I want to share my fascination with reel-to-reel machines with you. Over the years I’ve gathered twenty of them — each with its own merits, its own quirks, and its own sound. This is where I write about them.
I’m not reviewing gear or ranking anything — I simply enjoy these machines, and I like talking about them. Each write-up covers three things.
The things each machine does beautifully — the engineering, the build, the little details that made me fall for it in the first place.
Why I love them →The odd switches, funny habits, and brave design choices that give every deck its own personality.
What makes them odd →Recordings taken straight off the decks, so you can hear what tape really sounds like — no phone speakers involved.
Have a listen →All twenty of them, each waiting patiently for its own proper write-up. I’ll get to every one in time.
The gateway machine — GX glass heads that simply refuse to wear.
Read the write-upThe isolated-loop legend. The deck people cross a room to look at.
Write-up comingThe Swiss benchmark the rest of the industry measured itself against.
Write-up comingThe everyman classic — half the hobby started on one of these.
Write-up comingIt started with one machine and a box of old tapes. Somewhere along the way it became twenty machines from five countries. Here’s the story — and why I still think tape is worth listening to.
I write these at my own pace, as the mood strikes. If you’d like a little note when the next machine gets its write-up, leave your email — that’s truly all it will ever be used for.