Big Brother gets new life! (Many thanks to CassetteMaster!) Mayfair is a highly collectible brand of vintage reel to reel tape recorder. The 1600 and the 1602 are noted for minimalist simplicity of design and sleek appearance. With their 1960's retro coloring (avocado and cream) and flash of elegance (silver metal reel platters), the machines caught the eye, if not the ear! Their big brother, the Mayfair 1607 is also a rim drive tape recorder with added features, including a remote control microphone, earphone output and one of the strangest external power supply systems we've ever seen. In order to work properly, it requires batteries! Yet, in spite of the additional features, as vintage electronics go, this machine is rather low tech due to its cheap power amp, use of DC bias and the odd rim drive system. But, it looks nice. The tape recorder shown here arrived in pretty bad condition. The batteries left in the machine had leaked and corroded the battery box terminals to the point that they had disintegrated. The internal foam protection had rotted and gotten into all the works, the rubber drive wheels were dried out and the amplifier had a bad electrolytic capacitor. Overall, a DAO (dead on arrival) from E-Bay to be sure. But we love a challenge! We replaced the battery terminals, cleaned and restored the rubber as best we could and found and replaced the bad capacitor, using CassetteMaster's tips on replacing bad caps. The result is a machine brought back to life!