This
is a list of information we have gathered from a variety of sources on some of the major analog reel to reel tape recorder and related equipment manufacturers. While we have strived to provide the best information available to us, there will be corrections and additions. We include personal stories about the companies when they are provided to us. We always invite input on corrections and updates. Thank you!
The Ampex Corporation began its Golden Reel Award an 1977. The awards honor performing artists and the technical teams responsible for "gold-certified" records mastered on Ampex professional audio tape.
Ampex reel to reel recording tape
In 1957 Ampex created the Ampex Audio Corporation. One of the tasks was to work to improve the quality of magnetic tape. Ampex evaluated the four existing magnetic tape manufacturers and decided to buy a 25% stake in ORRadio.
Ampex then acquired ORRadio Industries in 1959, which became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division, headquartered in Opelika, Alabama. This made Ampex a manufacturer of both recorders and tape.
By the end of that decade Ampex products were much in demand by top recording studios worldwide. Our Museum has an opened box of Irish 7" reels of blank tape from ORRadio.
Allan Freedman - Facebook 01/08/2023 (shared with permission)
In January 1965, Ampex opened a facility in Hackensack NJ, where Ampex Stereo Tapes Division mastered and manufactured Reel-to-Reel, Cassette and 8-Track tapes for consumers.
Later, in September 1966, the high-speed duplication portion was relocated to Elk Grove Village (a suburb of Chicago) but the programming and recording of the master tapes remained in Hackensack, because of its proximity to New York City, the recording studios, advertising and promotion and publishing.
In 1968, after being discharged from the Navy, I joined Ampex Stereo Tapes as the recording technician for a little over 2 years, programming and recording the 8-track tape masters from safety masters provided by the various recording studios.
There were three technicians at the Hackensack operation; one for cassette mastering, one for reel-to-reel mastering and I did the 8-track programming and mastering.
The master tapes were shipped to Elk Grove Village and run on the “bin-loop” duplicators, but eventually, cost of shipping and less consumer interest in "pre-recorded" tapes caused the closure of the Hackensack facility. The building stood empty for a long time and was eventually demolished.
Ampex information and photos provided to MOMSR by Allan Freedman
1956 San Francisco TV show featuring Success Stories and featuring Ampex
Ampex ATR-124 24 track reel to reel tape recorder restored by Dollhouse Productions
Restoration of an Ampex ATR-124 photos and video with permission from Blake Olmstead, Dollhouse Productions, Savannah, Georgia
1958 Ampex Success Story
Ampex Milestone
The guys who invented the Video Tape Recorder
In the first portion of this video, Neal Kyser McNaughten talks about his work with recording standards and his relationship with Ampex.
Video posted by Will Loving "My father, Neal Kyser McNaughten, was born in Pueblo, Colorado in 1911. As a teen in the 1920s he and his friend Dave Packard had a business together installing radio antennas in people's homes. Dave later went on to co-found Hewlett-Packard with Bill Hewlett and my father worked for the State Department, FCC, RCA, and Ampex where he was VP for Professional Products and oversaw the production of the VR1000, the first commercial videotape recorder (for television broadcast)."
Gene Paul's tribute to his father. This video shows dad's journey to his new sound which led to a extraordinary string of hit instrumental songs and eventually to the collaboration with Mary Ford and greater success as a duo. It also includes dad's personal view on his invention of the multi-track recorder.
Video shared by Bayshore Ambulance - Miracles of Magnetic Recording (1970) This 21-minute film from my collection traces the evolution of magnetic recording technology to its diversified applications in today’s world--storing information for computers, reducing paper files to images on video tape, as an instructional aid in schools and universities, capturing data to advance knowledge in the sciences. It covers the basic principals of recording on magnetic tape.
Solid bronze plaque (right) bust of the founder of Ampex Corporation. This plaque was hanging on the wall in the main lobby as you entered Ampex Head Quarters. The size is 29 "x 22 " and weighs 48 pounds. The owner of the plaque worked at Ampex for 34 years and when Ampex was sold he said, “I removed it from the wall and saved it from getting thrown in the dumpster.” Ekkehart
The story of Ampex Corporation can begin no other way than with the story of the spirit behind the company itself. And that spirit, which still pervades Ampex, belongs to the Russian immigrant who conceived and founded it 25 years ago, the man whose courage, confidence and dedication did more to create today's tape recording industry than any other single person:
Alexander M. Poniatoff. (It is sometimes thought the "AMP" in AMPEX stands for the unit of electrical current named for Andre Marie Ampere, the French physicist. "AMP" is in fact Poniatoff's initials; the "EX" stands for excellence.)
Alexander Mathew Poniatoff was born in the Kazan District of Russia, about 400 miles east of Moscow, on March 25, 1892. His middle name is the first Christian name of his father, such designations being a Russian family tradition. Mathew Poniatoff was a successful businessman with a couple of dozen employees engaged in cutting timberland and producing firewood and parts for carriages and sleighs.
Throughout Poniatoff's life, coincidence and fate, if you will, play an important role. (Poniatoff points out that the "goodness of people" plays an equally important role.) But the distinguishing feature throughout his life is his pioneering spirit the blending of tenacity and conviction remind you of Alexander Graham Bell. This is the spirit which inevitably separates the man of accomplishment from the ordinary man, the adventurer from the meek, the discoverer from the straggler.
Scientific Interest
The young Poniatoff displayed this spirit early in life and showed a scientific bent even at the age of seven. At that age, he saw a locomotive for the first time, was enchanted by it, and decided immediately that he would design and build machinery when he grew up. This fascination led to studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Kazan, the Imperial College of Moscow, and an M.E. degree at Technical College in Karlsruhe, Germany.
While he was still in Germany at the age of 22, Russia declared war on that country, and Poniatoff found himself trapped. Warned that he would be thrown into a prison camp before long, he headed west for Belgium. On the train, he met two American women whose suitcases carried travel stickers from such places as Vienna, Rome and Paris. When the border guards threatened to prevent Poniatoff's passing (he spoke no English, only German, French and Russian), one of the women thrust her bags into the young engineer's hand, and told the guards that he was an American, a member of her group, and was bound for America.
He got through and headed for Great Britain. There he registered with the Russian Embassy and undertook a crash, five-week course in English from neighbors in his boarding house to prepare to volunteer for the British Expeditionary Forces. But he soon received word that all Russian youths of draft age were to report to Newcastle, to be transported by ship to Norway, where they could easily get transportation to their homeland.
Back in Russia, he served briefly in an artillery unit and finally became a pilot in the Imperial Russian Navy, assigned to huge flying boats made of plywood and used as bombers. He was then called on to design armament for the lumbering craft, and after testing 37 millimeter guns on piles of coal, he successfully installed them on the flying boats.
Couldn't Be Idle
While he never saw combat action, several episodes in the war point out a personality trait which would display itself in various forms throughout his life: Poniatoff was never content to sit idle while waiting for things to happen. Once, while his flying boat floated in the Baltic Sea waiting out a storm, he decided to take off before the storm had subsided.
"I was a typical impatient young man in those days," he calls now. "The waves were so high that when we were rolling along trying to build up air speed, we hit the top of a wave and the plane broke completely in half. It was quite a sensation." But the speed he had attained was sufficient to carry the pilot's half of the plane to a nearby beach. When he reported to headquarters after this incident, he was told that a shipment of French fighter planes had arrived, and he was in the group selected for training as a combat pilot.
He was excited at the prospect of flying the new fighter plane. While in training, he received instructions to take the craft into a spin after climbing 1,500 meters. Poniatoff climbed to a safer 3,000 meters to attempt the maneuver. Despite instructions to keep the controls in neutral to get out of the spin, he attempted to control the craft to pull out of the spin faster. The aircraft did not level off, instead it went into a reverse spin compounding Poniatoff's problems and panic. He said: "I remember seeing nothing but sky spinning around me. Finally, I threw the controls in neutral and pulled out of the earthward spiral just a few feet from the rooftops of a village." The 1,500 meter edge he had allowed himself in the maneuver saved him from disaster.
Poniatoff never had the opportunity to fly the new plane in combat. Before he could be sent to the front, the Russian Revolution started, and the peace treaty was signed between Germany and the new government of Russia. At the end of the war Poniatoff looked forward to resuming pursuit of his mechanical interests, but the Bolshevik Revolution was spreading. While at his home he was contacted by an underground group of officers and asked to join the White Forces which were being organized to overthrow the Communist government. He was told to stay at home and wait for instructions. He didn't receive any word for some time. One day he heard heavy artillery fire near his home. He knew that the Civil War had started, and he must attempt to reach the White forces without falling into the hands of the Communists.
Tricking out the Russian Civil War parties.
He decided to hire, for a price, the Red Commissar of his village to drive him to the combat area. If they were captured by Red forces, the Commissar would show his credentials. On the other hand, if they they were captured by the White Forces, Poniatoff would show his officer's credentials. Here once more, the fates intervened for the young engineer. He and his driver were stopped, and they suddenly realized their plan had one flaw. They did not know which credentials to show because they didn't know which side the guard was on. Producing the wrong credential would be disastrous to both of them. However, Poniatoff noted the guard's polished boots, his reasonably clean and tailored uniform, and decided to gamble on his White papers, reasoning that the insurgent Reds were less likely to be neatly uniformed. He presented his officer's paper and found himself in the area of the White forces. The Red Commissar was sent on his way unharmed. Poniatoff vividly remembers flying over his parent's home and waving proudly to his mother and father, but being unable to land because the Kazan District was occupied by Red forces. It was the last time he would see his parents.
During the two years of Civil War, the White Army retreated through Siberia. Finally, the group of White forces to which Poniatoff was attached, learned that Admiral Kolchak, Chief Commanding Officer of the White forces in Siberia, and his military staff, had been routed and killed by the Red forces. The bitter struggle was over.
One member of Poniatoff's group was Captain Eugene Kostritsky, who had visited the United States years before. He kept his men entertained with stories of the American city, San Francisco. So fascinating was the man's tale of life in America, that Poniatoff decided then and there that if he made it through the revolution alive, he would go to San Francisco. Knowing he would never see his family or his home again, the 28-year-old pilot set out to make a new life for himself.
From Siberia he escaped into China in 1920 with high hopes of going on to the United States. In Shanghai, though, new difficulties arose. Poniatoffs English was barely intelligible, but his German managed to get him around. He looked for mechanical engineering work, but there was none - all the machinery in Shanghai was imported. Finally, his German landed him a job with the Shanghai Power Co., doing something completely new: electrical design work.
Seven Year Wait
Poniatoff then found that getting out of Shanghai was almost as difficult as his escape from Russia. He had no passport, no birth certificate nothing but his Army papers. The League of Nations eventually began issuing passports to Russian refugees. It took Poniatoff seven years to get this essential document.
At 35 years of age, he finally sailed for San Francisco. He had a $2,000 bonus given him by the Shanghai Power Co. for his five years of service, and a glowing letter of introduction to an influential person at the General Electric Company in New York. But he wasn't sure he wanted to pursue a technical career any longer. When he landed in San Francisco, he decided to give rural life a try he would become a farmer in this great modernized land of America.
But a shock greeted him. He found very quickly that America in 1927 was not "the land of push buttons and mechanized farming that I thought it was." A Russian church in San Francisco provided directions to the nearest Russian community of farmers. Poniatoff was "very disappointed." The farming community was poor. The grape growers and chicken farmers in and around the Petaluma area north of San Francisco worked very hard to make their living without the help of advanced or modern equipment.
So, with typical optimism, he used a portion of his $2,000 to travel around the country, seeing the sights and cities of America. He visited Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, New York and he marvelled at how prosperous most of the nation seemed to be. His tour completed, he decided to use his letter of introduction to General Electric in Schenectady, New York. "The letter was a little too praiseworthy," Poniatoff says in typically modest fashion. "It said I was qualified for jobs I considered way beyond my abilities.
G. E. didn't agree. He was hired as an engineer and immediately assigned to a circuit breaker design group. Another event happened at this stage of his life which aptly characterizes the man destined to launch an important new industry. At his first meeting with General Electric engineers, Poniatoff was befuddled by the technical terms these fast-speaking Americans thrust at him. So he merely took notes at the meeting, saying nothing. The first thing he did at the end of the day was to go to the library to decipher the complicated terms he had written down at the meeting. To his delight, the librarian was a Russian. The man took Poniatoff under his wing, guided his studies, and it was almost a month before Poniatoff said anything at the meetings with the engineers. But when he did, he knew what he was talking about.
A Challenging Assignment
A year later, with two patents issued in his name, he was called into the office of the head of the department. He was told that he would be a project engineer on a new vacuum type of circuit breaker.
Poniatoff said that this was the only time in his life he was hesitant since the project looked too difficult for him. He asked Mr. Rankin, the department head, why he was selected for this project instead of one of the more experienced engineers. Mr. Rankin replied with a smile: "These engineers, because of their great experience, already know that it cannot be done. You are not smart enough yet to know it is impossible, and that's the reason I selected you."
Poniatoff successfully completed the vacuum circuit assignment and with heightened self-confidence decided at last to go to San Francisco. This was in 1930. His goal was to work in the development of new products. Because of the depression, he was unable to find any research and development work. Few companies were risking investment capital on the future. He accepted the one job that was available to him as an engineer with the Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
He never lost sight of his research goals, however, and continued to seek such work. During his search he was told that to spend money in such times on development of a new product, one has to be crazy. Eventually, in 1940, Poniatoff found such a man in Irving Moseley, who operated a small company called Dalmo Victor, which was developing small electrical appliances. In his eagerness for this type of work, Poniatoff offered his first three months' services without pay.
Dalmo Victor was at the time manufacturing permanent wave machines and had problems. The temperature controls of the machine created radio interference, for one thing, and the waves produced were not as permanent as desired. Poniatoff developed a new system that solved these problems. Moseley patented the new controls in Poniatoff's name. The patent was sold and Poniatoff received a portion of the income from the patent.
Meanwhile, Dalmo Victor had been developing an electric razor which when put on the market brought a patent infringement suit from a major manufacturer of electric shavers. Dalmo Victor lost the suit and was forced to reduce expenditures in development work. Poniatoff went back to P. G. & E. At this time he met Helen Hess of San Jose. They were married soon after and settled in Mill Valley near San Francisco.
Still eager for product development work, Poniatoff went to work for Westinghouse in Sunnyvale, and grew fond of the life on the Peninsula.
In 1942, as World War II raged, Poniatoff got a call from his old friend Moseley asking him to come back to Dalmo Victor. Moseley had received a contract to develop Navy Airborne radar scanners. According to the contract, the development of a prototype of the scanner had to be completed in 100 days. Poniatoff quickly accepted.
"The project group went without shaving for days at a time," he recalls. 'The working hours were from seven in the morning until 11 at night."
Founding his Own Company Two of the components in the Dalmo Victor system, sophisticated motors and generators, were virtually impossible to obtain from existing sources. Seeing this as the opportunity for his friend to establish his own company, Moseley suggested that Poniatoff start manufacturing the two needed components.
Poniatoff took his own resources, rounded up a handful of men, outfitted the abandoned furniture loft above the Dalmo Victor plant, in San Carlos, California, and formed the Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company. The Dalmo-Victor building, in which Poniatoff began his company, has since been replaced by a supermarket.
It was November 1, 1944. At 52 years of age, when most men are beginning to plan for retirement, Alexander M. Poniatoff founded his company. The young pilot of World War I, ousted from his homeland by the Communists, was on the threshold of one of the most significant developments in electronics of the century.
Today, as he approaches this month's 77th birthday, Mr. Poniatoff is active as always with various projects. As Chairman of the Board of Ampex, he leaves active management of the corporation to younger men. He heads the company's Alexander M. Poniatoff Laboratory, which is devoted to investigation of advanced and experimental techniques in magnetic recording. He keeps regular hours in his Ampex office and pays fastidious attention to his health. In his office he has an ultraviolet light system and equipment to ionize the air.
He devotes a great deal of his time to the important field of preventive medicine. In his opinion, scientific and technological advances, although benefiting man in many ways, have brought with them a complexity of life which is often detrimental to human health. Medicine and surgery have made great progress, but tensions of big city life, polluted environment, and insufficient contact of man with nature have created many new diseases. Knowledge and understanding of environmental factors including nutrition, he contends, will prevent diseases or reduce their incidence, and as a result will extend man's useful life.
And the passion that radiates from his clear blue eyes makes every visitor share his excitement. He pursues his philosophy through various channels. He takes active part in several foundations which are devoted to medical research and to educational and charitable work. He sponsored and organized the Foundation for Nutrition and Stress Research of which he is the Managing Director.
He says: "A man's life is not complete unless he has made a contribution to humanity." And he thinks the opportunities for making such contributions are numerous: 'The United States still has the greatest potential of any nation in the world. The destiny of man is to be involved in creative work and to acquire new knowledge, and to make new discoveries which are of value and importance to human life and progress."
Mr. and Mrs. Poniatoff live in the spacious home he designed (the late architectural genius Frank Lloyd Wright, who was consulted on plans for the house, sanctioned the entire Poniatoff design except for a fireplace position). While at home, the Poniatoffs spend much of their time gardening. They grow many varieties of fruits and vegetables and experiment with soil conditioning and the addition of chelated minerals and trace elements to improve flavor and nutritional value of garden products.
As a young boy, he was impressed with the Tartar violin music of his neighbors. On his sound system, Poniatoff nostalgically enjoys violin music of Jppofitov-Jvanov, which reflects the Tartar influence.
What kind of equipment does this pioneer of tape recording own? "Ampex. It's the best equipment I could find," he says with a chuckle.
Our Ampex 200A Reel2ReelTexas.com - MOMSR.org - before and after
Third Party Photos
We appreciate all photos sent to our museum. We hope to successfully preserve the sound recording history. If we have not credited a photo, we do not know its origin if it was not taken by the contributor. Please let us know if a photo on our site belongs to you and is not credited. We will be happy to give you credit, or remove it if you so choose.
PLEASE NOTE: NONE OF THE ITEMS PICTURED ON OUR MUSEUM WEB SITE ARE FOR SALE!
Magnetic Reference Laboratory San Jose, CA USt, Assembled over several years, completed 2012-12-24
Cody Bliss came across this Ampex with a 600 name plate on the front of both amps. The Model number on the main plate is S-5051. Haven't see this one previously. We have the Ampex 601-2 in our collections, so this may be an early prototype, or custom made with the additional meter panel plugs.
The Ampex Signature V was offered in the 1963 Neiman-Marcus catalog at a price of $30,000. This behemoth was nine feet long and weighed 900 pounds. It was affectionately called "Grant's Tomb" after Gus Grant, the marketing manager who came up with the idea. The video portion of the system included the Black & White reel-to-reel video recorder with TV tuner and automatic timer as well as a home television camera.
The cabinet also housed a complete audio system including an AM/FM tuner, stereo amplifier, record player, reel-to-reel audio recorder, and stereo loudspeakers. A color TV was viewable from the front of the console, while all other components were accessed from the top. The $30,000 price tag included a personalized plaque and installation by an Ampex service engineer.
The nine foot long center permits the owner to record one program for later viewing while watching another, and video camera takes home movies for immediate playback. This $30,000 unit sold initially only through Neiman-Marcus of Dallas. A personal submarine was also profiled in the catalog.
McIntosh Floor Console with Ampex F-44 tape recorder
Wooster Vintage Audio(From April 2022 Face Book posting - permission to share by Brian, Wooster Vintage Audio)
FACTORY McINTOSH FLOOR MODEL CONSOLE - Well, after months of working on this unique McINTOSH console setup, it's finally completed. Yesterday, Vicki spent all day cleaning and detailing the console and speakers, and I spent the day arranging and hooking all of the components together. By the end of the day, we were ready to listen to this huge, powerful "wall of sound". The sound... WOW
I'm very satisfied with the end result. --- I'll be auditioning this system on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Stop by, if you wanna hear it for yourself. -Brian
McINTOSH L3C floor model console
THORENS TD-124 turntable
McINTOSH MC-7270 power amplifier
McINTOSH C-32 preamplifier
AMPEX F-44 reel-to-reel tape machine
McINTOSH MR-78 tuner
McINTOSH ML-4C speakers (3 pairs)
Mario Jacob Bobadilla - Ampex 351-2 reel to reel tape recorder (photos provided by his Nephew Tim)
From TIM - Working complete 1959 Ampex 351-2. Inherited from my uncle who passed away. Put in storage in 2006 so it has not been serviced since. He bought it new in 1959.
It is said that he recorded Benny Goodman on this machine. More from Mr. Mario Jacob Bobadilla's obituary ... "By the age of eighteen, he was performing in world class venues such as Madison Square Garden and even made it to Carnegie Hall! He spent several years touring the nation employed by various name bands, some of which were: Harry James, Artie Shaw, Phil Harris, Vaughn Monroe, Gene Krupa, Sully Mason, Bob Crosby and Benny Goodman. He was proficient in playing the clarinet, flute, piccolo and alto-saxophone. " more
The following photos were donated to the Museum by Michael Nezis of Athens Greece. It is the Ampex 200A professional reel to reel tape recorder Relay Unit
AMPEX 200A Relay Unit type EP-277.
Made in the USA in 1948 with serial number 4326.
Ax 2
Ampex 400 reel to reel tape recorder built for the military
photos provided to MOMSR by Ed Wilmart , The Obsolete Sound, Lowell, IN
Ampex 300 reel to reel tape recorder new in box uninstalled
The Ampex Alpha 1 Miniature Cassette Tape Recorder
Ampex Model AR-200 7-trac reel to reel instrumentation recorder
In May, 1959 Ampex introduced the first fully transistorized and miniaturized airborne and mobile instrumentation recorder, Model AR-200, a complete 7-track recording system occupying only 1.6 cubic feet of space.
Early to middle 1960s; I majntained and operated them from 1965-1967. That’s the FR-600. Its big brother, the FR-1400, used either 1" or 2" tape, with air-bearing tape guides and tension control based on back pressure from the guides. Max reel size was 14", enough to hold a 9200 foot roll of Memorex 62J tape. Frequency response was 30 Hz to 1500 KHz at 120 IPS. Simply wonderful machines, like a battleship built by Swiss watchmakers.
Dave Rizzo,
Yes. It would be wild overspending, but yes. Not economical at all.
Direct and FM response at
120 IPS: 1,500 KHz 400 KHz
60: 750 200
30: 375 100
15: 187.5 50
7.5: 93.75 25
3.75: 46.875 12.5
The head stacks were enormously expensive, and needed a refurb every few hundred hours; the tape (MRX 62J) also was pricey. But yes, you *could* do 12-track audio.
View David Bockholt's YouTube video of his Dad's 16 mm Ampex FR-600 demonstration. Go to more about David's Dad and the Ampex professional photos donated to MOMSR by David Bockholt • Link to all photos pdf
Below are links to three recordings that may be of interest. The first is a speech given my father, Ampex VP Neal K. McNaughten, in 1958 on the topic of “Augmenting Education with Television”. As best I can tell this was given to a group of educators and/or administrators on the Monterey Peninsula. It was recorded by Ampex and preserved in my father’s recordings. The second and third links are for Ampex Demo tapes, pictures accompanying. Of particular interest are my father's notes on the inside of the "Around the World Tape" about the production costs and the fact that a copy was sent to David Sarnoff. Will (McNaughten) Loving
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