/quote]

Dude, you sound like the Dr Bronners soap label, catch your breath.

A 440 I would thoroughly advocate.

You can call me Brad, Gary. My pleasure.

I concur; trying to fix this up as a tape delay/phat generator would be, you'll excuse me, polishing a turd.

1/4-track 7-1/2" from 1966 will have about the same signal-to-noise ratio as a cassette deck. Well, a couple dB better, but that's it. Like the man said, it's set up for Scotch 111, which no longer exists, and the Quantegy equivalent needs different bias. Saturation? Naah, more like tubes crapping out on level first.

If you want to use the electronics to do stuff to signal, that's one thing, but forget about the tape end of it. By the time you got that up and running, just to find out you have zilch signal to noise ratio, you'll have spent enough money to buy an Ampex AG440 on e-bleah, which gives you more street cred than anything short of a 350, and if you get a clean one and get it up to snuff, very fine sound.

Peace,
Paul