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In Reply to: RE: Pioneer RT-707 posted by M3 lover on May 18, 2025 at 07:00:47
What is your point? Are you thinking of buying it?
The Pioneer decks looked cool. Their sound quality was decent.
But, if you're looking for a nice deck from that era, I'd be looking for an Akai or a Tandberg.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Follow Ups:
was simply to share.
Probably everyone who reads this site knows more about R2R than I do. As I admitted, my knowledge is very limited
For the reason Victor mentioned, plus that single audition, I remember them. But I was not trying to sell anything.
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho
:)I know. We just can't help ourselves. LOL
I've been into reel-to-reel since high school, and I'm now a semi-geezer, so, that's a long time.
Just to clarify, my complaint about Pioneer is their electronics. Their stuff just doesn't sound that good. Circuit design, parts choices, etc. Their stuff always looked cool, though, and they had great marketing. If you were a college kid in the '70s, and you had a Pioneer amp and tape deck (707 or 909), and a Dual turntable, you had "the best" stereo in the dorm.
:)
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Edits: 05/22/25
You could not help but look at it and everyone wanted it.
Apparently its novelty is still have not worn out, and every new generation of hobbyists desires it. It definitely is a successful design in that regard.
That kind of appeal was later mimicked rather successfully by the Technics RS-1500 line.
People naturally fall for something that lies outside the mainstream.
Many other machines follow pretty much the same formula, hard to tell apart, but the 707 and the RS-1500 you can tell right away.
"Technics RS-1500 line.
I used to have a (used) RS-1500, but in the end I sold it, couldn't get on with the output volume level control being linked to the (recording and playback) meters not being independent, and had problems wit the brakes and it needed a new rubber capstan wheel, sound wise I really liked the sound, I now have a nice Nakamichi ZX-9.
Regards,
Mike.
Plastic... plastic... sheet metal... more plastic... Its construction is flimsy. Good sound, but no reliability.
Akai... the typical pitfall these days is their GX heads, many of which by now have cracks - which are not repairable.
The 707 in decent condition often sports asking price in the $1000 range.
At the same time a nice clean Revox A77 can be had for half that amount, and it is a TOTALLY different machine, clearly displaying its professional roots.
Even a B77 can be had for less than $1000 with some luck. And these are designed by real engineers.
In Pioneer line I would rather consider the RT-1020, which can be had for less in good condition - I sold two clean ones, one for $300 to a friend, the other one for $500 on ebay. They have better construction, more traditional layout and can take larger, 10.5" reels.
Their weak spot is the drive function keys - that mechanical gizmo is prone to breakage due to its plastic parts becoming brittle with time, and they are very hard to repair.
This is where Teac beats them hands down with its logic control. So I definitely recommend their A-series machines - robust and more affordable.
The Tandberg which I bought (new) in 1973-74 was a great tape deck. I don't remember the model number. Full logic transport controls, really good sound quality. I special-ordered it as a two-track deck.
My earlier Roberts (Akai) deck was built like a tank, and sounded very good. I still have the Buddy Rich concert which I recorded on it with my AKG D222 microphones back in 1971. That was my first tape deck.
You can not sell me a Pioneer 707 ever. Cool-looking deck, but average sound.
My now-45 year old Revox A77 MK-IV is still working like a champ, and sounds great. Not as great as an Ampex ATR-100, but still great.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
...until I opened one up. Its internal construction reminds you mostly of a cheap consumer VCR.
I have one, the desirable high speed 2-track model, and it does sound very good, but if you look at its reproduce circuit you will scratch your head in disbelief.
Roberts was one of the pioneers, it was a really nice recorder for its time, but it did not have the GX heads.
We agree on the A77 - a proven workhorse, easy to service, parts widely available, universally loved.
The Roberts model which I had was made by Akai. I didn't know it at the time, it just seemed like a well-made deck, much better than the Magnavox which the salesman wanted to sell to me. This was before Akai was imported to the U.S. under its own name. (1968-69.) (Schoeps microphones had a similar marketing setup - marketed in the U.S. under the Studer name, so my dual-pattern condensers which I bought in ~1979 say "Studer", which is actually kinda cool. ;) )
I later bought the A77 because my contemporary music mentor (Rainer Boesch) had two of them (with speakers) and we did all kinds of recording and sound manipulating with them. It has a few shortcomings for serious recording - no XLR inputs, and splicing/editing is a pain. The brake bands require someone with a knowledge of them when it comes time to replace them. Otherwise, it's a great and reliable deck!
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
But once you look inside you know it was designed by the professional tape recorder designers, there are many elements of the pro design in it - things such as sturdy die cast construction, modular design.
Which is much more than you can say about many other "semi-pro" machines, many of them were simply slightly pumped up consumer models.
Regarding the lack of XLR's - it is better to be honest and just provide good quality RCA than cheat and create a mediocre XLR solution - like that in the PR99.
Please don't misunderstand - I totally get the "semi-pro" aspect.
But, still, for a deck of that quality, I wish it weren't such a pain to do splicing on!!
I know, decades ago, there was a third-party modification to change the frontal design to better accommodate editing. Maybe it was good, maybe it was crap - I didn't pursue it.
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
This is not a deck for editing, no argument... but look at Technics promoting their RS-1800 as a PRO model... try to do editing on THAT one. :)
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