Heathkit AD-16

A Magnecord 1020 in kit form - same parts, same factory, and about $170 left in your pocket for tape.

Overview

The AD-16 is a professional four-track stereo recorder sold as a build-it-yourself kit. Heathkit's catalog copy put the savings plainly: build it yourself and save over $170 versus the equivalent Magnecord 1020, because all parts were made at the Magnecord factory. Magnecord had spent years developing tape equipment for the broadcasting and recording industries, and the AD-16 kit carried that same transport and electronics, minus the assembly labor.

The deck records and plays back in four-track stereo or mono at 7½ and 3¾ ips. Sound-on-sound, sound-with-sound (mixing), and echo are on board. The transport is serious hardware, with three separate motors. A hysteresis synchronous capstan motor runs a dynamically balanced flywheel and a ball-bearing inertial stabilizer. Two permanent split-capacitor torque motors drive the supply and takeup reels. Compliance arms keep tape tension correct at all times, and the machine shuts itself off automatically at the end of a reel. Mode changes are all push-button, which the catalog described as instant and gentle. Two VU meters sit on the front panel next to a three-digit digital counter with push-button zero reset. Stereo microphone inputs and headphone outputs are front-mounted for easy access, and each channel has its own gain control. The deck operates in either vertical or horizontal position. It needs an amplifier and speakers for playback, because this is a recorder and not a receiver.

The circuit is all solid-state, with 21 transistors and 4 diodes. Heathkit sold that on cool, instant operation and long life. Frequency response is quoted at ±3 dB from 30 to 10,000 Hz at 3¾ ips, and ±2 dB from 45 to 18,000 Hz at 7½ ips. Signal-to-noise is 48 dB at 3¾ ips and 52 dB at 7½ ips. Speed accuracy is ±1% at 7½ ips and ±2% at 3¾ ips. Wow and flutter is 0.18% rms at 7½ ips and 0.25% at 3¾ ips. Rewind and fast-forward move 1200 feet in 120 seconds or less. The deck takes ¼-inch tape in 1.5, 1.0, 0.75, or 0.5 mil thicknesses, on standard N.A.B. 5-inch and 7-inch reels, and it also takes the smaller 3-inch Magnecord reel. Heads are ¼-track erase, record, and playback.

The kit weighs 45 pounds for the deck and electronics. It sold for $399.50, with terms of $40 down and as low as $23 a month. Three accessories round out the system. The ADA-16-1 walnut base is $19.95 (11 lbs.) and lets the deck sit on a shelf or bookcase. It converts to a tape drawer when paired with the ADA-16-3 slides at $9.95 (6 lbs.). The ADA-16-2 adapter ring is $4.75 (2 lbs.), a brushed extruded aluminum piece for cabinet or wall mounting that supports the deck and covers the rough cuts. The walnut base measures 19¼" W x 14¼" D x 6½" H. The slides mount sideways in Heathkit AE-20W or AE-13S cabinets with the back panel removed or cut out. The standard Heathkit tape recorder drawers, the AEA-12-4 at $19.95 and the AEA-13-1 at $20.00, will not fit the AD-16. The catalog directs buyers to the special drawer provisions on page 28.

Assembly took evenings and weekends. Audio (July 1967, p.38) profiled the kit and estimated that despite the large component count, the electronic work could be completed in about 13 hours, with the recorder finished by roughly the 20-hour mark. Heathkit's own advertising claimed assembly in around 25 hours.

Contemporary coverage treated the AD-16 as a serious machine rather than a hobbyist toy. HiFi-Stereo (January 1967, p.23) ran the kit as a headline item, describing it as a new Heathkit/Magnecord 1020 professional four-track stereo tape recorder kit with all solid-state circuitry, and repeated the $170 savings figure. The same publication's March 1967 issue (p.33) carried the identical pitch, which suggests Heathkit leaned hard on the Magnecord association in its ad campaigns through the first half of the year.

The AD-16 is not a portable field recorder, and it is not a consumer deck with built-in amplification. It's a component. You supply the amp and speakers, mount it in a cabinet, on a wall, or on the optional walnut base, and it becomes part of a system. The three-motor transport and the Magnecord lineage put it above the typical kit deck of the period. The buyer paid for that in assembly time and in the $399.50 kit price, which was real money in 1967, even with the savings.

Heathkit tape decks have a devoted following, and the Magnecord connection gives this one a provenance story that most kit recorders lack. The practical concerns are the usual ones for a machine of this vintage. The transport depends on the torque motors and the capstan motor being in good order, and the heads are the wear item that decides whether a unit is worth restoring or parting out. The accessories are frequently missing, and the walnut base in particular is harder to find than the deck itself. Buyers should expect to source the ADA-16-1 base separately if they want the shelf-mount configuration, and should verify that the special drawer provisions noted in the catalog are intact if the unit is coming out of a cabinet installation. The original assembly manual is the only practical guide to servicing a kit-built machine whose wiring may or may not match the factory schematic.