An overview of various tape machines that I've owned and worked on.
Welcome to Open Reel Forever!, where I will be sharing my enthusiasm for the subject with descriptions of the tape decks in the current collection. In addition, there will be commentary on each machine, including how I came to own it, how much it cost, and technical comments. The last page contains a helpful list of links for the open reel owner.
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NEWS UPDATE 7/27/06...Quantegy corporation has been back open for some time. They are producing the standard formulations, inlcuding the legendary 406, which dates back to the '50s, and can be used in any consumer open reel machine.
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Many thanks to Teresa Blundell and Mike Nagorka for their excellent scans and digital pictures of the machines.
Unless otherwise noted, all of the decks listed here use the standard home audio format of 1/4" tape, quarter track. A "two speed" machine runs at 3 3/4 in/sec and 7 1/2 in/sec, a "three speed" machine adds 1 7/8 in/sec. A "one motor" machine uses one motor for both the capstan and fast wind reel (ff & rw) functions; a "three motor" machine has separate motors for the capstan and each reel.
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Akai 1722-II
DESCRIPTION: This is a late '70s, two speed, two head deck which takes 7' reels and has mechanical controls. It's a one motor deck, with built in speakers in the sides of the machine. It has a switch on the back which controls whether the speakers are on or not, and includes a P>A> system position. It has the typical aluminum front/wood side panel styling typical of the era.
COMMENTS: This was the deck which really started it all for me. I found it in the choir room of a Presbyterian church in Princeton, West Virginia, during my day job as a pipe organ technician (you'll see this theme come up again a few times). I traded a service call worth $150.00 for it, which was steep, considering it didn't work very well. This deck was refurbished by Huffman Electronics in Charleston. A typical Akai product, it's a very well made machine. Even though it doesn't have tape lifters, the sound during fast winds isn't too bad. One interesting quirk about how it operates: unlike most one motor tape decks, the speed change is accomplished by changing the voltage going to the motor, rather than having the motor run at a constant speed and have the various idlers and pulleys change the operational speed. The upshod is that the fast wind modes will run in double or half speed, depending on the speed (3 3/4-7 1/2) switch! This can be dangerous- if you switch the speed down while you're in one of those modes, the reel with the tension will become slack, in effect, and tape will spill all over the place. Overall, though, a superb little machine.
Akai GX-630D
DESCRIPTION: I'm thinking this is late '70s also.This is a two speed, three motor, three head deck which takes 10.5" reels and has full motion sensing with solenoid controls. A unit with Dolby noise reduction was available as the GX-630DB. It uses Akai's glass and ferrite "GX" series heads. Typical aluminum face/wood side styling.
COMMENTS:The pride of the fleet, I found this deck for sale in the local classifieds newspaper, and paid $300.00- a lot, to be sure, but this one is absolutely mint, and came with its owners manual and original metal Akai take up reel. This is, quite simply, the finest consumer open reel I've ever seen. The only deck I can think of that could top it would be the Revox B-77, which I've never had a chance to try. Everything works so smoothly and quietly, one can think of it as the Lexus of tape decks. The transport controls are round soft-touch buttons, which only move about 3/32". The tape lifters and mute circuits work very effectively during fast wind modes, keeping everything nice and quiet. I've never had the slightest hint of a mechanical problem with it, and I've used this one a lot. If you find one in any sort of decent shape, snag it!
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This 1722 has the aluminum knobs. The pictures in the 1980 Burstein-Applebee catalog show a model with black plastic knobs. 
Affectionately known as "King Akai", this fine machine dominated my stereo system until the arrival of a Pioneer RT-909.