.........."was after the straightforward 85 16 (orange) waiting for it to be fully serviced, then the (B) model showed up ready to go, so I've ended up with a grey one. Apparently there was a technical error in the colour choice, it was never meant to be orange, but its one of those things that doesn't really need changing I guess....."
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I always like the whole 1" Tascam history. It was so radical when it came out and it was SO hated by pro studios....and simultaneously, completely UNAFFORDABLE to most regular musicians of the day....it was almost like a format with NO market. The people who could afford it wouldn't touch it. Anyone who might want it couldn't afford it....such interesting days those were! I always pictured the bigwigs in Japan sitting in a conference room yelling at each other...."what are we doing? NOBODY'S gonna buy this!!!"
The 85-15b ...of which I've owned since new...as well as the original 85-16 I first owned.. is a wonderful machine..a real tank. With parts still readily available ..at least here at Teac in California.
The 1st version 85-16 was slightly hampered in it's monitoring capability for punch-ins. The "b" added 16 more buttons on the function selector panel (32 buttons total + 16 more led indicators), giving much more choice in how the monitoring would kick in/out during recording or punch-ins. Otherwise, circuitry/motors are the same in both machines.
Either machine is nice in that the function selector (and aq-85 autolocator if you can find one) can be moved twenty or so feet away from the recorder.
As to the color scheme, since I was there at the time in 1976-77, was this...
The only models of "original" 8516's that had the orange sides/legs were the first shipment of prototypes put together here in California (and maybe a few other countries at the time) from the parts shipped from Japan.
There is the story about the orange color being a "mistake", but I don't remember conversations about it back in those days...and being that these were the prototype "test" machines, I almost think the orange designation may have been on purpose in order to keep all these field test machines separate from the upcoming commercial production run. Whatever the deal was, the orange color was only around for a very short time...I remember that real well. I bought one of the very first machines actually available for sale (at about a minute after Tascam said, "okay, people can buy them now") and was surprised when I opened the wood crate that the machine was brown (no orange..which was okay with me).
The 85-16 test period was going on almost at the same time as the tests for the 90-16..which was kinda weird at the time. It was v-e-r-y difficult for Tascam to convince "real" studios that 1" 16 track was any good...so they threw those orange 85-16's into practically any studio that would agree to "try one out". I think a lot of people don't understand that the 1" machines were considered to be a total joke by the real studios of the day.
Tascam really had their work cut out for them in trying to get these things placed in the market. They were in a tough position with the 85-16....The 90-16 had already been tested but pro studios with the bucks weren't really indicating that they'd buy 1" anything in mass quantity...and at $15,000 each for a new 85-16, your local neighborhood guitar player circa 1977 wasn't exactly plunking out the cash for the machine and building his home studio like the lucky folks of today can do.
There were about 10-15 of these "orange" versions as I heard it...some put in studios for month-long tests/evaluations....and also shown at the trade shows ...AES for example..where Tascam used to sync up two or three 85-16's with adams smith synchronizers in their display booth...very impressive for those days.
But I remember one New York AES at the Waldorf Astoria that was kind of a drag. Tascam was in this little room with all these 85-16's running and the room was really uncomfortable...super hot in there. 85-16's do run very warm (in fact you may want to aim a small fan at the back where the heat sinks are or make sure you're running the machine in plenty of air conditioning).
As I say, when the actual production run started, the original 85-16's shipped to dealers were brown...two or three shades of it..mostly dark...like on that ebay ad. The orange was gone except on some of the logos.
The 85-16b had a much more pleasing color scheme of tan and brown with orange lettering.
