Frequently asked questions, answered:
Can ATAE re-condition my vintage Studer A80 (or A820) recorder?
You’re welcome to contact us if you have an A80 or 820 recorder needing factory-level reconditioning, but be advised that since 2011 we’re limiting outside service work in order to concentrate on manufacturing our ATAE reproducers and supporting their owners.
What’s a reproducer?
Reproducer was the historic industry name for an analog audio tape machine optimized for playback. A machine that both records and plays back (a “tape recorder”) was correctly called a recorder-reproducer.
Isn’t analog magnetic recording obsolete?
The technology may be obsolete, but the recordings that were made with it are not.
Why build tape machines that don’t record?
A reproducer has no recording function for two important reasons:
1. To obtain the highest possible audio quality in playback
2. To prevent damage to original master tapes
What makes a reproducer the highest quality platform for playback?
Audible benefits of a single-head tape transport architecture originate from reduced high-band flutter and far better speed, tension and guidance control inside the headblock. We have a white paper discussing the many technical benefits of the ultra-high-quality ATAE Model One and Model Two professional-grade reproducers.
Single-head? I need multiple playback heads to accommodate different formats.
The correct way to meet this need is by having interchangeable headblocks. The cost-saving practice of mounting multiple read (playback) heads in the same headblock is misguided, as it destroys many benefits of a reproducer.
ATAE reproducers employ our own developed, quick-change, high-precision, ultra-low-flutter SHRO headblocks. The machine bases include a headblock storage drawer.
What is SHRO?
SHRO is Single-Head, Read-Only, describing a headblock architecture found on any reproducer designed for delivering both highest audio quality and lowest tape wear.
Did ATAE invent SHRO?
No, we simply were the first to give it that name.
Who invented the reproducer?
By the late 1960s, several of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional audio recorders had independently discovered that playback on any three-head recorder-reproducer would be inherently compromised and that highest quality playback could only be realized on a single-head platform.
If reproducers are the superior platform for tape playback, why aren’t they popular?
In the 1950s though the 1980s (the analog recording era), people didn’t want them. At that time, over ninety-five percent of professional recorder-reproducers were sold into the broadcast and motion picture industries. (Music recording studios accounted for less than five percent of the market.) Those primary market users found the playback quality of the better machines acceptable and thus saw a separate dedicated playback platform unnecessary. This lack of demand led manufacturers to abandon efforts to develop and market professional-grade, stand-alone reproducers.
An exception was for the tape-based broadcast program automation systems of the 1960s and 1970s, where thousands of lower-cost reproducers were manufactured specifically for that application.
Misconceptions supporting purported benefits of using a recorder-reproducer for playback have circulated for decades and are still heard today. (See our paper: Common beliefs about analog tape playback that are untrue.)
How could playing back a master tape on a studio recorder be imperfect if the tape was originally recorded on exactly that same make and model of machine?
It might seem intuitive that playback on the same machine that originally recorded a tape could be ideal, but this notion is far from correct. Analog recording and playback are independent yet inter-related processes fraught with a variety of amplitude and time domain distortions that compound.
It follows that optimum playback should add no (or only minimal) further distortions. What’s desired is a reproducer having amplitude and time domain error contributions that are lower by an order of magnitude than those of the machine that originally made the recording. Using the original recorder for playback could instead nearly double the distortions.
Absent playback on a state-of-the-art reproducer, you can never know the true recording quality of the tape you’re listening to.
Why are ATAE reproducers based on Studer A80 and A820 tape transport mechanisms?
Studer was practically alone among manufacturers to conceive and build tape machines incorporating costly precision guidance, all-rolling element straight-line bypass spooling and servo constant tension. Today these features are recognized as extremely important to the responsible conservation and preservation of high-value heritage master tapes.
We believe that re-purposing and re-using these beautifully designed and constructed Studer-built machines is both respectful and responsible.
Why is the transport mechanism a separate component in your reproducers?
Studer recommended transport re-conditioning no later than every ten years. Many A80s are over fifty years old and some 820s are now forty. Today almost none of them will meet their original specifications for time base accuracy (flutter), which is what audibly distinguished them from their competition when new.
Due to the sophistication and high precision of their transport mechanisms and the requirements for special training and tools, A80 and 820 transport re-conditioning can only be performed by a recognized specialist. Separating the transport makes it vastly easier to ship to us for a ten-year reconditioning.
Why are ATAE reproducers so expensive?
Unlike consumer electronics, ATAE machines are built to industrial-grade standards. Our reproducers are designed for use in sound recordings archives holding high-value collections.
The pricing reflects the high cost of the skilled labor, as well as our insistence on using only the highest-quality components. Nearly 490 man-hours are required to build an ATAE Model One or Model Two. We source hundreds of new parts from Europe, or have them manufactured for us here in California. The parts alone cost several times the price of many new recorders being manufactured today for the consumer hi-fi market.
What is done in your re-manufacturing?
We begin by completely dismantling, cleaning, inspecting and then expertly rebuilding and updating many re-usable original Studer components removed from re-buildable core machines that we purchase.
An example is our in-house capstan motor re-manufacturing, where original Studer sinter-bearing designs (which are no longer supportable) are converted to all-ball-bearing, for guaranteed serviceability far into the future.
Another are the transport foundation castings, which after cleaning and visual inspection are dimensionally checked on a CMM before being accepted for assembly.
Completed re-manufactured tape transport assemblies are then Manquen flutter-tested in our lab to confirm that they exceed the excellent time-base stability specifications of the Studer-built originals.
Finally, we assemble the new reproducers into all-new, high-grade furniture, including rack-mounted enclosures for the logically-grouped ATAE-built electronic modules, a design improvement insuring that ATAE machines remain easily serviceable into the future.
Why do you say that playing back a legacy master tape on a studio tape recorder is irresponsible?
Most surviving original master tapes are undergoing various chemical degradations rendering them increasingly mechanically fragile. The conservation of these tapes should be a foremost consideration. In 1987, after observing under microscopy the damage to oxide layer calendering and bonding that occurs when tapes are pulled over fixed-pin lifters or fixed guides, we began warning against the use of tape machines having those construction details.
First do no harm! Only a state-of-the-art reproducer (NEVER a recorder-reproducer) should be used to play back irreplaceable legacy master tapes. It’s irresponsible to play such tapes on a vintage studio machine with fixed-pin lifters, forced-guidance, stationary guides, or erase and record heads. This caution also applies to Mylar-based tapes that have been thermally-treated or “baked.”
But doesn’t everyone use vintage studio recorders for playback?
It could appear so, but we must hope they aren’t working with legacy master tapes.
Weren’t all the important master tapes long ago transferred to digital?
It’s true that domain transfer for CD re-issues began as early as 1982, but there’s no agreement that those transfers were performed optimally. Clearly a great many deserve to be re-visited.
Today in 2025, the labels are ordering retrievals of their fragile, irreplaceable, heritage master tapes, this time to produce new, deluxe collector re-issues on vinyl, a process once again placing the tapes in danger from improper handling. Hence the urgent need for promoting more responsible conservation of the surviving master tapes.
Countless master tapes from the golden era of music recording suffer from chemical degradations that render them vulnerable to damage or even destruction from a single playback attempt on a legacy studio tape machine.
Any responsible playback of these priceless cultural artifacts demands the use of specialized hardware.
ATAE builds the Model One and Model Two reproducers because we believe the world needs state-of-the-art, ultra-low distortion analog magnetic audio tape playback systems that are engineered from the ground up to protect irreplaceable heritage master tapes while also letting those tapes be heard in their highest fidelity for the first time.
If you work professionally with high-value analog master tapes, you should talk to us. We’re located in Northern California.
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