A later Jan 1983 Jensen/Peel uploading to Moo and...

[Mark]

totally agree on azimuth accessibility being a good idea - but three head
isn't too important as you're not really recording, although it is
generally an indicator that the machine was kinda 'top of the range'-ish so
might be better quality generally...

also totally agree on cleaning the machine between each side. old tapes are
horrendous for dumping stuff on the heads/rollers.

and agreed that the ion etc 'converters' are the lowest of the low...
ANYTHING is better than those things... but still, they ARE better than
nothing ;)

I wouldn't say nakamichi is overkill - those machines will pull every last
scrap of info from the tape - in most cases the machines that the shows
were recorded on put down much more information on the tape than they were
capable of playing back at the time. A Nak will get it all back.

But the main thing is get a stable strong machine in good condition - all
the rubber (belts, pinch rollers, idler tyres) needs to recent-ish

A cheap behringer usb soundcard will be fine.. posh soundcard/AD stuff at
this point *is* probably overkill, although every little helps, maybe...


don't fall too far down the tape-deck rabbit hole - there's no way back :)