“Reproducer” is the historic name for a device that plays back recorded sound. A tape recorder having

playback capability is technically known as a recorder-reproducer, while a machine configured for

playback only is called a reproducer.

The technology might be obsolete, but the recordings that were made with it are not.

There are two important reasons why a reproducer has no recording function:

1. To prevent damage to recorded tapes (especially original master tapes!)

2. To obtain the highest audio quality in playback

A recorder’s ability to erase and over-write disqualifies its use for the playback of high-value master

tapes.

Further, tapes can be subjected to dangerously high tensions when played on a standard three-head studio

recorder.

It’s equally ill-advised to use tape machines having fixed-pin lifters or forced-guidance anywhere in the

tape path, as these cause harmful tape wear and could inflict permanent damage.

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.

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. Their flagship A80 and 820 transports had all of these costly features,

now recognized as essential to the conservation and preservation of heritage master tapes.

By the late 1960s, 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.

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.

SHRO is Single Head Read Only, a headblock architecture found on any reproducer designed for

delivering both highest audio quality and lowest tape wear.

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 and our reproducer machine

bases have headblock storage drawers.

During the analog recording era, few people could justify the expense of owning a dedicated reproducer.

They instead used their recorder-reproducers for playback, deeming the audio quality “good enough”.

Following the digital recording revolution, thousands of professional analog recorders were given away,

so that anyone needing analog tape playback could find a free tape machine, nearly one-hundred percent

of which were recorder-reproducers.

Most surviving original master tapes are experiencing long term chemical degradations rendering them

increasingly fragile. 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 using tape machines having these construction details for master tape playback. That caution also

applies to Mylar-based tapes that have been thermally-treated or “baked.” First do no harm!

It could appear so, but we hope they aren’t working with irreplaceable legacy master tapes. It’s hugely

irresponsible to play these tapes on vintage studio tape machines.

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.

We can build ultra-high-quality recorder-reproducers by special order. However in most recordings

archives there’s almost no justification for having one, as the practice of making analog-domain

preservation masters is long obsolete.

No. Recording functionality is not needed to optimally align or test a reproducer. There are modern, more

accurate test and alignment protocols for the items you mention.

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.) 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.

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 about ten different

playback amplifiers, while also allowing you the freedom to use your own. Our modular component

architecture assures that reconfiguration changes are easy.

Our products are intended for use in sound recordings archives holding high-value collections where

uncompromised, state-of-the-art playback is demanded. Accordingly, we build our machines to industrial-

grade standards. 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.

Many people understandably find tape recorders both entertaining and fascinating, but we’re not involved

in the consumer hi-fi “tape hobby” or “tape novelty” market.

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.

If you have an A80, A800, 816, 820 or 827 recorder-reproducer needing factory-level reconditioning,

you’re welcome to contact us. However we limit outside service work in order to concentrate on

manufacturing our reproducers.

Yes, domain transfer for CD re-issues began as early as 1982, but there’s never been agreement that those

transfers were performed optimally.

Today in 2025 the labels are again ordering retrieval of heritage master tapes, for such things as producing

re-issues on vinyl. This work is again putting irreplaceable tapes in danger from improper handling.