Ah, the good old B16, I keep one in the corner of the trackingroom, a great sounding machine but beware. Parts are expensive and hard to get, so make sure the head is in a good condition, for a new head is very expensive, if not impossible to get.
Besides that, the Fostex is mechanically inferior to the Tascam MSR series, which is rocksolid, built like a tank and the head last twice as long as a Fostex.
But the Fostex sounds a tad better, the G series are elecronically superior to the Tascam. the 1" 24 track G24S sounds even better than some 2" machines.
I've bought a brand new Tascam MSR24S back in 1992, recorded some 600 CD's and demo's before it needed a new head ($3000) in 1997. Soon after the head got replaced for a new one I bought a 2" Otari in 1998 and since then the MSR only got used as a (fast) meter bridge, because the led meters are much faster than the VU meters on the board.
This week a guy from EMI came to my place with some 25 I inch Agfa PER 555 tapes from the sixties with no documenting, tracksheets or whatever.
The assignment is to find out what's on these tapes, so I put them on the good old MSR, switched of the NR and these tapes run like new, the MSR runs like in 1992 after not being used for recording for seven years.
It turnes out the tapes are 4 track recordings with some classic recordings, quite interesting.
Anyway,
the Fostex B16 still rests in the corner, but the Tascam really is an amazingly reliable machine, it has never let me down for a split second.
