TEAC Tascam A-3340 4 Track Reel to Reel Tape Recorder

This unit is in exceptional condition and working order.

The Teac A-3440 was the first multitrack tape deck to really bridge the gap between the professional and home studio; its predecessor, the A-3340S, was really an adaptation of a machine originally aimed at the embryo quadrophonic market. It became clear that quadrophonic sound was not going to take off in the way that some people had hoped and this left TEAC with a perfectly good 4 track, quarter inch tape format recorder on their hands and few people prepared to invest in an extra amp and pair of speakers to go with it. "Aha" thought Teac, "I know, we'll stick a set of switches on the head block so that you can monitor from the record head and then lots of people can do their own multitracking". The A-3340S thus entered the homes and hearts of many aspiring recordists. Teac were well chuffed with the response and went on to design a 4 track simul-sync recorder dedicated to easy multi-tracking and overdubbing. The layout for operation was simplified; the most obvious improvement being the removal of the four simul-sync slide switches from the head block and the introduction of a single "sync" push button. The quality of the monitoring signal from the record head of the A-3340S was good enough for time keeping when laying down tracks but its rather stunted bandwidth precluded any serious synchronised track bouncing. The reproduction quality in sync mode on the new model was vastly improved enabling synchronised track bouncing to be carried out with far greater preservation of signal quality though some deterioration in quality was still evident. Headphone monitoring on the original A-3340S had been something of a hotchpotch; there were two headphone sockets labelled "front" and "rear" which were a clear giveaway as to the quadrophonic origins of the machine. Each socket handled the output from one pair of the 4 tracks so some form of mixing was required to monitor more than one pair of tracks at a time. The new model simplified this system down to one headphone socket fed by signals selected by four on/off push buttons, one for each track, and governed by one overall monitor level control. Other design updates were introduced such as a varispeed control, noise reduction insert points and remote control facilities. From the customer feedback generated by the A-3340S the Teac A-3440 was born. Not much of a difference in model number, but a world of difference in operation.