Ampex

Ampex was founded in San Carlos, California in 1944 by Alexander Poniatoff. The company's technology had a direct lineage from wartime Germany: after the fall of Nazi Germany, US Army Signal Corps officer Jack Mullin discovered AEG Magnetophon tape recorders — then the most advanced in the world — in a Frankfurt radio studio and brought two machines and 50 reels of tape back to the US. His 1946 demonstrations sparked enormous interest. Bing Crosby hired Mullin to record his radio shows, and Ampex subsequently developed the Model 200 — the first Model 200 delivered to Crosby in 1948 introduced professional tape recording to American broadcasting.

Through the 1950s, 60s and 70s Ampex defined the American professional tape recorder market — the Ampex 350, 351, 440, MR-70, AG-440, and the ATR series for mastering and broadcast. The ATR-100 mastering deck (introduced 1976) became the reference 2-track for major US studios; the ATR-700 was the broadcast-friendly half-track for studio and location production. Ampex tape transports were chosen for their precision, build quality, and the rigorous Q.C. that came from the company's broadcast-industry roots.

Ampex is primarily covered on the Tape Machines archive page — this brand entry exists on the Consoles page to host ATR-series advertising that ran in the recording press during the late 1970s.