Help choosing please!

[Oldschool1]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post here on HR and I'm looking forward to sharing and learning from everyone. I'm trying to decide between 1/4 and 1/2 track for my new tape machine. I had a TEAC X2000R before but sold it. This was 3 yrs ago. I'm wanting to get back into lightning to analog tape again.

I've narrowed my decision down to the following machines. I've found excellent specimens of both in the $850 - $900 range.
Otari MX 5050 BII
Heavy duty industrial grade. 1/2 track. etc...

TEAC X1000R
Attractive, 1/4 track. Lots of features. etc...

They are both good machines. My purpose is strictly for home listening, and recording off CD's. The tape I'd like to use is ATR MDS-36 since it's a longer tape. Also I have some ATR Studio Master to use. It's hard to decide which will be the best for me and since buying both is out of my budget, I need opinions from an expert on prescribing the right fit. With the 3600 ft tape, I believe that will give me ample recording time. Tape hiss is something I absolutely don't want.

I realize both machines will sound great but which will;
Sound better?
Smooth operation?
Gentle on tape?
More reliable?
Availability of parts and service?
Cost of parts?
Ease of learning to service most things myself?

I'm ready to pull the trigger on one of these machines unless you guys have a better idea. My budget is about $1000.00

I'm keeping my mind open until I lay down the money. Regardless of what I end up with, it will see a local engineer confirming it has arrived in the condition represented...

Wha do you guys think?

 

[miroslav]

The TEAC was/is more of your home stereo system tape deck...has all kinds of features, auto-reverse, etc...and would be fine for what you want it for.

The Otari (I have a BIII the last model ever made) is more of a pro deck, and the 1/2 track format is one aspect of that.
They are workhorses and sound quite good.

I think it all comes down to the condition of either deck when you find them.

One thing I'm curious about...why are you recording CDs to tape?
I mean...what is it that you are hoping to gain from that?
It's not going to improve the quality of the CD audio...and you're going to spend a lot of $$$ on the deck plus the tapes.
Recording to tape works best when you are dealing with the original source or at least some analog source...
...but hey, whatever works for you.

I use my BIII for stereo mixdowns...and THEN i convert that to digital audio for CD.

 

[Oldschool1]

The TEAC was/is more of your home stereo system tape deck...has all kinds of features, auto-reverse, etc...and would be fine for what you want it for.

The Otari (I have a BIII the last model ever made) is more of a pro deck, and the 1/2 track format is one aspect of that.
They are workhorses and sound quite good.

I think it all comes down to the condition of either deck when you find them.

One thing I'm curious about...why are you recording CDs to tape?
I mean...what is it that you are hoping to gain from that?
It's not going to improve the quality of the CD audio...and you're going to spend a lot of $$$ on the deck plus the tapes.
Recording to tape works best when you are dealing with the original source or at least some analog source...
...but hey, whatever works for you.

I use my BIII for stereo mixdowns...and THEN i convert that to digital audio for CD.

I cannot make the decision based on condition as they are both considered mint or at least a 9 out of 10. They're within $100 of each other. That's what makes it such a hard choice and why I listed questions.

Recording CD's onto tape smooths out the harshness of the CD. If you think about the signal from a a CD, it's a saw tooth sign wave. Transferring it to analog media smooths out the saw tooth yielding a warmer, smoother sound. I have a real nice REGA Apollo R transport and it sounds pretty darn nice. Does it sound better than my Oppo BDP-103? Well since I just installed to Apollo in my system, the jury is still out. It's pretty close! I know there will be a different "feel" to the sound once it's recorded on analog. When I had my last R2R, the X2000R, I recorder many CD's and listen to the "source/tape" comparison and there was a definite improvement.

There's the long answer to your short question. Lol