I just boght a 244 Tandberg tape deck at a yard sale-for $5.00. It looks to be in good shape.
My question: is magnetic tape a totally dead medium? Will this acquisition ever be worth anything?
I know nothing about the Model 244. Tandberg had a decent-to-good reputation in Europe, but never had much of a following in the U.S.
To answer the broader question, yes, magnetic tape is all but dead. I have a very, very good deck that I’ve used maybe three times in the last 10 years, and only to play old tapes that I wanted to digitize. An audiophile might want one as a collector’s item, but most audiophiles already have a favorite unit they use. As a collectable, of course it depends on its vintage, appearance, working condition, whether it came with the original manuals, etc.
Here’s another eBay section with some Tandberg stuff.
There is a thriving “retro” movement in recording studios where, even though the project is being recorded digitally, they will send some tracks to analog tape just as an effect.
But they’ll usually use much higher end tape recorders using 1/2" 2-track tape.
I have a 1/4" 2-track machine in a box in the closet that can record at the professional speed of 15 ips, but it has not been out of it’s box in 15 years. Every camera I own has better audio quality and I have no romantic attachment to the sound of analog tape saturation.
Better sell it quick, it self-destructs in five seconds.
There will always be a market for old machines to play libraries of old tapes. I know little about that model, but if you can clean it up and verify that it works and isn’t too worn, it may fetch a nice price on eBay. Quite a few high-end consumer decks are selling for a pretty penny there right now. I bought an old Akai 360 there a few years ago and the prices for the best Pioneer, Sony and Teac models were out of sight.
Your biggest problem might be parts like rubber ones that have turned to stone. Still, there are collectors that are making new parts just for that purpose.