Technical Details
Brand: Crown
Model:1400
Category:Super High Fidelity
Application:Studio
Electronics:Tube
Equalization:NAB
Country of Manufacture:USA
Tracks:1/2 Rec/PB
Speeds: 3 3/4, 7 1/2, 15
Max Reel Size("): 10.5+"
Number of heads: 3
Head Composition: Permalloy
Head Configuration: Stereo
# Motors: 3
Auto Reverse?:No
Voltage(s): 110-120v
Outputs: RCA
Sound quality rating:9 / 10
Long-term reliability rating: 9/ 10
Additional Details
Description
The crown 1400 is essentially an 800 tube machine that can accommodate 14 inch reels. It was offered for two or three years and produced in very small quantities as the price was $1795 and at the same time you could buy on 800 for $1295. Obviously 14 inch real capacity might have been useful for certain studio or radio applications but did not prove to be very popular. Like the 1000 or 800 tube models, absolutely spectacular sound once fully renovated.
Additional Info
Currently only two of these are known to exist and the other one went to a chappy in Vietnam who put a Birdseye Maple cabinet on it and attempted to sell it for $10,000. I am not sure if it ever was purchased.
When I purchased this over 10 years ago I had it sent to the go to Crown guy at that time, John Haines, who had worked at Crown since 1965 and when I told him I had found a 1400 he looked it up and asked if it came from Reno Nevada and the answer was yes. He recalled when it showed up for service in Elkhart Indiana around 1967, it was a bench clearing event, where all the technicians had to stop work and come out to check out the machine that they had never seen but knew had been offered some years earlier. Pictured machine was converted to 1/4 track as 85% of my prerecorded tape collection is quarter track.