If you’re based in North America and in the market for a tape deck, you might want to check out RX Reels’ website. The company, run by Kevin Root and based in the Pacific North-West, specialises in crafting premium quality carbon fibre tape reels. In addition, they’ve also now branched out into retailing a number of tape decks, including a couple of brand new ones and some refurbs.
You can browse their current decks for sale at https://rxreels.com/collections/decks
The decks are being sold by RX Reels thanks to various ‘affiliate partner’ relationships: with Reel to Reel Haven in the case of the refurbs, while the new decks are from Sonorus Audio (the ATR10 MkII) and Analog Audio (the TP-1000).
The benefit (to you) of buying via RX Reels is that you can get a free, premium quality – and very classy-looking – carbon fibre RX Reel thrown in (I can vouch for their quality, I have some myself). You need to specify that you want a particular ‘bundle’ to get the reel – details are on the relevant web page for each of the decks for sale (via the link above).
There’s also a good blog article on the new Sonorus Audio ATR10 MkII (which was also recently included in The Absolute Sound’s annual Buyers’ Guide, in the November issue), which Root describes as offering “one of the most compelling feature sets on today’s market”. You can check out the blog here: https://rxreels.com/blogs/news/inside-the-atr10-mkii-tape-deck-from-sonorus-audio
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 