Technical Details
Brand: Ampex
Model:200
Category:Super High Fidelity
Application:Consumer
Electronics:Tube
Equalization:NAB
Country of Manufacture:USA
Original Price: $5000
Tracks:1/2 Rec/PB
Speeds: 30
Max Reel Size("): 10.5+"
Number of heads: 3
Head Composition: Permalloy
Head Configuration: Mono - Full Track
# Motors: 3
Auto Reverse?:No
Voltage(s): 110-120v
Frequency Response:30 to 15,000 cycles + - 1 db
Wow and Flutter:.03% @ 30ips
Signal-to-Noise Ratio:60 dB
Sound quality rating:8 / 10
Long-term reliability rating: 8/ 10
Weight: 240 Lbs - 109 kg.
Additional Details
Description
The Ampex 200 was the world’s first commercially produced reel-to-reel audio tape recorder and relative to hundreds of machines that followed it in the 1950s, was and is a spectacular sounding tape recorder.
Enter Jack Mullin, recently returned from WW2, who now had the technology to bring North America into the game for recording studios and radio stations. He staged the first public demonstration of high fidelity tape on May 16, 1946 in NBC’s San Francisco Studios and stunned the audience of engineers who couldn’t believe they weren’t hearing live music.
Coincidentally Ampex had just been founded that year and were looking at various options with which to turn their engineering talent. This demonstration decided it and they decided on tape recorders.
The 200A cost them $76,000 to engineer and put into production was a resounding success, introduced in 1947, eventually selling 112 tape recorders at $5,000 apiece before moving on to the 201. Now Ampex had set the benchmark and a variety of other North American companies would enter the game. The most significant new competitor was Magnecord, who would take credit for binaural or stereo in 1952.