Overhauled and Refurbished Otari MX-5050 MKII mastering 1/4” reel to reel tape machine

October 2022 update:
After all this work done she has broken my heart. It won’t stop or play out of rewind or FF. It stops and plays just fine on a dime but not out of rew or ff. Uhg. Ive dropped the price $600 until I can get it’ll repaired … AGAIN. Will be servicing it in the new year and price goes back up.

Got it back March 2022 from a complete overhaul and concourse restoration. A massive amount of work has been done on this machine over the last year, TWICE! Here’s the work that was done:

New capacitors, brand new pinch roller, two new shims, new NOS frosted filament bulbs (not the new ugly LED's), new Mic IC chips, new resistors and upgraded audio path components to improve amplifier quality, completely debuged and cleaned, new transport assembly, many of the metal panels were removed, sanded and painted, and an entirely new transport stock silk-screen panel has been swapped out from another one that was mint (original panel text and graphics were worn away), every button switch has been removed and cleaned, and both of the microphone preamplifiers have been serviced and overhauled. Even after that, I took it to ANOTHER tech who re-flowed solder, re-biased the machine, cleaned up the inner chassis, reworked some electronics, etc and paid even more money to get it even further tuned up! It is now the cleanest, most reliable mastering deck on the internet today. Not bad for a 35 year old machine.

No one made a more reliable and sturdy machine in the 80's than the Japanese during this era. The reason these Otari's are climbing in value and desire is because once biased and properly tuned up, they just run and run and run, and need very little maintenance at all. For its age it’s in extremely good condition and needs absolutely nothing except the occasional hose down of contact cleaner in every nook and cranny :)

It has also been properly biased for mastering and is plug and play, ready to roll. While you can certainly get these cheaper (IE: beat to hell and in need of tons of repair like almost all of them out there), you definitely will not find one in better functional condition. In fact, as I list this one, I see there isn't a single one out there that has been properly refurbished... just a dozen junkers being sold as-is well over a grand and most are rack mount units wothout a rolling cart or the meter-over-bridge upgrade. This one, of course, has that option with the original Otari rolling cart (also in mint condition).

I’ve owned a few of these MX-5050’s over the years and this one is unique in that many little things that are almost always missing were in tact, such as the little rubber bumpers underneath the splicing block and the clip meter bulbs that are always burnt out were all there and working, so I felt I had a good donor for a full on concourse restoration. Keep in mind I am not a tech and all the work listed I paid out the nose to have done... twice. The rolling cart is in great condition and doesn’t have a scratch on i either. 
The only physical signs of wear are the front two corners as shown (typical wear for 35+ year old machine). The MDF wood on the corners has been touched up with paint as you can see but other than that it’s actually an incredible condition. The fist tech I hired also touched up all the metal with his own metal paint. Every original feature now works. The Cue section now works again, the edit spooling feature works (very rare indeed), the memory location works and stops perfectly, the pitch control has been repaired and works and even the rubber on the pinch rollers have been replaced with brand new replacements.

It runs very quietly and stops on a dime. It will also pack the tape pancake extremely evenly, showing that it is very well calibrated and the flange spindles are straight as an arrow. A true survivor that has been serviced to last a very long time to come.

INCLUDED: IEC Power Cable, two NAB adapters (shown), virgin reel of Quantegy 1/4" mastering tape shrink wrapped sealed in original packaging, rolling cart. My old personal mastering reels are not included (my music is on them sorry).

SHIPPING NOTICE:
Local buyers will be the ideal customer on this one for sure, due to logistics of shipping a machine like this. Very very heavy and large, so while local NYC/NJ/CT/LI is greatly preferred, shipping on the east coast is probably around 200-300 and I’ll refund the difference if it’s cheaper than 400. Outside of the east coast is $400-600 nationwide due to weight, insurance and handling. Expect to pay more or get a refund of the difference, depending on your location. If you're looking for the best specimen of an MX-5050MKii available on the internet to date, this is it.

RETURNS NOT ACCEPTED ON THIS MACHINE : Best to come see just how amazing it is in person cause if I ship a vintage tape machine across country, I ain't taking it back under any circumstance. That should be obvious. You'll probably need to re-bias it and like ALL vintage electronics (this one has 10x the parts of regular outboard), you can assume stuff will get banged around in shipping and may need a tech to look it over. If you can't come see it in person you should FaceTime with me before purchasing and see that every function works perfectly prior to me shipping this huge item in a box across country. USPS/FedEx/UPS... they're all barbarians. I'll even double box it for you but we all know how heavy boxes get treated by these guys so... no guarantees once it leaves our studio. All sales are final and therefore, item is sold as is to shipping buyers. Local buyers have a couple days to try it and make sure it's what they want. Again, best to come see it working perfectly in person first.

PS - I recently hired a 70 year old local tech upstate NY named Steve to fix a couple of these 5050’s for our shop. He’s on here pedaling Otari mx-5050’s that he “restores” to sell. He “fixed” things I told him not to and gave my pair of MX-5050’s back to me with new problems and charged me quite a bit (transport didn’t work anymore even tho it worked fine prior to delivering them to him). He refused to stand by his promise to get them working perfectly. If you’re buying a tape machine from NY, be careful to avoid him. He soaks pads, pots, switches and buttons in contact cleaner and says he fixed your machine for $600 (contact cleaner destroys carbon pads, buttons, switches and pots btw and is ONLY safe on I/O contacts like xlr and trs jacks… a noob electric engineering mistake and a sign of an amateur). I had to pay someone else to fix this machine twice because of him fyi. Buy safe y’all!

Thanks for looking. Open to trades of any kind studio related, especially outboard. Pls msg me before purchasing to organize logistics if shipping or delivery. Any questions please ask, have a good one ~ JML