This topic has been covered before and it comes down to buying a used machine off eBay or having something fully restored by a qualified tape machine repair company.

If you are going to be playing master tapes my recommendation is purchase a machine and have it fully refurbished and calibrated before you ever see it.

This is a shop in New York that sells fully restored machines that I have purchased from and they can ship it to you.

https://www.funktionaltech.com/other-services

-Steve

Thanks for sharing, Steve.

I'm hoping to buy a tape machine soon.

Do you know of anyone who can add RCA jacks to the playback head like yours? I did a quick search but couldn't find much info on the mod.

I'm chasing the feeling you had at the end of this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHvdt8EgEt8&list=FLji1cBfA2yu35roYdVB4lKA&index=...

Cheers,
Andrew

I purchased my Reel-to-Reel (Akai GX-4000D) from Big Matt. Found him on YouTube and reached out to him via email. Had some great conversations with him and he does all the restorations, etc. Highly recommend him.