Found on FB for sale: Tascam M-520 & Tascam MS-16

<great_story>
When I bought my MS-16 in 2018, I drove the ~1-1/2 hours to where it was located. The seller was living in one of those Golden Sunset retirement communities. The machine had been found in a friend's storage facility after that friend passed, and the friend had lived in Nashville.

Anyway, the guy had a matching M520 to go with it, which I could have gotten for as little as an additional $125. It was large and heavy, and I didn't need it - still don't, but it was so cheap, I still regret passing on that.
A reel of tape came with the MS-16, with general rambling on it. A few weeks later, the seller emailed me saying he'd found another tape, marked "Merle - Do not erase".
Wanted to know if I was interested in it.
Now, obviously, he thought there was some lost Merle Haggard recording on it, and he wanted me to make an offer for it, unheard. I told him I'd be happy to come get the tape or he could send it to me, and I'd let him know what was on it, and if it was something good, I might be interested.
Never heard from him again.
</great_story>

But the MS-16 is a great machine, esp. if you get it with a rolling cart and the noise reduction units, as I did. I just needed a little cleanup, and it was ready to rock.
 
Hey, thanks for sharing your story, hope you dont mind if I tell my own:
I got my MS-16 in 2021 in a similar fashion. I paid $400 for it in the custom built oak cabinet with the DBX units and ALL mogami snake cables to connect it to the M-520 I got a few weeks earlier from the same older man clearing out his storage (he is 89 and just wanted this stuff to go to a good home, not free but cheap for the right person). He told me he bought the two units together in 1985 or 86. Move up to a Studer in mid 90s just before everything went digital. he closed his studio in mid 2000s, put all in storage. He operated a studio in Orlando FL and although would not give it to me or let me even try it (probably had sticky shed and needed to be baked), he had a demo of Judas Priest coming in to his studio. they were on tour and stopped in, knowing the owner somehow, put something on tape. It said 1986 on the date, labeled “breaking the law demo” (even though I know it was released in like 1980 or something. So I don’t know what it really was but it was labeled that it was recorded on the MS-16, 15ips, DBX on, and even had a track sheet for the M-520. Who knows. I asked him again for it and his friend told me he was done selling and would not let anything else go. :(
That said, I’m glad to know a little history of my units. They are pretty minty fresh, very little wear, just time and cleaning, new capstan roller. I need to calibrate the MS-16 eventually but right now it sounds great. If I had time and money and storage, I’d buy these two just to store them, protect them. The guy with the MS-16 said he’d go $3000 as his lowest, but honestly I think that is still too high since the cost of using these machines is high, especially all the cables, etc. Plus his doesn’t have the DBX units and I think those are mandatory to get a good low noise recording.
 
seankerns said:
<great_story>
When I bought my MS-16 in 2018, I drove the ~1-1/2 hours to where it was located. The seller was living in one of those Golden Sunset retirement communities. The machine had been found in a friend's storage facility after that friend passed, and the friend had lived in Nashville.

Anyway, the guy had a matching M520 to go with it, which I could have gotten for as little as an additional $125. It was large and heavy, and I didn't need it - still don't, but it was so cheap, I still regret passing on that.
A reel of tape came with the MS-16, with general rambling on it. A few weeks later, the seller emailed me saying he'd found another tape, marked "Merle - Do not erase".
Wanted to know if I was interested in it.
Now, obviously, he thought there was some lost Merle Haggard recording on it, and he wanted me to make an offer for it, unheard. I told him I'd be happy to come get the tape or he could send it to me, and I'd let him know what was on it, and if it was something good, I might be interested.
Never heard from him again.
</great_story>

But the MS-16 is a great machine, esp. if you get it with a rolling cart and the noise reduction units, as I did. I just needed a little cleanup, and it was ready to rock.
Click to expand...
This is so strange... Would this have been in Ohio? In April 2018, I purchased an M-520 for that amount from a guy in Ohio and got it hauled down to Louisiana. He told me about these same tapes, and I turned him down -- I only had a TSR8 1/2" deck at the time -- with a humble suggestion that he should find someone in the area with a 1" machine to inspect the tapes. About a month later, regret finally got to me. I reached out to him again hoping to acquire the tapes, but I never got a response.
Anyhow, I've only posted on this forum once before, but I lurk here pretty often. Had to share my side of this story. I performed a full re-cap on the M520 a couple years ago, and I'm proud to say it's still running strong. Fantastic console.
 
Off topic - but why do you like this board - back int he day when they were being made I found them noisy as hell - nd didn't like them very much.
 
I love my M-520. I haven't even re-capped anything in mine and it's quiet as a mouse! I don't know what measurement your statement is based on, but I'm just not seeing it with mine. To each their own, of course. I only paid $150 for mine in near mint condition, so I guess I got lucky and count myself lucky!
 
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