It's a very happy machine to synchronise. The speed response time is excellent. It's an evolution of the MTR90 transport, with "back-stops" to try and prevent the swing arms being bent when the tape slips at the end of the reel. (a partial success....) -The similar solution was deployed in the 90 Mk.III also.
The capstan and the counter roller also suffer from turning to goo over time, as the tape backing tears at it this way and that and some of th edry lubricant used in the tape backing (graphite-based, I suspect) migrates into the rubber, turning it to an oozing blob of play-doh. That machine still has the factory rollers... replace them with Athan Corp rollers, or T-Reds or something similar. Athan corp claims improved 'stiction' over the factory rubber, permitting lower operating tensions, as per Jakob's explanation.
We have two MTR-100s here, six MTR-90s and two A827s. I also service several other A827s, an A820 and five D827s. The MTR-100 is okay, but I don't like it much. Apart from anything else, auto-align removes a sense of 'communion' with the machine. -We all probably know that if you usually set a preset at eleven o'click, and you find yourself setting sonme controls -say, all the record HF EQ presets on the high-numbered tracks- rather higher than usual, there's a sense of "pushing" uncomfortably... with auto align on the A820 and MTR-100, you dont get any feedback until it fails, if youre doing it automatically.
I've had a bunch of those MDACS fail... ADC7528JN is the type I kept as spares... they make your life a living hell... and if the machine has a Dolby Rack in it, you have to pray that nothing goes wrong with it, since I've never seen any documentation for it, though some may have surfaced by now.
When we decommissioned our 100s from service I was happy to see them go. Our A827s are as old now as our MTR100s were when I forst took them over, and the Studers simply do not wear down and get loose and sloppy like the Otaris do. Studer also provides adjustment for many things that Otari don't. -If the swing arms are out-of-whack, you replace them. That's the big one. And if you ever have the "tape-catching-the-end-of-the-leader" problem, you'll be replacing both of them.
I know that the A827 cost a lot when new... but with nearly-new ones available for almost chump change, I'd only consider an MTR-100 if I wasn;t going to put much wear on it, otherwise it would be like trying to turn a truck into a racecar... the analogy being based on the notion that if you want mechanical precision and longevity, you'll spend far more on the Otari than a Studer.
Sonically, I've got a favourite test that I like to do: run two machines with a CD player patched into tracks 1&2, patch the repro outputs of 1&2 to 3&4, patch the repro outputs of 3&4 to 5&6.... and so on. Then run one machine on the left hand side of a 48-channel or larger console, and the other machine on the right. Pushing up the faders in pairs tells you how bad it sounds after multiple generations very quickly.
I did this with an Otari and a Studer. The Studer is bigger and sturdier sounding and went to 6 or 7 generations before becoming pretty unlistenable. The Otari was thinner and reached a similar level of unlistenability about 2 generations earlier. -Machines were carefully calibrated to be fair to both.
Personally, I'd never buy into an Otari having run that test...
Keith