DAP1 needs serviced........

[microburst]

"the PCM R500 was by far the most unreliable"

You must have had a lemon - I have rarely heard of problems with the R500

I agree with the Lemon comment - I found the R500 to be the most reliable of any deck I ever used for playback and over the years I owned or had in my posession for extended periods 90% of the decks mentioned above.  FWIW, I also found Panasonic SV-3700 and SV-3800 decks to be less than reliable.

[One Cylinder]

... Maybe someone @ Sony had it out for me.  Not only was my R-500 unreliable but my D7 was complete dud.  The D7 spent more time being serviced than in field. 

[H₂O]

My da-p1 was in the shop more then it was in the field - probably every 40-50 hours of use

My Panasonics went to the shop about every 150-200 hours of use

My D8 about every 80-100 hours

My fostex d5 once at about 400 hours

I didn't run the R700 enough I owned to get it serviced

I have put about 100 hours on the pcm-7040 I rebuilt with no issues

I haven't run my A8 enough either

Ability to read tapes in order of least reliable to most:
D8 > DA-P1 > D5 > SV3800/4100 > (big jump) A8/R700 > (big jump) 7040

[rodeen]

Reading this thread, I really don't miss DAT...

[F.O.Bean]

I HATE the ole DAT days now I had a few honoral people here on ts.com PM me and gave me the email to a MINT DAT Deck, forget what kind, for a really good price! So, if that doesnt work, Im DONE with DAT. Its a shame because I have alot of killer recordings from 1999>2003. I am SOOOOO HAPPY I switched to solid state media in 2004[JB3], and have never looked back

Sony D8[1997]>Tascam DAP1[1999]>Nomad JB3[2003]>SD 722[2006]>Sony M10[2011]. Damn Sony has me hooked again