About the Company
V-M Voice of Music was the tape recorder and audio division of the V-M Corporation, an American electronics company founded in 1944 in Benton Harbor, Michigan by Walter Miller. The corporate brand became closely associated with the name “Voice of Music” beginning in the early 1950s, and the company produced a wide range of audio products including record changers, phonographs, consoles, amplifiers and reel-to-reel tape recorders. Although V-M is best known historically for its record changers and OEM components supplied to other manufacturers, it also marketed its own consumer reel-to-reel decks in the mid-20th century. The company remained in business until bankruptcy in 1977, but its reel-to-reel tape recorder production was concentrated in the 1950s and 1960s. V-M reel recorders were manufactured in the United States and were aimed mainly at the consumer and home audio market rather than professional broadcast or studio usage.
V-M made reel-to-reel tape recorders from about 1953 to 1968, with models spanning early tube-based designs through later solid-state consumer decks as transistor technology became standard. The company produced both two-track and four-track machines in voltage configurations suited for North American mains (110–120 volts). The early units used vacuum tubes for amplification and transport control, while later models adopted solid-state electronics for improved reliability and simpler circuitry. V-M’s reel-to-reel products were typically sold as part of console stereo systems, portable tape recorders, or integrated home audio furniture pieces, and they usually supported standard 7-inch reel sizes and common tape speeds of the era.
Among historically documented models are the V-M 700 “Tape-O-Matic” series from the mid-1950s, which were half-track mono tube decks with dual speeds, and later consumer models such as the V-M 735 and V-M 740, which offered quarter-track mono or stereo playback with multiple speeds and a more refined control layout. A later example, the V-M 722, was a solid-state quarter-track stereo recorder released in the early 1960s with controls for stop, record, play, fast-forward and rewind, and with built-in tone controls and level adjustment.
Voice of Music tape recorders were part of a broader product ecosystem including speakers, amplifiers and consoles, making them typical of mid-century consumer audio gear rather than high-end or professional studio equipment. Although not as famous as some Japanese or European reel-to-reel makers, V-M decks are now collectible as examples of American domestic tape recorder design from the era. As compact cassette tape and other formats supplanted open-reel machines, V-M discontinued its reel-to-reel models by the late 1960s as retail demand declined. V-M Corporation then exited most consumer audio product lines by the early 1970s as the market shifted, culminating in its corporate closure in 1977.