About the Company
Motek was a small British tape deck manufacturer active in the 1950s–1960s, best known for supplying bare transport decks that other firms built into complete domestic tape recorders under various brand names (notably Robuk and RGD).
Origins and role
Motek appears among the many post‑war British tape‑recorder makers that emerged as open‑reel recording took off, alongside firms like Lane, BSR and Collaro.
Contemporary accounts describe Motek as primarily a deck supplier: Motek transports went into finished machines sold by other brands rather than as stand‑alone Motek‑badged recorders.
Relationship with Robuk and others
A well‑documented collector discussion notes that “Motek and Robuk are the self‑same from Sam Korobuk; Moteks were only supplied as transport decks, ‘Robuk’ was the complete tape recorder.”
In British market lists, Motek and Robuk are catalogued as separate entries, reflecting the distinction between the OEM transport (Motek) and the finished consumer machines (Robuk, and sets sold by brands such as RGD).
Production period and market position
Motek decks appear in the context of the early 1950s boom, when British dealers moved from kit‑built recorders to offering complete machines using proprietary decks like Lane and, “soon joined by the new Motek.”
This places Motek’s main production window roughly from the early/mid‑1950s into the 1960s, targeting the budget to lower‑mid domestic market rather than professional or studio use.
Technical character of Motek decks
Period descriptions group Motek with simple domestic decks used in badge‑engineered, catalogue‑market tape recorders, suggesting fairly basic, single‑motor transports intended for ¼‑inch tape and mono operation.
Surviving machines discussed by collectors (for example Motek‑based RGD mono recorders) are typical British domestic units: compact chassis, integrated valve amplifier, and modest reel capacity suitable for home recording and speech.
Decline
The broader British open‑reel industry peaked around 1960 with more than 70 brands and then rapidly contracted under pressure from Compact Cassette and Japanese imports.
As with many small British makers of the era, Motek seems to have disappeared by the late 1960s, leaving only scattered surviving machines and documentation in collectors’ circles.