Some parts of my description may seem pretty obvious but I need to give information to the level of both 'beginners' and 'old hands' in the world of reel to reel tape technology ... gloss over the parts that you don't need to know!
Apologies, my photographic skills are not great and the camera is dodgy at best - please excuse the photograph quality. If possible, take a look at the machine in person if you want to check something out for yourself but be warned, I am not about to move this BEAST OF A MACHINE around too much, it is damn heavy (33Kg)!
HISTORY:
One of a number of tape machines we had in the 'old days 1980 ~ 2010' - Studer 810/820's, B67's, OTARI's (2" down to 1/4") and of course TASCAM (the professional division of TEAC Japan)
While a wonderful workhorse in days gone past (and still very nice for those who like to sit in the analog domain), it has been 'resting' for a number of years.
I have finally had a spare moment to check out a few things, it is VITAL that anyone who is interested read this description thoroughly!
Unlike so many other advertisement I see, particularly for professional equipment, I do check out and describe everything to the smallest detail - no-one would buy a car if the description just said "white, with 4 wheels" and the prospective buyer deserves to know all the "in's and out's"
Our previous audio post production facilities was NOT a recording studio but we were very active in the world of transferring media and 'pulling' audio off valuable tapes and saving to a more stable form - safety copies. For this reason we had a number of beautiful 'dream' machines from Studer, Revox, Otari and Tascam ranging from 2 track up to 16 track machines so we could handle just about any format. Most of the machines have now either been parted out (easier to send internationally) or sold locally but this Tascam MSR-16 is now our 'orphan' - sitting here, looking for a new, caring owner.
While we were using the machine (up until around 2010) it had regular service by both myself (for the mundane tasks such as head/pinch roller cleaning) and regular service checkups by Teac Australia, Professional Division. I did have some service receipts from them but I cannot locate them yet! If you saw the audio jungle here at the house, you would understand why!
Nice reliable machine with a build quite similar to the Studer, nicely engineered and casing which is built to ensure a rigid stable transport system, but the side effect of this is the weight - this is one heavy beastie!
Tascam introduced these machines in the late 1980's, their main competition being Fostex at the time.
Enough of the intro blurb .... let's get down to the nuts and bolts
TASCAM - Multi-track Reel To Reel Tape Recorder/Player
Model: MSR-16
Rack mountable
1/2" media
16 tracks can be written to or read off the tape
Dual speed: 7.5 & 15 ips
DBX Type I built in
16 channel inputs and outputs are all UNBALANCED on RCA connectors at the rear
Tension arms and rollers to ensure smooth tape travel to assist with tape travel speed variation
Front panel channel level displays (bargraph) for all channels
Individual channel selection
Electronic tape counter
Of course there is a lot more to this machine but I think it is unnecessary to describe these specifications further, those who are interested will already know these machines quite well.
Just to help out with more information, try the link HERE for a review of this model
ITEMS SUPPLIED:
Tascam MSR-16 Machine
10.5" metal Ampex take up reel (empty)
IEC power cable to suit
ITEMS NOT SUPPLIED:
Supply reel with or without tape *** see why below in my technical testing description
Let's get on with the ACTUAL condition ...
COSMETIC CONDITION:
CLEAN
Minor (normal) scratches here and there but NOTHING is serious
NO DENTS! (It hasn't been dropped although this would be easy to do)
All buttons are present and accounted for (Sir)
Front panel of the channel VU meters and the tape counter are not cracked or scratched
I took the top casing off to look inside, oh dear it needs a bit of a dust out (in my opinion) it is not really bad but if it was me I would rather have that dust out of there! Potential for future problems)
TECHNICAL TESTING:
First up, for those who don't know these are just a big mechanical system designed to supply tape on the left, pass across the heads and be taken up by the reel on the right. It is vitally important that this tape moves at a precise and constant speed, otherwise your recordings will be pretty useless!
First things to degrade over time are the pinch roller and this machine is no exception. I will supply the old pinch roller but whatever you do, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE IT - the rubber has gone gooey, horrible black rubber will be left everywhere. I will supply the old pinch roller 'just in case it is needed for size comparisions"
Next I looked at the heads, particularly the R/W head. The wear seems to be very low indeed, actually I don't think we used this machine much at all by the look of the heads and additionally you can tell by the shape of the gap if the system is not aligned properly - I see no issues through uneven wear at all. Same applies to the erase head assembly.
Now I found myself with a problem - I had intended to run up some old studio master tapes but then realised that the reels for those tapes will not fit on this machine!!! Sad because the other 16 track machines have now gone so I have advertised the larger reel (14") loaded with tape separately HERE - if you were desperate for tape (Ampex 456) you could run off most from the larger reel and use that but you will still need a 10/5" metal reel for the supply side.
So, this is what I did to test the machine within my limitations of no tape or suitably sized reel on the supply side of the machine.
The tension rollers to the left and right control the tape motion - when they sense tape tension, they enable the transport to run. This is the key to testing without a supply reel/tape fitted.
I turned on the machine, power ON-OFF works fine (sometimes these can stick, this one doesn't)
The MSR-16 goes through a 'self test' (all the LED's come on) and if everything is ok, the LED's all go out except for a couple. Of course the tape counter stays alight all the time.
No issues here - everything indicates exactly as it should.
I then selected every single channel, all 16 channels can be enabled or disabled as required.
I then pumped a test tone into each channel and made sure the VU meter for that channel was working, all good here too.
I next held down the left tension roller and at the same time the right tension roller (partially) and pushed play - all fine, both reel tables rotate as they should. Of course I could not check the speed but when I changed the speed button at the front panel, the transport responds correctly.
Next I did the same trick with fast forward and rewind, again everything is working fine.
So on the surface of it, the machine is still 'ready to do some work' albiet once a new pinch roller is fitted (very easy to do)
Oh, those pinch rollers can be had online for around A$120 or so, actually you can fit just the outer tire instead of the whole roller if you wanted to but make absolutely sure that the replacement is brand new and close to the original Tascam specifications - no good buying a new pinch roller that doesn't last the course.
So that is about the best description I can give on this equipment, it's a real shame I couldn't run audio off tape but that's life ...
So what are these things worth now? I remember back in the dark ages this machine cost us a small fortune (although still much less than a beautiful Studer!) and there seems to be some demand for these machines - yeah for analog!
I have tried to make the asking price fair and reasonable and don't forget, the Australia wide shipping cost is INCLUDED. If by some good fortune you are able to pickup the machine from my location in Western Sydney, all the better and I will shave off A$200 because I don't need to pack it up (scary) and ship it (also scary)
If you are picking up, you need to RESERVE this equipment in the checkout area and add METOPICKUP discount code, this will deduct $200 from the item amount at the time of checkout.
I have seen so many 'buyers' miss out because they waited and prayed that no-one else would buy the item I have for sale but the 'smart cookies' just go to the checkout, go through the checkout process and then NOBODY else can grab it - it is yours!
