Pioneer RT-701
A low-profile quarter-track reel deck that working studios kept on the shelf next to the two-inch machines.
Period coverage of the deck is sparse. Modern Recording (February 1978, p.78) described a Pioneer reel deck of this family as having a pitch control with a center detent. It varied nominal tape speed over a ±6 percent range. The same description mentions quick-acting solenoid transport pushbuttons.
Overview
The RT-701 shows up in odd places. Flip through the studio listings in back issues of Mix and the deck appears not in a hi-fi rack but as a working tool in commercial rooms. Huddleston's Recording Studio in Dallas listed a Pioneer RT-701 among its tape machines alongside an MCI JH-24 and an Ampex 440 (Mix, May 1982). Chicago Trax ran one next to an Otari MTR-90 and a Tascam 80-8 (Mix, October 1981). This was a consumer-format quarter-track machine that professionals trusted for the odd reference dub or safety copy, not a showpiece.
The most detailed portrait of the deck comes from Audio's own pages. In a February 1999 foreword, the magazine's writer recalled buying an RT-701 in the late 1970s and described it as "an unusual, low-profile machine that took 7-inch reels and had nice, peak-reading meters." That's a fair summary. It's a compact open-reel unit built around the smaller 7-inch reel rather than the 10.5-inch hubs of the big semi-pro machines, and its meters read peaks rather than averaging them away. The same writer noted that recordings made on quarter-track tape at 7½ ips, with some at 3¾ ips, came out "generally very smooth and clean" with only a little background hiss in quiet passages. No noise reduction was involved.
The "low-profile" description can be taken literally. This deck sat low and wide rather than towering over a stack of components.
What the Documentation Actually Says
The surviving period documentation for the RT-701 is thin on hard specifications. The manual excerpts that name the model are studio directory listings and classified ads, not spec sheets. What they confirm is the format, quarter-track with 7-inch reels, and that the deck was common enough in the late '70s and early '80s to appear in professional room inventories across the country, from Seattle (Studio One Sound Recorders, Mix, January 1981) to Dallas to Chicago.
The classifieds give a rough sense of what the deck traded for on the used market by the mid-'80s. A 1984 Audio classified from a retiree downsizing his system listed a Pioneer RT-701 in excellent condition, without case, at $295. The same ad listed a Crown SX-724 at $325 (Audio, January 1984, p.113). The RT-701 was priced within thirty dollars of a Crown quarter-track machine.
Living With One
The practical case for the RT-701 in 2026 is the same one that put it in those studio listings forty-odd years ago. It's a quarter-track 7-inch machine that does the job without demanding a dedicated room. Tapes recorded at 7½ ips on quarter-track are the most common open-reel format in the wild, and a deck that plays them back cleanly, with peak-reading meters that show what's on the tape, is a sensible entry point into the format.
The maintenance picture is the usual open-reel story. Belts, pinch rollers, and head wear are the things to check on any deck of this age, and the RT-701 is no exception. Inspect the heads for flat spots and confirm the transport runs at both speeds before buying. Parts scarcity is real. These machines have no thriving aftermarket of new-old-stock assemblies.
The RT-701 was a quarter-track consumer deck that professionals were willing to keep around. It is documented in the studio directories of its era, and at least one Audio writer made years of recordings on one.
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