About the Company
Metrotech was a U.S. brand of reel-to-reel tape recorders based in Mountain View, California active around the mid-1960s. It is considered a rare and short-lived manufacturer, with limited documentation compared to major brands like Ampex or Scully. The company seems to have been associated with Scully Recording Instruments and the Presto Recording Corporation, possibly as a division, rebadged line, or a closely affiliated business rather than a large independent manufacturer.
Country: United States
Era of activity: Primarily circa 1966
Market: Professional and utility reel recorders
Production History & Timeline
Mid-1960s — Metrotech Emerges
Metrotech’s known production period is centered around the year 1966, when several models of reel-to-reel recorders appeared in catalogs targeted at professional users.
The brand did not have a long documented history — it seems to have existed briefly with a few specific recorder models rather than a decade-spanning lineup. Its machines are rarely seen today, contributing to the brand’s obscure status among tape-recorder collectors.
Product Line & Models
Metrotech offered a small range of professional-oriented reel-to-reel tape recorders and playback units in ¼″ tape configurations, with multiple track formats and features for varied recording needs
500‑A series platform
Metrotech’s core line was the 500‑A series: a family of recorders, reproducers, and logging decks sharing the same 3‑motor, straight‑line threading transport with dual speeds (any two adjacent of 1⅞, 3¾, 7½, 15 ips).
Design features included solenoid‑operated capstan, selectable torque for 7‑ or 10.5‑inch reels, automatic tape lifters, bi‑directional capability with automatic reversing on some models, and NAB‑spec performance on quarter‑inch tape.
Models and configurations
A manufacturer directory lists multiple 500‑A‑series recorders, all ¼‑inch machines but with different track formats and speeds, for example:
531A: full‑track mono, 3¾–7½ or 7½–15 ips
534A: half‑track mono or half‑track stereo, some with auto‑reverse
545A / 546A: quarter‑track stereo, with the 546A offering auto‑reverse
547A: quarter‑track 4‑channel recorderPlayback‑only versions (e.g., 514A, 523A, 525A, 546A reproducers) used the same transport but omitted record electronics, optimised for automation and background‑music playback.
Applications and logging machines
Metrotech literature explicitly promotes these decks for broadcast automation and background music, emphasizing unattended reliability, remote control, and logic‑interlocked transport to prevent tape spills.
Dedicated “Logger” variants ran at very low speeds (down to 1⁄16 ips) using 10.5‑inch reels of thin tape to achieve hundreds of hours of unattended mono recording, typical of telephone, security, and operations logging systems of the era.
Production era and historical role
The technical styling, track formats, and price points (roughly 900–2,300 USD list for various 500‑A models) place Metrotech’s main activity in the late‑1960s to 1970s professional quarter‑inch market, contemporaneous with Magnecord, Scully, and early Otari.
Historically, Metrotech occupies a niche as a specialist U.S. supplier of rugged, utility‑grade reel‑to‑reel machines for broadcast and logging, with no evidence of a parallel consumer hi‑fi line; their decks are remembered by engineers who used them in production rooms and automation chains rather than by home audiophiles.