Fewer than one in a million have access to high-value legacy analog master tapes.
We build the specialized hardware needed by those that do.
Imagine listening to irreplaceable original master tapes played back in unrivaled fidelity on state-of-the-art equipment engineered to protect those tapes from wear and damage.
To learn more about our professional reproducers, contact our Sales Engineering department and request the list of free ATAE technical papers.
Twenty-four of our most frequently asked questions:
Master tapes? Isn’t analog magnetic recording obsolete?
The technology might be obsolete, but the recordings that were made with it are not.
What’s a reproducer?
Reproducer is the historic name for apparatus that plays back or reproduces recorded sound. A “tape recorder” having playback capability is known as a recorder-reproducer, while a reproducer is configured for playback only.
Playback only? Why build tape machines that don’t record?
There are two very important reasons why a reproducer has no recording function:
1. To prevent damage to recorded tapes (especially high-value original master tapes!)
2. To obtain the highest audio quality in playback
How could a tape recorder damage a recording?
A recorder’s ability to erase and over-write disqualifies its use for the playback of irreplaceable master tapes. It’s equally unwise to pull valued tapes over erase and record heads or fixed-pin lifters as this causes unnecessary tape wear and might inflict permanent tape damage. (See our August, 2012 technical paper: Message to administrators of sound recordings archives.)
What makes a reproducer the highest quality platform for playback?
The audible benefits originate mainly from improved time-base stability, including reduced high-band flutter. Additionally, far better speed, tension, guidance and azimuth control can be realized with a reproducer incorporating a single-head tape transport architecture.
Who invented the reproducer?
All we know is that by the late 1960s, at least three of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional audio recorders (3M, AEG-Telefunken and Studer) had independently discovered that playback on a two or three-head recorder-reproducer would be inherently compromised and that highest quality playback could only be realized on a single-head platform.
Single head? I need multiple playback heads to accommodate different formats.
The correct way to meet this need is by having interchangeable headblocks. Mounting multiple playback (or read) heads in the same headblock is seriously misguided, as it destroys the benefits of a SHRO reproducer. Our reproducer machine bases have headblock storage drawers.
What is SHRO?
SHRO is Single Head Read Only, 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 twenty-five years ago. Our reproducers employ our own developed quick-change, high-precision, ultra-low-flutter SHRO headblocks.
If reproducers are a superior platform for playback, why aren’t they popular?
During the analog recording era very few people wanted a reproducer. Following the arrival of the digital recording revolution, thousands of professional analog recorder-reproducers were given away. Anyone needing tape playback thus had an abundant supply of free tape machines, nearly one-hundred percent of which were recorder-reproducers. Many if not most are still in service. (We have a paper that explains this history in more detail.)
Why do you say that playing back a legacy master tape on a studio tape recorder is irresponsible?
Most surviving original master tapes are experiencing chemical degradations rendering them increasingly fragile. The conservation of these tapes should be a foremost consideration.
In 1987, after observing under microscopy the damage to a calendered oxide layer that occurs when tapes are pulled over fixed-pin lifters, fixed guides, or multiple heads, we began warning against the use of tape machines having those construction details. First do no harm! This caution equally applies to Mylar-based tapes that have been thermally-treated or “baked.”
Doesn’t everyone use vintage studio recorders for playback?
It could appear so, but we hope they aren’t working with irreplaceable legacy master tapes. It’s irresponsible to play these tapes on vintage studio tape machines.
How could playing back a master tape on the same machine that originally recorded it be less than perfect?
It might seem intuitive that playback on the same machine that originally recorded a tape would 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 then 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 ultra-low-distortion 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 precision guidance, all-rolling element straight-line bypass spooling, servo-controlled capstan motors and servo-controlled constant tension. Found in their flagship A80 and 820 transports, these features are today recognized as extremely important to the responsible conservation and preservation of heritage master tapes. We believe that re-manufacturing these beautifully designed and constructed machines is both respectful and responsible.
Does the transport significantly affect sound quality?
Yes (emphatically)! A highly accurate and invariant time base is critical to recorded sound quality and is equally important in playback. The role of the transport in an analog domain reproducer is to pull the tape at a constant, unaccelerated velocity while following a precisely defined path over the read head, without wander and without introducing flutter, while also closely maintaining a desired tape tension. The degree to which the transport accomplishes these objectives determines the time base accuracy of the audio signal recovered as an amplitude versus time record.
Does ATAE offer recorder-reproducers? Our archive uses them to make preservation masters.
We can build ultra-high-quality Model One and Model Two recorder-reproducers by special order, but in most recordings archives there’s little justification for having one. See our technical papers: Why the practice of making new analog-domain preservation masters is obsolete and Common beliefs about analog tape playback that are untrue.
Isn’t the record function needed for measuring the flutter and adjusting the low-frequency reproduce response of a tape machine used for playback?
No, a record function is not needed to optimally align or test a reproducer. There are modern, more accurate test and alignment protocols for the items you’ve mentioned. See our technical paper: Common beliefs about analog tape playback that are untrue.
Why is the transport mechanism a separate component in your reproducers?
The A80 and 820-based transports in our reproducers are high-precision mechanisms. Constructing them as separately-housed components is, in our view, clearly the best design approach and perfectly logical. A further argument for separating the transport is that it becomes vastly easier to ship. Not well-known is the fact that Studer recommended A80 transport mechanical re-conditioning no later than every ten years. (This is also true for the 820. We have a technical paper explaining the reasons why.) 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. Our transport re-conditioning addresses this.
The sophistication and high-precision of the A80 and 820 transport mechanisms and the requirements for special training and tools demands that transport re-conditioning is trusted only to a recognized specialist.
Why is the playback amplifier a separate component in ATAE reproducers?
Reflecting a design philosophy of modularizing sub-components for performance optimization and ease of long-term serviceability, playback amplifiers are not built into our reproducers. They are instead housed in their own rack-mounted enclosures, fitting into the machine base.
We also do this with the power supply, control logic and motor control.
A further consideration is that some users will have multiple playback amplifiers, selecting among them for the best performance with a given read head, tape speed and equalization. We offer ten different playback amplifiers, while also allowing you the freedom to use your own. Our modular component architecture assures that reconfiguration changes are easy.
Why are ATAE reproducers so expensive?
Our reproducers are intended for use in sound recordings archives holding high-value collections where uncompromised, state-of-the-art playback is demanded. Accordingly, they are built to industrial-grade standards. Over 520 man-hours are required to assemble an ATAE Model Two. The pricing reflects the high cost of the skilled labor as well as our insistence on using only the highest-quality components, many of which we manufacture (or re-manufacture) in-house. Additionally, we source hundreds of new parts from Europe or have them manufactured for us here in California.
What is done in your re-manufacturing of the old Studer transports?
We begin by completely dismantling, cleaning, inspecting and then expertly rebuilding and updating many heritage Studer components removed from core machines that we purchase world-wide.
An example is our in-house capstan motor re-manufacturing, where Studer’s original sintered-bronze bearing designs (which are no longer supportable) are converted to high-precision ball-bearing, for guaranteed serviceability far into the future.
Also noteworthy are the superb Studer transport foundation castings, which after cleaning and expert visual inspection are dimensionally checked on a CMM before being accepted for assembly.
Completed ATAE 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.
Will ATAE re-condition my Studer A80 or A820 recorder?
Since 2011 we’ve been limiting outside service work in order to concentrate on manufacturing our reproducers. However if you have an A80, A800, 816, 820 or 827 recorder-reproducer needing factory-level reconditioning you’re welcome to contact us.
Weren’t all the important master tapes long ago transferred to digital?
Yes, domain transfer for CD re-issues began as early as 1982, but there’s never been agreement that those transfers were performed optimally. A great many clearly deserve to be re-visited.
Today in 2025 the labels are again ordering retrieval of heritage master tapes, this time to produce new collector re-issues on vinyl. This work is once again putting fragile, irreplaceable tapes in danger from improper handling. Hence the urgent need for promoting more thoughtful, more responsible conservation of the surviving master tapes.
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 get in touch with our Sales Engineering department. We’re located in Northern California.
Adolph Thal Audio Engineering (ATAE) is an email contact preferred company. Please submit this form and we’ll respond to you promptly.