Ampex Model 600
A 28-pound portable that broadcast engineers trusted to bring back recordings as good as anything cut in the studio.
Overview
Twenty-eight pounds, in a Samsonite case, with the transport, the electronics, and the third head all packed inside. That was Ampex's pitch for the Model 600, and it's why the machine spent years in the back of station wagons and on location trucks. The 600 was not a consumer toy dressed up in a suitcase. It was a professional recorder that happened to weigh less than a case of tape.
The third head sets the 600 apart from most portables of its day. Ampex's own advertising for the 600-620 combination pointed out that the engineer could monitor the recording as it was being made, off the playback head, so there was no guesswork about whether the take was good. Richard Parks, assistant chief engineer at ABC's San Francisco operation, said in a period testimonial that the 600 was light, compact, and that its fidelity and timing accuracy left nothing to be desired. He noted that field recordings brought back on a 600 matched what the studio could produce on an Ampex 350. That's a strong claim, and Ampex used it to sell the machine to broadcasters.
The 600 was sold as a system, not a standalone box. Pair it with the Model 620 amplifier-speaker and you had a complete portable playback and PA rig. The 620 carried a 10-watt amplifier in an acoustically correct case, flat from 60 to 10,000 cycles, weighing 25 pounds, and priced at $149.50. It was housed in a Samsonite luggage-type case that matched the 600, with the power and audio inputs and a 110-volt output receptacle set into a well in the side. The 600 itself listed at $545.00. Together the two pieces were pitched as fidelity anywhere - home, wall or cabinet installation, trips, visits to friends - and the whole thing lifted out of a custom installation in seconds.
The 620's input was high impedance, so it would accept a record player or turntable, a pre-amplified microphone, or an AM-FM tuner in addition to the tape recorder. Output was rated excellent to about 8 watts, which the documentation called more than enough for the average room. Tone compensation was a single control with the zero position at center for flat response. Bass gain ran to a maximum of 8 dbm at full bass, with 6 dbm of high-side gain indicated at 10,000 cycles. The 620 could also serve as a portable PA, a monitor for broadcasters, an auditioning unit for ad agencies, or a sound demonstration unit for music stores. Ampex listed all of those uses in its own announcement.
According to Mix (October 1985, p.108), the 600 inspired the first home stereo player, the Model 612 with its 620 speakers, in 1955, and helped start the pre-recorded stereo tape industry. Bing Crosby Enterprises represented Ampex until Crosby sold his Electronics Division to 3M in 1957, and Crosby is pictured with the prototype of the 600 in its Samsonite case. Audio (January 1955, p.2) ran the ABC testimonial under the headline "Our Best Portable Recorder Yet."
A buyer today needs patience. The 600 is a tube-era transport with the mechanical complexity that implies. The Samsonite case is part of the appeal, but it's also part of the problem, because the latches, hinges, and internal mounting all have to be sound for the unit to travel the way it was designed to. The 620 amplifier-speaker is a separate purchase and often missing from listings, and the 600-620 combination is the complete system Ampex sold. A 600 without its 620 is still a professional recorder. Buyers should expect to find the two pieces separately and budget accordingly.
The 600 turns up in period classifieds with some regularity. A 1957 issue of a tape recording magazine listed one described as indistinguishable from brand new, carrying case spotless, shipping in the factory carton, at $350 or best offer. The 600 was expensive enough new that used examples held real value. A complete stereo outfit - 600 reproducer, two 620 speakers in Samsonite, plus roughly $200 worth of tape - was advertised at $800 in the same era. Today's buyers should expect to pay for condition and completeness, and should expect the 620 to be the harder half to find.
The 600 is not a machine to buy for casual playback of old tapes. It's a professional instrument with a professional control layout, built for people who monitored as they recorded and cared about timing accuracy. It's the recorder ABC sent out after program material because the results came back as good as the studio. It won't dub cassettes.
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