Sony TC630 reel to reel taperecorder and tapes

[Rogerg]

My Sony TC630 reel to reel taperecorder is now broken (clutch gone plus oxidation on flywheel). Firstly, is there any chance of repairing this?
Secondly, would the tapes made on this machine sound okay when played on another machine such as a Revox A77? or Teac? Would there be a problem with bias for example?
Thanks Greg

[James Perrett]

A quick search shows that the TC630 is a quarter track machine with 3 speeds. An A77 would only have 2 speeds so, if you used all 3 speeds on your old tapes, you wouldn't be able to play all your tapes on it. I'm not sure whether Teac made 3 speed machines. You would also have to make sure that the playback machine was a quarter track machine so you would be looking at home hifi machines rather than studio machines which were usually half track and high speed.

I'd look into getting your existing machine repaired - it is almost certainly possible to fix it.

[Rogerg]

Thanks. Most of my tapes are 33/4 or 7.5ips so no problem there.
Any suggestions on finding someone to fix the Sony machine? I live between Cambridge and Stevenage, London would be okay too.

[James Perrett]

There will probably be others who are more familiar with your area but, if you don't get any recommendations here, it would be worth asking at

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/for ... .php?f=145

where you will probably find someone who can look at it.

[Arpangel]

I think these people specialise in tape machines.

https://www.audiophilesclinic.co.uk/

There are fewer and fewer people repairing tape machines these days.

[James Perrett]

There are fewer and fewer people repairing tape machines these days.

That's right. Quite a few of the old pro-audio maintenance engineers have retired - or are trying to retire but their customers won't let them.

There was a chap near me who specialised in Revox machines but I was sad to hear that he passed away a few months ago.

I'm fortunate in that I have the skills to maintain most of my gear myself but it is always handy to have a few pointers from people more experienced with a particular piece of gear.

[Arpangel]

There are fewer and fewer people repairing tape machines these days.

That's right. Quite a few of the old pro-audio maintenance engineers have retired - or are trying to retire but their customers won't let them.

There was a chap near me who specialised in Revox machines but I was sad to hear that he passed away a few months ago.

I'm fortunate in that I have the skills to maintain most of my gear myself but it is always handy to have a few pointers from people more experienced with a particular piece of gear.

Yes James, it’s a specialised field too, I took my Tascam 32-2B to be repaired by a "general" studio repair company in London and it wasn’t a good idea, they sent it back and the fault was still there, after they said they’d repaired it, you have to go to a specialist.

[James Perrett]

There was a chap near me who specialised in Revox machines but I was sad to hear that he passed away a few months ago.

I've just heard that Brian Reeves who was the Revox expert in Manchester has also passed away.

http://revoxservice.co.uk/

A sad loss - RIP.

[Arpangel]

There was a chap near me who specialised in Revox machines but I was sad to hear that he passed away a few months ago.

I've just heard that Brian Reeves who was the Revox expert in Manchester has also passed away.

http://revoxservice.co.uk/

A sad loss - RIP.

All of these people, the back-stage unsung heroes of our musical lives, beaver away doing jobs they love to keep "us" on the road, and they are literally a dying breed.

[sonics]

With the huge prices that analogue equipment can fetch, you'd think some bright young engineers would be building careers maintaining it.
It's not a very glamourous career, though, and most young people want to be famous or play video games (or both!), so I read.

[Drew Stephenson]

and play on your lawn...

[Urthlupe]

Oh dear - very sad to hear about Brian…… a craftsman……

Thanks for posting that James.

Loopy