AN: More photographies

They were shot two days ago.

AN: Photographies

I know that in the last weeks I didn't update the blog, but I've been busy with lot of work during week and most of the remaining time has been spent in my hobbies. Also here is very very hot and sunny, during the day it's 30 ºC (measured in shadow) and my home is most of the time shot by the sun.

I finally bought some tools to help me to repair and calibrate reel to reel decks, including scopemeter, millivoltmeter, tentelometer and digital weight scale. Soon I want to write a complete article about all the DIN plugs of the Uher 4400 Report Monitor. I made most of of the adapters for my unit and I'll share all the info I've got, including about the Z124 charger.

But until that day, I'll put here some pics shot during these days.

My second Pioneer RT-707 with ReVox 7" metal blue reels




Uher 4400 Report Monitor






Recording trains into the Uher 4400 Report Monitor






Two Pioneer RT-909

AN: Pioneer RT-909 black edition

As most people know, the Pioneer RT-909 was the top of the line of the brand, and unlike other brands, it was only released in silver finish.
That's was the supposed truth for a long time, but after watching in some movies the Pioneer RT-707 in black finish I questioned myself if also existed a RT-909 in black.



A few time ago I discovered an auction for a Pioneer RT-909 in black. That wasn't the first time that I found a black one, but was the first time that the finish looked not DIY, looked as an authentic black RT-909. After reading the text of the auction I realized that this was a personal project made with lot of care, effort and expensive, but with professional results.

I contacted the seller (Mr. V. in advance) to ask about the story of this unit and he told me than he always wanted a RT-909 in black and he saw one 20 years ago in a goverment institution. It was brand new and boxed. The box said "Pioneer RT-909", not "Pioneer RT-909B" or "Pioneer RT-909K" as usually do the brands to identity the black units, but in the corner there were a small text: "black".

The black RT-909 wasn't released to the consumer market, so only goverments and some professional sectors were able to order it. Mr. V. wanted a black RT-909 and after long time he finally decided to make a professional looking project with a friend to convert the silver face into a black face.




Their priority was to get a very high finish quality, not an amateur job. They tried the modification to black in different factories specialized in anodization processes and front printings, but the result was just good. Good were not enough for them, they wanted the perfection. A huge problem was the lettering on the front face because they found a very similar font but not the exact match. Another problem was the material used in the original front face that they used for the modification. Sometimes in some fronts hadn't enough aluminium consistency and sometimes appeared "clouds". It's more difficult to get a perfect black anodized surface than a silver one.



After a long research and a huge waste of material, they ended in the factory where also the big brands like Burmester and T+A do their cases and fronts. That factory knew how to do the things right and get the exact original font match and text placement on the front and obtain a very high resisting printing in silver color, which looks better than white color print.



Lot of problems appeared along the project, specially with the head cover, because it wasn't able to be converted to black, so it was needed to make the piece doing a 3D scanning and reproducing it in very high detail to get the black anodized head cover.



But this black Pioneer RT-909 has something that the original one never had: the wireless remote controller. Yes, all transport functions can be operated from a wireless remote controller and the result is amazing because it was done with the idea of an add-on, so there isn't neccesary to make new holes or lot of soldering. The infrared receiver sensor is placed just together with the fluorescent meter, so it uses the same window and a perfect reception is obtained.

All the electronics needed were profesionally made, even the remote controller



As a result of a long project and after lots of hours of design and job, here is the result: a black pearl, a black Pioneer RT-909 with high quality finish and outstanding perfection. Do you want more?, because there's more. The heads were relapped and aligned by JRF, so they are in perfect shape and perfectly aligned.

Here are some pics of the final result of this project.











This project wasn't made just for one unit but just a few of them. They are very limited and maybe when you read this lines, there is no more left, but if you feel lucky, are a serious collector and want to try to get a black Pioneer RT-909 or to get the wireless remote control kit to add to your Pioneer RT-909, send me an email.

AN: My old stereo system

Back 'a few years ago' owned a 70's stereo system composed by vynil, CD, cassette and open reel. Don't remember the model of the Pioneer receiver, but the rest were:

• Open reel deck: Teac A-2050
• Cassette deck : Pioneer CT-F600
• LP turntable: Grundig PS 2000
• CD player: Technics SLPG-200A

I've just found and old pic of that era. Here is:

AN: Some photographies

From time to time I enjoy taking shots of different things with my camera, and of course, this includes all related things with the reel to reel world.

Here are some that I took a few days ago:


Blue Open Reel




Fluorescent Blue Meters




The Ghost of the Pioneer RT-909




Dancing Open Reel Tape

AN: I want to know your opinion

It's anybody out there?

After more than nine months online, I'd like to know the opinions of the readers about this blog and which posts do you prefer (videos, recognize reel to reel players in movies and series, descriptions... etc).

Do you think there are some missing type of posts that could be interesting to include in the blog?

This time is your time, the time where you can write and tell me your opinion. To do this, just click over the word "comments" that is located at the end of each post and type your text where it says "Leave your comment". You can signature your comment selecting only one of the types of identity (google/blogger, OpenID, Name/URL, Anonymous).

Thanks in advance.

AN: Darth Vader's RTR deck

A few days a go I bought a pair of ReVox black metal NAB hub adapters to use with the Grundig TS-1000, but looking at them, I thought that the black color reminded me to Darth Vader, so I started to think how would be his reel to reel deck if it had appeared in the movie.

As most of us know, TEAC decks were used in the production of the movie to record some special effects. In Star wars movie, a deck with digital counter would be on expected and of course, big reels.

My final guess is the following one:

- Teac X-2000R BL(lack)
- ReVox black metal NAB hub adapters
- 10.5" red metal reels

I could use another black faced deck, like the Grundig TS-1000, but as it has analog counters, the best scene would be a Teac X-2000, a Akai GX-747 or a Technics RS-1800. Since I have a Teac X-2000R BL, here are the shots:








Of course, the deck is playing "The Imperial March".

AN: Designing Akai R2R decks

Imagine an Akai GX-635 with the metallic front in red color, a reels cover in silver with a small window to see the reels spinning.

All this and more was thought by the Akai's designers somewhere in the past.

To view the picture with more detail, click here to access a high resolution image.

AN: Find the differences

Today I've sat in the bench two identical decks to check why one seemed to be faster than the other one.

After doing some electrical measurements, the voltage is more or less the same, even the slowest deck gets more volts in the reel motors and they rotate "without" friction, the same as the other compared deck.

In a first time I thought that there were some electrical problem in the deck, but after doing the measures into the two decks, all doubts were resolved: they both are in good state.

However, one is faster than the other one during RWD and the back tension has been revised.

Do you like to find differences between two images?. Look carefully, they seem identical, but there are differences: