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24.20.105.115
Have the 7.5/15 ips deck, how can I tell if 2 or 4 track? The heads have 3 strips, middle one is thinner.
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Looks like early version...knobs need addressed, probably caps too.Did get the head cover off without breakage...thanks I-51.
I think it's 2-track.Are the speaker plugs avail.? What's with the remote connector? Where would I get a remote?
Edits: 05/16/23 05/16/23
Yeah, that looks pretty rough, at least cosmetically. And, yes, it's an early version, original or maybe Mk II. You may be looking for knobs for quite a while! BTW, the two controls on the left perform two functions each. The outer ring (which you have) is a selector. The inner control shafts (the knobs are missing), control the volume and balance, respectively.
My musique concrète mentor (Rainer Boesch) had two of the ones with detachable speakers. I don't know if the power amps were in the tape deck, or if they were in the speaker boxes.
I've never seen a remote control for an A77. Maybe it was a planned accessory which never was made, or maybe it's out there somewhere. All I know is: Don't lose that dummy plug!
If you keep bugging me, I'll get around to photographing the 1973 A77 brochure.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
The original had no tension arm on the left.
You can buy a very nice wireless remote that works with it, I have it. Sold on ebay for around $80.
I have the same. You can find missing parts on ebay. Overall in reasonably good condition.
But watch our for the caps, unless it has been gone over, especially the Rifa's that like to explode with a lot of smoke and soot. If in doubt - let someone look at it. Believe me, you don't want this happen in your living room.
Once gone over it becomes a very nice machine.
I'm not sure how much of an issue that actually is. I've had my A77 Mk IV since '78/'79. Bought it brand new. No issues other than replacing the brake bands once a looooong time ago.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
It is a known issue, and if you examine those caps on the units that are still working as they should, you will likely see cracks in their cases.I have been skeptical too... but then it happened to one of my A810 Studers.
Fortunately, it happened while it was here, at the factory, running some tape. Suddenly crazy smoke emanated, even though the machine continued working.
Here are the replaced parts. It IS a real issue, so I would definitely do it on your deck. The replacement parts are readily available from DigiKey and the job is not complicated.
Edits: 05/16/23
... came to a dramatic end with exploding caps (my tech calls them firecracker caps) and a brief but scary blaze (put itself out, fortunately) after which I sold it for parts.
Yes, you related that story to us several years ago.
On the other hand, I've had my A77 Mk IV since 78/79, with no issues. Sorry for your unfortunate experience.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
...then you should also look for and eradicate the Frako capacitors, if they are there in your unit. They used to be omnipresent in Studer/Revox products, and are very, very troublesome.Truth is - even if your unit appears to work just fine, it might not be running up to its full specs, due to many of those caps losing their characteristics.
It is not uncommon to measure a 100uF capacitor and only see 6uF, or its ERS go very high. So the circuit might look fine to a naked eye, but its performance not where it should be.
There was a guy at HP where I worked, who owned a Honda with 110,000 miles on it, when he was suddenly told about oil changes... he had never done it before.
And yes, the car still kinda ran.
Edits: 05/18/23
Victor, I bought the Revox (Mark IV, Dolby) to replace a Teac A2300SD (Dolby). I really wanted to like it, especially for Dolby tapes. My Revox really looked splendid and was packaged for shipment so well that I had high hopes for it.
Didn't take long, though, to find a few flaws other than the caps and fire.
* Its Dolby functionality was way inferior to that of the Teac.
* The RCA jacks were so close together that none of my better ICs would work with it.
* The pinch roller was so hidden away it was a real pain to keep clean.
* The sound quality of my attempted dubs was not even close to that of my main deck, an Otari MX5050. The other stuff could have been forgiven save for this SQ issue.
Granted, it should have gone to my tech first thing, and I'm at fault there. But the heads looked beautiful and it was a really stunning looking deck.
I presume you are talking about the A77 - it was a very early design, but its strong points are not going to be obvious to an average user. Once you remove the cover you see its pro product roots, with many upscale things there - it was the design philosophy from top down, from pro to consumer level. But it is a compact machine, so some usability issues are there, like hard access to heads and the roller. They eventually refined that basic topology in PR-99.
I don't like Dolby, don't use it, it has no place in high end.
I am not really a Studer/Revox aficionado, even though I own four of each, but I respect the company for its overall contribution and it has done some great things.
... it was where the tape action was, for quite a while, and I have more than 100 Dolby tapes and I got sucked in. Too bad, even the Nak Dolby decoder (NR-200, which I owned for a while), was a mistake
As to the A77 being too elderly for words, you'd think that by the time they reached Mark IV status, they'd have fixed some of the more obvious flaws. I had lotsa Teacs of the same vintages that didn't have the Revox mystique (I bought one because of it) but didn't have its flaws either.
Don't know why I'm still so pissed off about these things :-)
Company's first entry into the consumer market... if you discard the very nice all-tube G36. Revox' serious line begins with B77, a far more mature product. The 2-track model with 15ips is pretty good.
And it is gorgeous inside. Cast alloy chassis with nice card cage, VERY easy to work on.
The professional Studers are very nice mechanical machines with not so nice sound, but they are big statement machines. I have four of them, which I almost never use, but I love them. :)
nt
Here the eyes tell you the full story of very high grade engineering.On top of that its audio circuits are discrete... no Japanese op-amps there. :)
Edits: 05/19/23
:)
Thanks.
That's all I need - another project.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Unless you have more. :)
And imagine the maintenance you would need on a 50yo car. Decks are such pussycats by comparison. :)
Some electronic components take 50-60 years of service in stride, but for others it is too much, and almost no brand is immune. Capacitors are always number one suspect.
That is why many people, buying such machines, either take them to a technician for recapping, or do it themselves.
I recently had a minor smoke from my Ampex ATR-800 - a small electrolytic cap shorted, burning a filter choke in process. Minor repair. The audio boards on that machine have been recapped earlier, but it is hard to catch every such part.
Overall the reliability of many good machines is remarkable.
That's good to know. Thanks!
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
From your description, I'd guess that it's a 2-track. (Good for you!) Here is a diagram of head configurations. (From Runstein, "Modern Recording Techniques", 1974.) I tried to get a shot of my A77 heads (2-track), but even with a mirror, the lighting and angle didn't work out well.
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We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Thanks, I'll check it. Do you know
How that grey plastic head cover comes off?
Yeah, it just pulls straight out. Grasp it at each end, and pull.
*********
We are inclusive and diverse, but dissent will not be tolerated.
Edits: 05/15/23
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