Feinwerktechnik Reels Now Available in the US

[MylesBAstor]

Pro Audio Ltd. is proud to announce they are now the exclusive importer of the fabulous Feinwerktechnik tape reels for "real" tape-heads. First seen at the recent München show, these "precision" reels are manufactured on CNC machines by Feinwerktechnik in Bavaria to NAB specifications from 1.5 mm stock aircraft aluminum. The cut-outs are laser-cut assuring balanced, wobble-free performance. Reels are Available in 10.5, 12, and 7” versions.

Pro Audio Ltd. will be showing/selling the Feinwerktechnik reels at RMAF 2017. Demos will be done on our Studer B62, ReVox A700, and PR99 with various one-off master tapes.

10.5” reels are $100 retail, 7” and 12” to be determined shortly. Limited stock available now.

For further information contact Brian Tucker:

Pro Audio Ltd.
email: [email protected]
Phone: 847-526-1660

[MylesBAstor]

[MylesBAstor]

Think I asked for the top right reel for review. 😄

[JCOConnell]

I like the blue one

[Garth]

Now their is a name that just rolls off the tongue feinwerktechnic just go to the store I want the empty reel with the longest name

[[email protected]]

From the pics the basic construction design (sans the cut out design options) looks similar to a blank ATR Reel. Will look for a review before I make a purchase decision.

[jonathanhorwich]

Not sure what a blank ATR reel is as all current reels are made by one or two manufacturers and are not great as it is expensive to make a good reel these days. These Feinwerktechnik reels being sold by Pro Audio are much heavier construction and so far they work flawlessly in my studio, Very fine reels. Don't confuse the two as one is cheap, often wobbly, and the other is so far flawless. Hope this helps.

[lance002]

I have yet to find any reel, new ATR, vintage, or current offerings with or without tape except these German-made reels that do not wobble on my deck at slow rewind speeds (I never rewind at full speed). These machined reels are heavy and quiet; I wonder if this leads to better sound.

Highly recommended.

[MylesBAstor]

From the pics the basic construction design (sans the cut out design options) looks similar to a blank ATR Reel. Will look for a review before I make a purchase decision.

I hope they are better than ATR reels. They're really cheaply made and the quality of ATR reels is all over the place. I've had some that were horribly warped or out of balance.

One big difference to note. These reels use five rather than three screws. I've had way too many instances lately of all three screws coming lose or even being lost. Especially before became keyed into the problem. Five screws gives me better piece of mind!

In addition, the ATR reels are stamped rather than machined like these on the Reeltronix reels. Not sure what's up with the Reeltronix reels. I was promised one for review ages ago but nothing has materialized. Saw reportedly Greg Beron had one of the new Reeltronix reels and was going to review it. But nothing there either. Anyone recently order and receive their Reeltronix reels?

[[email protected]]

Thx, yes I wondered about the reeltronix as well and recall Greg was supposed to do a review for PF.

[timztunz]

I got my Feinwerktechnik reels and have to say I'm duly impressed with them. Great build quality, seem very well balanced and "substantial" feeling. I'm probably the newest guy to tape in this entire forum so some of this may seem pretty mundane, so please bear with me. I have no idea why take up reels would grab my fancy as they have, but they have. So I've purchased 4 different ones so far. I know the adage "don't sweat the small stuff", but sometimes I have a hard time deciding what the small stuff is. One of the other brands I got was Righteous Reels. They too have 5 screws and better than average. While maybe not quite the same build quality (or price) of the Feinwerktechnik, they do have one feature I like. It's that little slot to thread the end of the tape into to begin take up. Without it I just let the tail out the side and use the adhesive to hold it down. I read somewhere to NEVER use the adhesive to hold it like that. What say the experts on this? What do you do?

[jonathanhorwich]

Correct. Never use the adhesive ever to hold the tape down. Hard to explain how to do it correctly in a short write-up but you basically hold the end of the tape down on the hub of the reel and turn the reel so the next layer of tape holds that end down and in place. Slowly hand-wind with some tension on the reel and it will grab and hold ready to rewind. When firmly grabbing then and only then hit rewind.

[dcc]

I have several reels from them. They also supply Open Reel Records and STS. In Europe, the reels are sold direct on EBAY by Tonbandspule.de which is a division of Feinwektechnik.

[lance002]

+1 and if you buy 10, 15 or 20 through eBay the shipping from Germany to US remains the same dollar amount as shipping for 5 reels; each reel comes in a superb cardboard box (either gray or blue).

[kcin]

How do you order these in NA ? any website?

[timztunz]

I sent an email to Brian Tucker at Pro Audio. The contact info is in Myles original post.

[MylesBAstor]

[MylesBAstor]

There's another plus to their reels. They come in a 14-inch version. Not so much for audiophiles but for recording engineers where 14-inch reels are highly sought after for 30-ips recordings.

[dcc]

As I am about to get 12-inch pancakes, I ordered 12 inch-reels from Tonbandspule.de. You get a discount when you are buying a batch of 5 reels. You can see the direct comparison between their 10,5-inch and 12-inch reels (same design). As usual, the quality is top notch (what else would you expect from Bavaria?). I am seriously considering buying some additional 10,5 reels to replace the few awfully wobbling ones that I have in my tape collection.

[MylesBAstor]

Nice tape packing.