Download the four-page hi-res sales sheet for the Technics RS-1700 1/4″ stereo tape machine.
DOWNLOAD: Technics_RS-1700_Brochure
The RS-1700 was an update of the iconic RS-1500. These are great machines. I had a few in the late 90’s and was forced to sell them in order to buy beer or what have you. Kinda regret it. More will come along eventually I imagine.
6 replies on “Technics RS-1700 tape machine”
I have one of these for sale. Mint Condition with box – make an offer!
http://www.ebay.com moesandpamsthings
How can be reached in EBAY and which is the price
Chris: “The RS-1700 was an update of the iconic RS-1500.”
Comment: Just to nitpick, the 1700 was actually kind of an enhancement to the 1506. The RS-1500 and 1502 were near-pro-grade 2-track machines that had a quarter-track play head over on the left side before the erase head. There was a switch on the headblock to control which play head hit the electronics. The machine only recorded in 2-track. The play-head switch was semi-reliable over time but can be cleaned and if it’s treated gently, the contacts just get dirty rather than fail like some 1960’s slide-switches.
The RS-1520 was the 1500 with balanced inputs and outputs and bias and equalization trimmers. It was a professional grade 2-track tape recorder, certainly usable for broadcast production and lower-budget music production.
The RS-1506 was a quarter-track version of the RS-1500, with a 2-track playback head over on the left above the quarter-track erase head.
So then you get to the RS-1700. This was a consumer deck through and through, although a high end one. It was quarter-track (a consumer format) and bi-directions (in other words it would record both forward and reverse, no need to flip reels). It had the same motors and isolated-loop capstan system as the older machines. The heads were smaller and play and record heads were fit in one assembly (not one head like a typical cassette deck, separate heads in one can) so there was room for 6 heads in the same space as the 4 heads on the other decks. I don’t think this was a major compromise as far as performance, I think the 1700 spec’d out close or identical to the 1506. They are really nice decks, just understand they are high-end consumer decks, mainly because of the quarter-track format.
Technics reel decks hold their own to this day. They are very gentle on old tapes, but the tension against the heads is low so they are non-ideal for edge-warped old tapes. They are dead-on speed accurate if the motor is working properly. There are electronic tweaks, but making sure all the capacitors are good would be my first repair.
By the way, check out this website, showing the OTHER isolated-loop decks Panasonic sold in Japan:
http://reeltoreelworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/doc-technics-adds.html
The RS-1800 was sold outside of Japan. I’ve heard of some in the U.S. but never seen one. The little 7″ reel deck was only sold in Japan. Note the silver-faced 1700 in one ad.
Hi there
I will be grateful if somebody can help me on this. For many years I was dreaming to get one of these units, two weeks ago I pulled delightfully a RS-1700 out of the box sent to me from Canary Islands. It turned to be a dusty and rusty one so I had to spend more than a week to get it clean up and lubricated before I plugged it. When I powered it on, both reel clampers, without spools on them, began to run on opposite directions. I powered off the unit and put the spools on, as I powered it on again both directional signals on play buttons began to blinks simultaneously and when I pushed play button on the right direction the left one lighted up and began to turn to the left side for three or four seconds and stopped. The play button on the left direction didn’t function. Both buttons of Fast Forward and Fast Rewind were functional and spined the spools but just for three or four seconds. It made me extremely upset. Please can somebody tell me what the problem on this unit is? Best regards
Jashayar
please if I can inform me who can facilitate the manual book repair technician since I have a reel qeu but I have as repair technicians in my country Paraguay ask me the problem is that not only works at slow speed on speed more fast please help if someone can write to my e japt@tigo.com.py please someone I can scan the album technician to repair mine from already very grateful
my name is Jorge Puig
I have a 1700 technics reel to reel that is not working , the CAPSTAND is turning but the buttons and the reels do not turn when they are loaded to play . the both motors are good . I have checked the 5 fuses that I have found and they are good as well. the reel is in super condition , it just stopped working one day.