TEAC A-2300 SD Rides Again!

[Lance Lawson]

I purchased my TEAC A-2300 SD new in early 1979. It saw considerable service for about 5 years in a variety of venues, from home demo recordings of mine to live theater recordings and some live audio performances. I acquired a great many reels of late 70's early 80's tape and unfortunately many of those tapes are no longer playable. However most of the important ones somehow survived. In any event the TEAC was in dead storage for a decade and a half as I concentrated on putting together my home studio which is PC based. However in spite of having some good very modern equipment the old TEAC was always in the back of my mind and one day I promised I'd put it back into service. Well that day came. The lion's share of making the TEAC servicable was simply cleaning it throughly both inside and out and servicing all of the switches and pots. One nagging problem however was getting the pinch roller to engage as it had become very lazy. A through cleaning and lubrication put it right. After getting it sorted out I also dug out my Technics SU-7300 amplifer purchased within a month of the TEAC. For a listening medium I located the pristine reel to reel copy of Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde that I made on the then brand new TEAC from a brand new only been played once (for that recording) LP original pressing. The listening was sublime simply out of this world. After being in a virtually 100% digital audio domain for over a decade coming back to first rate quality analog tape was a revelation. Now if I can only find some tape......

[The Ghost of FM]

ipods might be cute and popular but they sure aren't as elegant!

Nice looking gear, Lance!

Cheers!

[Richard King]

That was the second reel to reel machine that I owned, the first being an Ampex consumer model. The Teac was far superior. I still own its big brother, the A-3300SX. It sits beside me on my desk but rarely gets any use. Like you, I have a closet full of unplayable tapes of records that I recorded, most on the first play.

[Rich Smith]

Originally Posted by Lance Lawson

I purchased my TEAC A-2300 SD new in early 1979........ The listening was sublime simply out of this world. After being in a virtually 100% digital audio domain for over a decade coming back to first rate quality analog tape was a revelation. Now if I can only find some tape......

CONGRATULATIONS!!

I think the latest "new" tape discussion is here: http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=285353

There's even a link to a reputable authorized supplier.

Rich Smith

[sweetbeats]

Lance,

Welcome, and thanks for sharing your story!

Nice looking gear.

Pretty neat that the 2300 needed relatively little after 15 years in storage. That is a testament.

I, like you, started in an analog world and then moved to digital for a variety of reasons. I was using a Teac 3340S. Digital was more portable, quieter as far as the noise floor, and had all those editing features and effects and processing plugins that I just knew I needed. After many years (about 15 as well) and a bit of recording including two full length projects I was increasingly dissatisfied with what digital was doing to the sounds especially with dynamic sources like percussion. Test drove an ailing Tascam 238 cassette 8-track and even in its sad state I still had more fullness and warmth than I knew what to do with, and it tolerated dynamics in such a more natural way. When I listen back to old recordings I did on the 3340S they remain a benchmark even though I knew nothing at the time about setting the deck up and knew little about good recording techniques. Still a newbie but at least I know that much now.

Congrats on getting your 2300 going, and again, welcome.

BTW, I use RMGI tape and I get it from US Recording Media. After looking at the manuals for your deck I think you can run 1.5mil tape or 1mil tape on the 2300. That would be (for +6 high output tape) RMGI SM911 or LPR35 respectively. I've had good experiences with both RMGI tape and US Recording Media.

[Lance Lawson]

Originally Posted by sweetbeats

Lance,

Welcome, and thanks for sharing your story!

Nice looking gear.

Pretty neat that the 2300 needed relatively little after 15 years in storage. That is a testament.

I, like you, started in an analog world and then moved to digital for a variety of reasons. I was using a Teac 3340S. Digital was more portable, quieter as far as the noise floor, and had all those editing features and effects and processing plugins that I just knew I needed. After many years (about 15 as well) and a bit of recording including two full length projects I was increasingly dissatisfied with what digital was doing to the sounds especially with dynamic sources like percussion. Test drove an ailing Tascam 238 cassette 8-track and even in its sad state I still had more fullness and warmth than I knew what to do with, and it tolerated dynamics in such a more natural way. When I listen back to old recordings I did on the 3340S they remain a benchmark even though I knew nothing at the time about setting the deck up and knew little about good recording techniques. Still a newbie but at least I know that much now.

Congrats on getting your 2300 going, and again, welcome.

BTW, I use RMGI tape and I get it from US Recording Media. After looking at the manuals for your deck I think you can run 1.5mil tape or 1mil tape on the 2300. That would be (for +6 high output tape) RMGI SM911 or LPR35 respectively. I've had good experiences with both RMGI tape and US Recording Media.

The moment of "question" concerning digital came after my major equipment updating around 2 years ago. The purchase list included several semi expensive condenser mics, as well as one VERY expensive LDC mic that bears my last name although I'm not connected to the mic maker. However after getting my room to be a very nice acoustic space and having a very decent mixer and sound card I felt I was able to record at somewhere near the state of the art. I suppose I accomplished that goal but the downside was that kind of "generic digital sound" where everything sounds the same regardless of what digital device you're playing it back on. For want of a better term I'd say I began missing the supple nature of analog tape audio.

[vincedog3]

Wow that really is nice Lance. These are the A-2300 SD's cousins.

. Love the old 2000 and 3000,4000,6000 machines. So beautifully built. Great sound too.

[Lance Lawson]

Vincedog3

Wow those are gorgeous! I almost bought the TEAC 3300 but bought the 2300 SD because of the DOLBY. I'm anxiously waiting for my new supply of RMGI 468 that's due any day now. Tests I performed with my TEAC vs my M-Audio Delta 66 sound card showed that even when recording at the high sampling rate of 96/24 the TEAC still sounds better than the digital recording! I'm exploring the possibility of modifying the 2300 to run @ 10ips for certain live recordings.