Magnetic Tape Recorder Inc. & Stereo Center — Local services in Louisville

I have been into HiFi since 1971! My new Step-father brought home a little Pioneer SX-440, a Dual 1219 turntable and a bunch of what is now considered classic rock. This system was pushing very large homemade speakers the size of the old Klipsch La Scala, with a 12 inch Utah three way speaker tucked in side the large box lined with fiberglass home insulation. This system was all I knew for the next 7 years until my Uncle's best friend bought a Pioneer monster reciever of about 120 watts, hpm-100's and the Technics Sl-1300. This guy's system blew what we had at home out of the water. As time went by I had the pleasure to audition many other impressive systems in my exciting, wild young life. My desire for a great sounding system was strong and growing.

30 years later I started collecting vintage stereo equipment. My mother gave me her Pioneer Sl-1020L magnetic tape deck, which hadn't been turned on in 20 years because the power cord went bad. It turned out to need much more than a cord although the cosmetics were very good. Over the years I bought as many monster receivers I could find in good shape along with a number of the old Polk Audio Monitor and SDA series speakers. Recently I got a pair Thiels and a High Current Adcom 555II. I called Joseph to make sure the Adcom was fixable. He gave me the low down on a couple different high current amps I was watching.

My problem with this obsolete stuff had been trying to find someone good to fix them when they needed it, which is often. My local shop did alright over the years most of the time. But I wanted to find someone who would restore these completely instead of just doing what it took to get them to play, which comes back to bite you soon as the next old part breaks soon after getting it out of the shop.

My Reel to Reel tape deck was the culprit that made me go looking for someone competent, as my old shop said they fixed it but that wasn't true and when I took it back they told me they no longer worked on reel to reels.

What a blessing that turned out to be. I found this place soon after and even though it is 90 minutes from home it is well worth the drive to do business here. I was so impressed with Joseph when he took my Reel to Reel and tested all functions right in front of me. In fact he had his own SL-1020L hooked up in the show room and confirmed it was a good piece of equipment. Much to my delight he told me he could fix it completely which he did! And I mean they fixed everything. It works like new.

Then he took the Pioneer SX-440 and tested every function along with opening it up and pointing out possible issues. I really enjoyed the teaching I was getting. He told me it could be three months before they get to it, but I didn't care as it seemed as if my search for a great repair shop had been found! Both units were ready for pick up in a little less than three months and I am here to say they sound fantastic. The tape deck sounds better than my Master Quality Tidal music. The little 18 watt Pioneer SX-440 is now my go to sound other than the High Current system which is in a dedicated listening room. Yes I like it's sound better than the Pioneer 1010, Kenwood 9400, Sherwood 9010 and all the other monster receivers I play with in my bedroom. I have taken more stuff to Magnetic Tape and Stereo and will continue to do the same as long as Joseph lets me in the door as some of my projects are challenging to say the least.

Thank you Magnetic Tape and Stereo. The original owner is proud, I am sure, of your great team! As my passion for these old sound systems continues to evolve it seems I may need to start a vintage HIFI museum which will have good...

A response to the lies the young man at the front counter responded with. he can say anything he wants in his response. go in and let him tell you they don't place anything on the shelves that does not hit ebay first, so looking to buy you go a look at the junk they have left over. They sell it on ebay like he said :"it does not have a warranty", also my dislike has nothing to do with his direct demeanor, if anything I was more direct than him, what I didn't appreciate is driving 30 minutes to be told all the "good stuff" gets sold on ebay. not in the store...I could have done that from home... all for sale items I was told had some issue like "if a SDK pack blew" we would never be able to repair that unit again, again exactly why you are selling it in your shop and not ebay, because no one wants it. And you stated specifically I could set a $250 budget and you would not go over that unless it absolutely needed it to run properly "as you didn't want it to come back on you" your words not mine.... and that you wound force me to complete the upgrade or I would not get any work completed by your teams "because you only do complete repairs" again your words not mine.. so yeah, keep on lying in public and skewing the truth in private. great work. If you have had a good experience here I am happy for you. i for one hope the current owner does not sell or give the business to you, as you will ruin it if you haven't already. clean you shop by the way that place...

Middle Tennessee resident here. My Onkyo Integra TA-2600 tape deck was in need of repair (specifically, the real-time counter was reporting a wildly incorrect "time consumed" and endlessly calculating the "time remaining"), and nobody local to me was nearly as highly rated as MTR in Louisville. I dropped off my unit on our way to Michigan for a wedding and they agreed to ship it back to me at home after it was serviced.

The unit arrived several weeks later packaged very thoughtully. There was a small mishap—when they cleaned and relubed the gears and wheels, they inadvertently removed some painted lines from the internal spindles that a sensor uses to determine tape speed (from there, the counter mechanism calculates how much tape is on each reel). They provided a return label, I packed it up in a custom box and shipped it back, where they carefully hand painted those lines back onto the spindles and sent it back in an old box and it's working perfectly now! I couldn't be happier with the unit's performance. Thank you MTR for taking care of my...