Up to 84% in savings when you subscribe to The Absolute Sound
Logo Close Icon

Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.

2023 Editors’ Choice: Tape Decks

J-Corder Technics 1500

J-Corder Technics 1500

$7495 ($9490 with enhanced record/playback option)

If you are interested in archiving your precious vinyl, this completely rebuilt, highly reliable Technics prosumer reel-to-reel deck will make you think that the taped copies are better than the originals. A second playback head and external electronics are needed to play prerecorded CCIR-compatible tapes, like those from Tape Project. A wide range of options makes further customization a breeze. Forthcoming

Sonorus Audio ATR10

Sonorus Audio ATR10

$19,995

A modern two-track, 15ips, quarter-inch tape deck based on the venerable Revox PR99 chassis, which uses the same mechanical parts as the Studer/Revox professional machines and entirely new electronics, including tape drive, power supplies, and playback circuits. Warm and beautiful sounding, the tube-amplified ATR10 is a virtual plug-and-play device. Just connect to your linestage and you can access the highest-fidelity source material currently on the market. JV

United Home Audio Ultima 5

United Home Audio Ultima 5

$34,500 (optional OPS-DC outboard DC power supply, $6500)

High-quality 15ips reel-to-reel tapes are (direct-to-disc LPs aside) the ne plus ultra of analog sources—unrivaled in fidelity, musicality, and, alas, expense. If you can afford genuine first- or second-generation dubs of great mastertapes, then you can also afford a deck that plays them back with all their fidelity and musicality intact. In JV’s experience, Greg Beron’s UHA Ultima 4 OPS-DC was just such a product—one of the highest-fidelity source components JV had heard, with phenomenal bass power and extension, matchlessly continuous dynamics top to bottom, unrivaled resolution, astonishing transient speed, and simply gorgeous tone color. However, Greg’s latest tape deck, the Ultima5 OPS-DC simply beats his previous wunderkind out in every possible way, approaching (though not quite equalizing) the glories of Greg’s SuperDeck (from which it borrows some of its technology). For those of you with the moolah and the itch to come as close to the sound of the real thing as possible, the Ultima 5 OPS-DC is the ticket to ride. JV, forthcoming

Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon T-RX

Metaxas & Sins Tourbillon T-RX

$36,000

The most compact, coolest-looking, best-sounding portable tape deck JV has heard, the T-RX is a brand-new component—not a refurbished, updated vintage one from the Golden Age of tape recording. Designed with Stellavox founder Georges Quellet’s blessing as an updated version of his fabled and fabulous Stellavox SM8, it is the very model of highest fidelity. As JV said in his review, if the phrase “the absolute sound” means what it says, then 15/30ips mastertape playback through the T-RX is what it means. If you have the money for Kostas Metaxas’ little wonder (and for the 15/30ips tapes to feed it with), you will be buying a freehold in the top tier of the absolute sound—and a piece of gear that will endlessly delight you with its mechanical and sonic excellence. JV, 324

Read the full review: Kostas Metaxas T-RX Tape Deck
United Home Audio SuperDeck

United Home Audio SuperDeck

$89,998

This completely refurbished, three-box, 15ips, Tascam reel-to-reel tape deck, with bespoke enclosures, boards, parts, damping, and wiring, is the best effort yet from tape maven Greg Beron—and one of the two most lifelike source components JV has yet heard in his home. Though the speed, color, resolution, and, above all else, vanishingly low noise of the DS Audio Grand Master optical cartridge and EQ units have pushed vinyl playback considerably closer to the sound of tape, LPs still aren’t as naturally full in tone, continuous in duration and intensity, or audibly complete in their presentation as R2R tapes through the UHA SuperDeck. Of course, two-track open-reel tapes have built-in sonic advantages—not the least of which is the sheer amount of information laid down in their wider tracks and the higher resolution with which those tracks are scanned—all of which you can hear, par excellence, with Beron’s great new machine. Given the price of pre-recorded R2R tapes, the SuperDeck may be a wealthy man’s game, but if you have the dough and a hankering for the sound of the real thing, it will be tough to find a better full-sized tape player. JV, 319

Read the full review: United Home Audio SuperDeck
United Home Audio SuperDeck

Adblocker Detected

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

"There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."