The point is that you should NOT pay attention to the whimsical bullshit you find floating around on the Web
- and mainly repeated by people who have no experience anyway -
about this or that professional machine sounding "much better" than that one.

the differences folks talk about are actually the sound of the studio, the control room, the monitors, the console,
the power amps, the wiring, the mics used, the micing positions, how tired the engineer is, how stressed the engineer is...
you get the point.... the differences people 'talk' about are never really the actual Tape Recorder alone.
 
 
Now of course there ARE small differences between machines.
Each has it's own way of putting audio down onto tape,   each manufactures their own heads,   designs the electronics,
and builds their own tape transports.   Some machines are more reliable than others because of age, or this design flaw or small oversight.

If you were to have 2 different makes of professional tape recorders,   perfectly aligned the same,
sitting in a 'world-class' studio with a pair of $20,000 monitors and a top Neve or SSL console,
in a great accoustically built room,   then recorded the exact same signal to both machines,
yes,  you would detect a subtle difference between the machines.

But even then,  the sound would be great on either machine,   and the differences very very minor.
Even in this case different engineers will choose different makes and models as sounding best.
Some old school engineers love the Studers,   others swear by Ampex machines,   while others insist on using MCI.

I myself grew up on Ampex machines.   That's really why I love them so much,   they were my first experiences in the professional world.
But I would have no problems doing a record on an MCI, 3M, or Studer tape recorder.

It is NOT the Model of the tape machine that makes the sound, it's the way you use it,
how good an engineer you are -   and most importantly  - how good the band is.


So go out and buy a good used PROFESSIONAL tape recorder... they're so damn cheap right now!

Don't worry too much about what brand (Studer, Ampex, MCI, Otari) you get, so long as it's in good shape,
reasonably priced and not too old.   Make sure you can still get parts for it, and make sure that you
have someone around that can repair it from time to time when needed.

An MCI is just as good as an Ampex, a Studer just as good as an Otari. They all sound great...


Any good PROFESSIONAL tape recorder will sound GREAT if used correctly.

and even a shitty recorder will sound better than anything digital!!!!