Technics RS-1520 Open Reel Tape Deck

OpenReelToReel Present Technics RS-1520 High-Fidelity Reel Tape Recorder 

Enjoy THIS ONE and ONLY: TECHNICS RS-1520 - Oh, Yeah!! Fully, rebuilt by Craftsman and Restored by Alter Ego Appearance

Technics RS-1520 By Alter Ego Appearance 

Enrich For Life - Audio Precision Engineering: Alter Ego Appearance in response to “the rapidly decreasing availability of Technicians who perform this level of rebuild.” Alter Ego Appearance combines design with technical skills. The word custom would be an understatement as each machine is its new creation, none of the open reel tape decks will ever be identical.

The Technics 1520 has long been regarded as one of the prized tape decks. Impeccable consideration to the points only the most meticulous of audiophiles would understand. Below is a description of this one-of-a-kind rebuild.

TECHNICS RS-1520 Reel Tape Recorder Virtual High-Fidelity Exhibition

TECHNICS RS-1520 A REBUILD LIKE NO OTHER - SPECIFICATION:

REEL MOTORS
The reel motors totally disassembled. Plastic tridents, which are subject to breaking easily, are replaced with metal tridents made from non-magnetic aluminium bronze. Bronze bearings inside the motors were cleaned and filled with lubricant.
Brake drums were removed from the shaft, and old paint was stripped. Repainted with glossy hard scratch-resistant high temp paint. The quality of this paint is crucial for proper brakes. Table painted to base machine colour. Shaft assembly with brake drums and tridents balanced. Motors assembled.

CAPSTAN
The Capstan motor was disassembled, and cleaned. The aluminium cup was removed and replaced with another one made from nonmagnetic aluminium bronze. Precisely machined and polished.
Bearings replaced with original NOS NSK(made in Japan) bearings. Incredibly silent.
Capstan assembled, and installed.

VU METERS
Old aluminium background sheets were removed. Scanned with the precision scanner. A new graphic file suitable for laser engraving was created. Replaced with non-magnetic copper sheets, laser engraved, painted to base machine colour. Graphics 24K gold plated.
The black paint from the arrows was removed, arrows were painted with fluorescent paint (0xBD09F5 color).

HEAD BLOCK
Head block disassembled. Plate stripped, cleaned, and painted to base machine colour. New metal letterings and some metal accents were applied. Heads had incredibly low usage, relapsed & polished under water. Resoldered, realigned. The head block was reassembled. 4t-2t switch disassembled, cleaned, reassembled.

TAPE COUNTER
Large 128x22px screen with bright YELLOW pixels. Powered by SSD1305 and Teensy4.0 (600MHz) controllers. Auto-scaling with speed switch on the left panel. With memory on power off. Prewired for future installation of WiFi remote control and programming block. Screen installed on totally reengineered counter and cue plate, 3D printed on Formlabs3+ printer from high temp resin, powder coated to base machine colour. A new reset switch and precisely machined button were installed. CUE functionality is untouched.

CONTROL BUTTONS
Control buttons block disassembled, Plastic buttons replaced with CNC machined aluminium, powder coated to the base color. REC, PAUSE and PLAY buttons have light bulbs which are visible in the corresponding mode through symbols.

TAPE PATH
All bearings were replaced with the original NOS NSK. All parts were polished, replaced with non-magnetic aluminium bronze where possible, and realigned. Some decorative parts were added.

CONNECTORS
All back connectors were replaced with gold plated. AC cord connector added.
All visible metal parts are hand-made from non-magnetic aluminium bronze polished.

A FEW words about METAL.
Aluminium bronze C62400 composition contains up to 11.5% of aluminium, which creates a protective oxide film almost immediately after polishing. Will remain shiny for a long time. The color is slightly darker than gold by design.
Needless to say, all letterings are made from the same metal, 0.75mm raised.
Splicing block is fully functional with spring-loaded levers.
Cuts for blades are made for 22.5 and 45 deg for right and left-handed people. Insert for lower panel levers also CNC machined from C62400, polished.
Also, needless to say,, the deck is fully recapped and readjusted.
All old Philips bolts were replaced with new HEX just to make future maintenance easy.
Lubricated, aligned.

Side panels are made from African Rosewood AKA Palisander (while machining smells like roses it's funny). Treated with special blend oil, polished. Each flange on side panels has the engraving "Technics RS-1520".The return of the most delicate, but most considered, kind of audio format for a true audiophile. The most dubious audiophiles know the truth about reel-to-reel tape. 
The truth is that it just sounds better than vinyl. The ultimate reel-to-reel tape is the latest retro-trend for audiophiles, it has a greater dynamic range than vinyl, is capable of producing extraordinary sound for the treble and bass and there is less signal processing which is the enemy of a hi-fi extraordinaire.

 

Listening to music on reel-to-reel tape will allow you to discover details in the music you were never able to hear before.

Nothing sounds better than music on audio reel-to-reel tape.