TEAC 7030U (c. 1969–1971)

The TEAC 7030U - usually written A-7030U in period sources - was a serious open-reel stereo tape deck from Teac's late-1960s pro-leaning line. It had a three-motor transport, took 10½-inch reels and ran at both 15 and 7½ ips. Most of what survives about it is Teac's advertising and a published manufacturer's spec panel in Audio (February 1971, p.48). No long-form test report, service manual, or dealer documentation has surfaced in the material reviewed.

That Audio spec panel lists two speeds (15 and 7½ ips) and four heads: two-track erase, record, and playback heads, plus a separate four-track playback head. Three motors drive it - a dual-speed hysteresis-synchronous capstan motor and two eddy-current reel motors. Teac claimed wow and flutter of 0.05% at 15 ips and 0.08% at 7½. Signal-to-noise is 58 dB in two-track and 55 dB in four-track playback, crosstalk is 40 dB at 1 kHz, and frequency response is 40-20,000 Hz ±2 dB at 15 ips and 50-15,000 Hz ±2 dB at 7½. Inputs include microphone (10 kΩ, 0.5 mV min) and line (300 kΩ, 0.1 V min).

Teac's own ads in High Fidelity (July 1969, p.105) and Audio (September 1969, p.75) promised a lot: "unsurpassed sound reproduction," solenoid-controlled operation, tape tension adjustment, instant off-tape monitoring without interrupting recording, sound-on-sound and sound-with-sound, echo, a built-in mike-line mixer, and automatic rewind and shutoff. By August 1971, Audio (August 1971, p.20) was listing a "TEAC 7030 SL Tape Deck" in its equipment roundup, so the U was evidently not the only version of this transport. No price, production numbers, or later history appear in the period sources available.

Known specifications from the period source: