[Vintage-Audio] Pioneer RT-901

Sat May 10 11:56:01 2003

Gee Bob, is there anything ever made that you do not have at least one of?
(grin) Sounds like a solidly constructed and well engineered deck. Probably
worth my time to refurbish and enjoy. 	

Pioneer no longer has the brake pads available. Suggestions? The ones in this
deck are still good, but do have some wear from use. Might need to be replaced
in several years. 	

Do you happen to have a copy of the test tone tape for the alignment of the
heads? Once they are removed and reshaped, I will need some means of aligning
them correctly.  	

Why do you have four of them Bob? Some new concept of quad surround audio in
your future? (chuckle) Certainly makes for having at least two solid decks, with
two as back up parts rigs, for certain. 	

Thanks OM. Talk to you soon, maybe even on air if the propagation ever settles
down. 	

Duane W8DBF 	

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From: Robert Nickels <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Pioneer RT-901
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2003 12:44 AM

> What can you tell me about the quality, reliability and value of the
Pioneer
> model RT-901 reel to reel deck?

Duane, I guess I've got four of them, various models (some auto reverse and
some not).  I like them because they can be rack-mounted and they also look
nice along with the boatanchor radios, hi!   They seem to be well designed
and solidly constructed, I've done minor work on one deck and didn't have
any problem working on it.   I've also left mine turned on for months at a
time with no ill effect.  Given the age and how well they still work, I
would say the designers did a good job of minimizing the effects of wear and
aging, unlike some other decks that lose braking tension and start acting
flaky as they get older.

Price?  I'd say $150-250 average, I paid about that for my first one, and
found the others at hamfests for about half that.  They were popular, lots
sold thru hi-fi stores in the 70's so that helps hold the price down and
most I've seen are in very good condition, probably because they came out
near the end of the r-r era and weren't used all that much.

As for head re-lapping, here is one source -
JRF Magnetic Sciences:
http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/index.html?JRF_mainframe=/JRF_relapping.html
Audio Magnegics:  http://www.audiomagnetics.com/serv01.htm
IEM:  http://www.iemmag.com/repair.html

I've never used theseservices, but from the website it really looks like
they knows how do re-furbish the head as long as it's not too badly worn to
be salvagable.  Maybe others have more actual experience.   I think you will
like the RT-901.

73, Bob W9RAN

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