Eico RP-100W

A four-track stereo tape deck that Eico sold assembled and wired for $395 - and which the surviving documentation can't quite agree on.

Overview

The RP-100W is one of those Eico products where assumptions get you in trouble. Most sources call it a reel-to-reel tape deck - a four-track stereo machine, sold completely assembled, wired and tested. Eico's own March 1961 advertising in Audio (March 1961, p.15) listed it at $395.00. Surviving manufacturer documents conflict, though, showing both $395.00 and $399.95 for the RP-100W, with a companion RP-100K kit version offered alongside. That much is consistent. Nearly everything else is not, and anyone researching this machine should know that going in.

One page of surviving documentation describes the RP-100W as a tube amplifier - a 35 W per channel push-pull EL84 design with a pair of 12AX7 drivers, output taps for 4, 8 and 16 ohms, 16 db of negative feedback and a damping factor of 15. Every one of those figures comes from a single spec sheet shared by two sources, with no independent corroboration anywhere in the record. It is almost certainly a data error, possibly a mix-up with an Eico amplifier of the period, and should be treated that way. But it exists, it circulates, and a buyer who searches for "RP-100W specs" will find it. Multiple sources identify the RP-100W as a tape deck, so the amplifier description is the outlier, and its specs are unverified.

The naming is a small puzzle of its own. One source calls the RP-100W the "kit-built version of the EICO RP-100." Another states the opposite: the "W" suffix presumably denotes the factory-wired version, with the RP-100K being the kit. The second reading matches Eico's usual convention and the March 1961 advertising. But that source hedges with "presumably," and the contradiction is unresolved in the record. Collectors should note both claims rather than pick a winner.

Key Features

Four-Track Stereo Tape Deck

The RP-100W is described as a four-track stereo tape deck, sold completely assembled, wired and tested. That last part is notable for Eico, a company whose identity was built on kits. The RP-100W was the version you didn't have to build. It was marketed alongside Eico's ST96 tuner and ST70 amplifier kits, which suggests the system Eico imagined around it: a kit-based hi-fi with one factory-wired component in the middle.

The "W" Suffix and the RP-100K Companion

Eico's March 1961 advertising in Audio (March 1961, p.15) listed the RP-100W at $395.00 with a companion RP-100K kit also offered. The "W" presumably denotes the factory-wired version and the "K" the kit, though the source that states this hedges the claim. Against that, one source describes the RP-100W itself as the kit-built version of the RP-100 - a direct contradiction that the surviving documentation does not resolve. Both designations did exist and were sold together.

The Disputed Amplifier Spec Sheet

For the record, and with heavy caveats: the single spec sheet that describes the RP-100W as an amplifier lists 35 W per channel from four EL84 output tubes in push-pull, driven by a pair of 12AX7s. Frequency response is given as 20-20,000 cps ±1 db, IM distortion under 1% at 35 W, hum and noise 75 db below rated output, sensitivity 0.35 V for rated output into a 500K input impedance, and power consumption of 120 W. The rectifier is described inconsistently even within that document - a 5AR4/GZ34 tube rectifier in one listing, silicon diode rectifiers in another, a contradiction the source itself flags as needing a schematic to resolve. None of this should be attributed to the RP-100W as a tape deck. It is included here because it is in the record, and it is unverified and internally inconsistent.

Historical Context

Dating the RP-100W is not straightforward. One heading places it at 1959. A Reverb listing title reads 1960. The March 1961 advertising in Audio (March 1961, p.15) confirms it was on sale by that spring at $395.00. No single consistent production year has been established, and no end date is documented. The related RP-100 - not the W - is separately dated 1962-1965 on one page, and was promoted by 1963 as a "professional transistor stereo tape deck" in Audio (May 1963, p.13), which suggests the model line moved toward transistors over time. That is a suggestion in the source, not a documented fact, and it should not be extended to the RP-100W without a document that ties the two together.

What is documented: Eico was the Electronic Instrument Company of Flushing, New York, and the RP-100W was sold as part of a kit-oriented system alongside the ST96 tuner and ST70 amplifier. The $395.00 price applied to the RP-100W as a four-track stereo tape deck, completely assembled, wired and tested. A separate figure of $299.95 kit / $399.95 wired appears for the RP-100 (non-W) in other sources and should not be conflated with the RP-100W price.

Collectibility & Value

The RP-100W is scarce, and the market record shows scarcity rather than any established value. A Reverb seller described it plainly: "You probably haven't heard Eico made a reel to reel, but if you know, you know...this is a very hard to find piece." That same listing noted the unit had been tested and operated, and came with an extra belt, a folder of schematics and information, and a cloth cover. No sold or asking price was captured for that listing.

An aggregator page lists "rp-100w prices" in a range of $135.15 - $990.00, but the context is unclear. It appears to be a parts or aggregator listing rather than confirmed sales of complete decks, and it should not be read as a market value. The eBay activity that surfaces for the RP-100W is largely for paper: a 1961 Eico reel-to-reel RP-100W tape deck ad bundled with an ST96 tuner listing, at $9.95. That is an advertisement, not the machine.

Service documentation is thin. Eico appears in the brand list at antiqueradioschematics.org for vintage tape recorder service manuals and schematics, but the RP-100W specifically is not confirmed in the captured text. A buyer should confirm the machine's identity before purchase, since the amplifier-versus-tape-deck confusion in the record means listings and descriptions can't be taken at face value. No common failures, no repair history, and no owner impressions of sound quality have surfaced in the available documentation.