Falken, you just want me to hold off so you can get your hands on that Otari for yourself. Just kidding
Checked it out. The guy is a young, Christian pastor, has a little digital setup in his room. The Otari and an MCI board he got on a trade from a studio awhile back. No regular tape to test it with, only test tape. Which was good except for I have seen my first live case of sticky shed, and BAD. Man, the tape crystalized on site.
Otari...a couple of lights in the meters were out, no big deal. Heads seemed decent but not flawless. I noticed one small mark and a couple of very faint but noticeable striations on rec and play heads. It played, FF, Rew fine. The take up reel when operating was a little off-balance leading to a noticeable rub of the edge of tape at every revolution. I pushed the takeup reel and it may have had a little play, ever so slight but still present, back and forth, which may have been causing the rub. Cosmetically it was in very good condition, especially after a little cleaning. Oh yeah, and a little intermittently noisy during FF and REW, like something needed lubrication in the moving parts. My MSR is almost silent except for the whoosh of wind from the reels moving. Hmmm.
I just can't bid without consulting my tech first, though, not having tape to test the record functions. Very nice guy though.
I may take your advice Falken. Now I like the JM47, but have not compared it to anything better. I think it sounds nice, but maybe I should look. It's not that I have money burning a hole in my pocket, it's just that $1500 for a nice 2" machine was definitely, and still may be, worth looking at.
oh yeah, like someone mentioned, this is an honest young guy who doesn't really know what he has, but my guess is it would need a good servicing at a minimum, and I considering myself honest as well, told him I wouldn't feel comfortable buying it without knowing exactly what it needed, no matter how much or little.