VINTAGE TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVE / AUDIO / FOSTEX / D-160

Fostex D-160 (c. 1997)

The D-160 is a 16-track digital hard disk multitrack recorder. It was Fostex's late-1990s move into affordable nonlinear recording. It records 16 tracks of 16-bit audio at 44.1 kHz. When Studio Sound (December 1997, p.16) reviewed it, Rob James wondered whether it might signal the end of budget tape machines. Fostex aimed it squarely at the price-conscious project-studio market.

The surviving record is thin but specific. The D-160 came with optical SPDIF. The Studio Sound review noted two blank panel slots for option boards, and the first, Model 5041, added eight inputs. The front-panel display carried dedicated status and mode indicators along the right, and the review noted there was no track display. Fostex's own advertising in Mix (December 1997, p.67) stated the headline spec plainly - 16 tracks, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz - and the ads continued through late 1998.

EQ (September 1997, p.108) traced Fostex's long history of performance-per-dollar firsts: the A-8 open-reel 8-track on quarter-inch tape, the X-15, and the B-16 - a 16-track deck under $10,000 that became one of the best-selling 16-track machines of its era. The D-160 was presented as the digital continuation of that line.

Little else is documented about the D-160 today - a couple of trade-press reviews and a run of ads. What's consistently recorded: