Otari MX-5050

[user510]

After lurking about both Tape Trails over at AA, and here, I've noticed that a number of you guys have Otari decks. Prices on these seem more friendly than for some other decks, yet they seem to be popular, so I decided to snag one off ePay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280222657886&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

'hope I made a decent choice.

Btw, yesterday I was at VSAC 2008 in Vancouver, WA. By far, the best sounding room was the Audio Note UK room when the fellow was playing the little StellaVox through that gorgeous sounding Audio Note gear.
Here's a photo from the session I heard:
<img src="http://www.theanalogdept.com/images/spp6_pics/VSAC08/AN_08_1.jpg"> The sound coming off that little StellaVox was absolutely, ahem, "stellar".

regards,
-Steve

[vinyldavid]

You done VERY good.

nice that you have the 4th head option. Makes life a LOT easier playing those tapes that you find laying around and at flea markets.

And you can do pro live recordings, too....

[braxus]

This is the deck I will be after. But Im looking for a B3 with the 4th head option. If I don't find one of those, I'll go the B2.

[user510]

What's B3 or B2?

-Steve

[user510]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now I gotta start finding some tapes to play. This should be an entertaining new chapter.

-Steve

[Doug_Olitsky]

By the looks of it your BII2 looks nice and the price is w/i the range.

His answer about changing the bulbs is kind of lame. all that needs to be done is remove the knobs, faceplate and then the clear cover over the meters. about 5-10minutes work and another 10 to resolder the bulbs.

He does not want to order the parts... one reason my be $10 (2.50 each) from otari does not meet their $25 min order. or he does not want to source local as the exact value may not be known to him(8v 80ma or about that range)

You want him to switch it to the high speed range for you, you should never really use 3ips.

Will he calibrate it for the high speed range (according tothe manual you should calibrate when switching between ranges.

He says in the add that all features have been calibrated and adjusted. What kind of tape was it calibrated for. I bet he (or his 2 best techs in the country) did not calibrate or he would have stated it.

What shape are the heads in? have they been re-lapped, replaced.

Dont get me wrong it looks like a good condition model, just some of the things you cant see going via mail order.

You'll love it... a great deck

[user510]

Hi Doug.
Thanks for the informative answer. Below is an email I received from the seller this morning.

-Steve


"Hello,
Will do. We have a little catching up to do from the holiday weekend, but it should ship within a few days. We always re-test all of our reel to reels before we send them out, so that will take a day. We'll set it for 7 1/2 and 15 ips for you and email the UPS tracking number when it ships. Thanks for your purchase, John and Craig"

[user510]

Doug,
I've looked through the photos you took on your Otari restoration project. Those help quite a lot to let us see how the deck comes apart. Thanks for those photos! Based on that, I figure I'll be able to change a bulb in one of these sometime soon.

-Steve

[Doug_Olitsky]

courteous, that's good


If you ask for the s/n the 2nd & 3rd digits will tell you the year made.

Any other ?'s just ask

[user510]

Well it took them long enough. The seller apparently has UPS pick-up for him...and UPS didn't pick up the unit until a week after I had received a tracking number.... but it got here ok. That's what matters.

The deck looks very much as it was pictured in the ads. It also works and sounds as the seller described. It has obviously "been around" but everything appears to work, except for one bulb that is out on the left VU meter. Meter works. Seller said this.

I'm a newby to this R2R end of things, so there were a few things I had to figure out just to get started. There was some time I needed to spend with the supplied operations manual (on CD, pdf). Then I found the switch on the head stack that selects between 4-track and 2-track....and after that I could play my meager assortment of 4-track pre-recorded tapes.

(Btw, I rather doubt I'm the one driving the prices of these tapes up on ebay. I've only bought the ones selling for around $5 - $10. 'Can't afford "reel lady". Just sayin' it's not me.)

On these few 7-1/2 ips tapes that I have, the sound is great. I get a sense of rtr sound-versus-vinyl-versus CD. There is a sense of natural flow and musicality that seems to be the essential quality of the tape. Vinyl playback, can sometimes get this right but the playback rig needs to be of very good design.

Anyway, just to complete the thread....it's here and it seems to be a good one.

-Steve