The MX-5050 in the Period Press

The MX-5050's US launch story and the earliest Mini-Pro print on this site: Earl Paige's "Otari Will Adapt Retailing Modes" — the $1,345 two-channel launch price, Brian Trankle's 30-day-trial retail plan, and a captioned photo of the machine. The article is on page 67 of the PDF (printed page 51).

The follow-up a week after the launch story: Billboard's AES show report notes "much interest in the new MX-5050 'Mini-Pro' professional recorder" at Otari's booth and adds the four-channel price — $1,945 alongside the $1,345 two-channel. A single paragraph, so no transcribed excerpt — the quotes on the history page are the whole sighting. Find it on page 71 of the PDF (printed page 35).

Otari's own full-page ad in db, The Sound Engineering Magazine — "MINI-PRO! Little brother to the MX-7000--the MX-5050" — the maker's name for the machine in print, already listing the optional DC capstan servo. It ran in the same month the machine launched at the New York AES, alongside Billboard's launch report. The ad is on page 33 of the PDF (printed page 31).

The first sighting outside the US: London distributor ITA's 'New Products' ad for the MX-5050 at £440 + VAT (page 5 of the PDF), and the same issue's trade-show report noting the machine on ITA's stand — with the 'Mini-pro' name — Otari's own — already in print (page 63 of the PDF, printed page 65).

The period review: George W. Tillett's Equipment Profile of the MX-5050-2SH at $1,450, with measurements and the famous warning that the manual is "written for engineers". The MX-5050 feature starts on page 56 of the PDF (printed page 60).

Otari's advertisement in db, giving the two-channel machine's pitch in the maker's own words — 68 dB S/N, 19 dB headroom, 60 dB crosstalk, and an "optional variable speed dc capstan servo". Its closing sentence is the most useful line of period copy on this site: the MX-5050 is "also available in four channel (¼ inch) and eight channel (½ inch), the eight channel with dc capstan servo as standard" — optional on the two-track, standard on the eight, from Otari, in 1976. The ad is on page 32 of the PDF (printed page 30).

The Australian period review — of the MX-5050-2SHT, the exact designation on my deck's rear plate. Brief but rich: it decodes the 2SHT designation (15/7.5 in/s, four-head assembly), documents the flat-belt capstan drive and 6-pole induction reel motors, and names the Australian distributor, Klarion Enterprises — whose sticker is still on my machine. The review is on page 23 of the PDF (printed page 21).

Audio's Annual Equipment Directory, where the whole Otari line lands in three rows of a comparison table. It is the site's only period price for the four-channel MX-5050-QX ($2,195), and its capstan column is the quiet find: the plain MX-5050's cell carries both a hysteresis and a dc capstan, while the QX and the eight-track carry dc alone — the option-versus-standard split, printed in a consumer annual. The same table also gets one thing wrong: it lists an idler capstan drive for all three Otari machines, where the site's one bench review — Electronics Australia's, of the base two-channel machine — describes a belt drive; the QX and eight-track have no period bench evidence of their capstan drive at all. The Otari rows are on page 108 of the PDF (printed page 110).

The 'Survey: Studio Mastering Machines' — where the UK trade press prints "MX-5050 Mini-Pro" as the model designation itself, not a nickname. The Otari section also lists the one-inch 8-track MX7308 and a half-inch, eight-track MX-5050-8 at $4000. The Otari entries are on pages 50 and 52 of the PDF (printed pages match).

Studio Sound's preview of the 55th AES convention: "Three new professional recorders are being introduced by the Otari Corporation." Two of them are first-generation variants missing from this site's model list until now — the four-channel MX-5050-QX, which the magazine calls a "compact four track recorder", with an integral dc capstan servo and ±10% speed correction, and the full-track MX-5050 FL. The third is the half-inch eight-channel MX-5050-8, a different machine. The round-up is on page 31 of the PDF (printed page 33).

The 1976 model-year directory listing the MX-5050-2SH, the four-track 4SH ($1,420) and the DC-servo varispeed 2SH-2 ($1,650) — period proof of the first-gen line-up and prices. The MX-5050 listings are on page 86 of the PDF (printed page 84).

Otari's full-page line-up ad in db — nine machines, photographed and numbered. It is the primary evidence that the MX-5050 MARK II was a real, advertised product sold beside the first generation: the MX-5050-2S is reason 1 (with "Optional dc capstan servo"), and the Mark II-2 and Mark II-4 are reasons 5 and 6 — desk-top consoles with separate transport and electronics, and DC servo as standard. The ad is on page 9 of the PDF (printed page 5).