I've driven by it several times in the past decade...that ginormous "TEAC" sign. It lost something for me when I knew they had shut down the analog support department and let some good people go. But now it's gone altogether and that seems weird. One of the times I passed by it was in 2008 when I drove down from Oregon to pick up the Tascam "M-__" prototype console from forum member shoulderpain. I always felt neat knowing the console's birth place and wondering if there was still anything related to the console there...maybe technical documents shoved in an archive box shoved in a closet...or scrapped bits of test modules...I always had this dream of initiating some correspondence hopefully leading to a trip down there to see if there was anything related onsite. It probably couldn't have come to fruition...calls I made down there shortly after bringing the console home revealed no interest in my exciting acquisition, no solid information about the console or project...disinterest, really. But now for sure it won't happen...and if there actually was anything tucked away there it has gone in a dumpster. I feel kind of sad actually.
But no, Dave...this is the first I'm aware Teac in Montebello, CA is gone. They still have means of contacting them for support, parts, etc. I suspect they relocated operations to somewhere else...I suspect they are continuing to focus their products away from the professional or contractor markets. Their high definition field recorders are really the only product I've seen as of late that is high end. And to think it's the same company that produced the ATR80 2" tape machine...it was a really good machine.
The company that essentially created the home and project studio market, that doggedly innovated affordable open-reel and cassette multitrack units and mixing consoles for the everyman disappeared a long time ago in my crotchety brain.
