Gene Bohensky, the owner and founder, has been addicted to reel to reel tape recording since he was 4. He learned on his Dad’s Sony TC-355 and later got a Webcor 210 at a garage sale at 8 years old to work on. In high school he bought his first Teac, an X-300, and wore the heads out on it, so he traded it for a Pioneer RT-909. Later, he just had to get an Akai GX-747. Later he had a Revox B-77 and a bunch of Teacs. After college he outfitted his own recording studio, using Tascam 38s and MSR16s, mastering to a pair of BR-20s – and that’s where got his experience with all the pro tapes and of course sticky shed first hand.
After the studio switched to digital he opened up “Rosemont Media Transfer” in 1999 to transfer reel to reel tapes to digital for clients, a business he still runs. This is where the bulk of experience on tape longevity comes from – seeing how the tapes perform after 50, 60 or even 70 years. For the most part, he found that even tapes filled with mold and previously submerged in water will play like the day they were recorded. He discovered that Reel to Reel Tapes are a true archival medium like no other in the world.
At home he runs a pair of Tascam 3030s to play music in the house, especially At Christmas where the old prerecorded tapes on Acetate are brought out – some over 60 years old. This year, during the pandemic, he made a discovery using his Tascam 3030 to record HD audio to some old tapes hanging around. He realized they could be made 100% useful for state-of-the-art recordings. These tapes, and the recorders that use them – are NOT an obsolete medium. They are as up to date as any recording medium today. They can be used to make near perfect recordings from any sound source, even using tapes that are 60 years old. The quality and longevity of these tapes after 60 years is quite frankly astonishing, and goes against experience in virtually any other consumer technology.
After lots of testing and research confirming the years of experience, Gene decided to start a business to spread the word, to provide refurbished tapes at good prices to allow more people to rediscover and enjoy the passion for analog tape recording on reel to reel!