My Sunday Craigslist score: Akai 1720W Reel to Reel

[mhardy6647]

Congratulations on so quickly finding a vacuum tubed deck!

Plenty of R2R nerds floating around; you just need to look in the right places.
www.hifiengine.com is also a very good source of manuals (free registration required).

[inspiredsports]

Well, you have some very cool gear there. That unit on the cart is quite impressive. Looks like your R2R situation is like my TT situation. I am (this week) in the process of photographing 9 of my Thorens tables to list them for sale. I had to agree with my wife's suggestion that R2R's take up space and moving some tables out might make sense.

[mhardy6647]

Not too many turntables here; just about enough.

[inspiredsports]

. . . congratulations on so quickly finding a vacuum tubed deck . . .

I'll re-tube the 1710 as soon as it arrives and am reviewing my stash. I have pairs of 12AX7's out the wazoo, but it also calls for a pair of 6BM8's.

I wonder if any Polkies might have a spare pair of 6BM8's for sale.

[inspiredsports]

Thanks to Ken who pointed me to American Recorder Technologies, Inc. in Simi Valley, CA for "Professional Cleaning Fluid" www.americanrecorder.com / sales@americanrecorder.com. Both of my R2R's are now as clean as a whistle and performing well in great part due to this magic elixer

They have a wealth of information and great products on that site and are highly recommended.

I've gotten to know Alan there and he is great guy who will take care of you and is an asset to those of us trying to keep our R2R's alive and well.

[Kenneth Swauger]

Very cool, Inspired, I'm glad they were able to help out. That cleaning fluid was the only product recommended by Nakamichi for their decks. If you want to try something experimental get some Last Fluid for tape heads and guides.
Cheers, Ken