Tape Loops / Record Loops

Did any company ever make a preamp with three or more recording loops? I have two cassette decks (actually three but I don’t mind one being playback only), a CD recorder and a minidisc deck. Plus I am planning on building a computer with a sound card with RCA inputs so I can make portable copies of our records. The two cassette decks I wish to record with also both have a different sound to each other (one is ultra clean, the other is pleasent) so I’d like to be able to record with both. Does such a preamp exist?

Over my time in the hobby I’ve had two pre amps and both had two tape loops. The first was a Carver C1 and now I have a Mark Levinson No. 28. Not a very big sample, I know. My brother has a Crown straight line 2 and it only has two tape loops as well. Thinking of friend’s systems I can’t think of any. Most of them don’t own tape decks or turntables. Increasingly, I’m the odd ball still owning a CD player.

Ahhh. The multiple tape deck / processor days…

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Down to demand I think - once audiophiles moved away from both tape recording, and external processors (which was the more useful aspect of tape loops in the 80s and 90s) they pretty much disappeared. Shame.
Making up tape loop switching (e.g. using relays etc.) is relatively easy to do, in theory to any number of loops, and doesn’t require active electronics - the vast majority of preamps and integrated amps with tape loops had passive switching.

I’m just finishing up a couple of preamp-style boxes I’ve been building, 1 has 1 loop, 1 has 2, I did consider three, but they are only small cases so ran out of room for RCAs on the back :slight_smile:

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Should have known someone would make such a think.