Let's talk: Analog Reel-to-Reel, Revox B77 

I did, and to be honest I can dream Revox from the inside out.. As I wrote beneath your other video, my brother in law does own my old B77 and last year I did a complete rebuild. All caps and transistors to low noise ones. I even did a re spray. Now working at his B710 MK II. Revox is poisin once you start you can't stop. All my fathers fault who bought Revox allready in the '60s ♫♫♪♪

It's my father's though ;-) always interesting to took at how things worked and keep them working;-)

well, yeah …, but your ears can not hear such high frequencies anyways, ... and what do you record onto the tape? 44.1kHZ FLAC? Well, I also got some 88.2, 96 and even 192 kHz FLACs (I think the 192 was Alanis Morissette), but then you also need the matching digital output equipment to qualitatively copy it onto the analog, and then, … it's just an analog copy of the digital …∞

palmerico house yes this is normal, als the record and play head are 1 or 2 cm apart. This is the delay of the tape passing under the record to play head. This can not be “calibrated” away, but will be shorter the faster your tape speed is.

thank you! that's what I wanted to know, then I might need a 15 IPS tape recorder instead of 7 1/2, ok now that's clear to me. nice video great review

No need too calibrate this is normal... the slower the speed the longer the delay..

Brake belt ?

Explodierte Kondensatoren ricchen in der regelt nicht so gut

there is something wrong with the price, it was just some 1000 to 2000 DM or so when my farther brought it first hand on some discounted sale in 1983 or so. The 10k SFR price is probably for some other machine, maybe some studio version or so ;-)! My father is electrician, it was "only" about a month middle class salary in Germany.

Bits inside by René Rebe Yeah, the price is from an invoice which also lists a bunch of cables and supportive equipment and tapes and I only looked at the total sum, so you are right ;D But still, a lot of money, especially with everything you need to listen/record to the tape.

Might be a bit tough to learn electronics just for that. Might be most efficient to have someone who already knows electronics look over and fix it... ps: if you are lucky might be just one capacitor or transformer ...

You can buy ready upgraded boards and complete cap replacements kits ready to go for a/ b77s there are some on eBay. I’ve just had my a77 serviced it was a three hour time on the bench, replaced belts, a large amount of capacitors and various electrolytic replacement, lamps, cleaning, head adjustments, brakes cleaned and adjusted, both tape guides replaced with rollers, lubrication etc You can get so far yourself but you will need to bias the tape and for that you need the super rare tone tape itself and an oscilloscope to gauge the biasing, a big outlay for occasional use. There are lots of little tweaks and upgrades that only a certified tech would know, mine cost me £220 Oct 8 2020 a fortuitous time as it would have been J Lennons 80th... and I talked to the tech about servicing and that would be an average cost for your service and parts considering the amount of components that need to be replaced and I sat and chatted to the guy as he worked for three hours. Myself am ok with an iron but gauging what needs to be replaced off the bat I couldn’t know without experience. I now have a deck ready to roll for another ten years. If you can sit in with the tech you can pick up a lot of info... Rule no 1 in relation to reel to reel make sure your pockets are deep there’s no place for skinflints...

That is most likely the 0.47 Rifa capacitors. Easily replaced 👍

Lol wishful dreaming

@@renerebe No. Facts. There's a reason why the DA and AD gear in pro studios isn't just made up of some cheap lowest common denominator gear from Behringer etc, it's because despite its paper specifications it sounds shite. Quality costs money, no matter whether you are analog or digital. It's OK to have a different opinion and think some $5 Matsui MP3 player from a flea market wastes a 15IPS studio master recorder just because it has a paper specification claiming S/N and F/R superiority. I'd chain myself to the gate to give you the right to free choice. But it doesn't make that opinion correct. Have a good day, and thanks for the video, I enjoyed it none the less.

@@jonvincentmusic modern DACs and built-in amplifiers have nothing in common with 1990s SoundBlaster stuff. Most computer gear nowadays has way better sound reproduction than any Analog Reel to Reel.

thanks, for the tips, it's at my father's so I'm only get to use (and service) it one or twice a year or so :-/

@@renerebe Did bought allso a B77 in 1978 great machine. Now my brother in law does own it because I bought later a PR99 actualy the same machine but with some featers I needed.I Now own a Studer A810 and that machine sty's with me untill my death, which I hope it's a long time ☺☺ ♫♫

The motor that actually takes tape from left reel is beside playing head, right reel only collect what is first taken by this motor.

Super video and i use hand cloves on transferring tape to the Reel...(*;*)

what do you mean with "by any qualitative standard"? Not any laptop, but most higher quality ones today indeed have better audio than a Reel-to-Reel if you look at all the technical characteristics, Frequency response, Signal to noise ratio, Distortion, Crosstalk, Wow and flutter, Tape slip, Erase depth. Can you name any where a reel to real has better sound than a properly set up modern DAC? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DT4VXf6gGUI.html

'qualitative standard' = using one's ears. a cheap audio card on a laptop may measure better but really you need to spend at least five thousand dollars on a DAC/ADC to come close to reel to reel.

Nope. Sorry not sorry: You fall for the want to believe snake oil voodoo trap.

not really. i understand how desirable it is to escape to the certain world of numbers - but the sad fact is there is really so little we understand or can quantify about the sonic world. For example - HOW do you measure clarity? transparency? how do you measure a signal that is far more detailed - that contains or conveys greater amounts of subtlety? don't be afraid to use your senses - this is how epistemology actually works and how we got to where we are today!

@@antigen4 actually you have this reversed, while I understand science, you try to except that into the wold of voodoo and wishful thinking. But I have good news, nothing sounds better than and Sgi Octane, and you can simply get one, too! ;-) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_YmgEitnI7E.html

I probably meant without rewinding it first time ;-)

so the new tape was advertised as 1100 meters, you can choose from two speeds on this machine: 7½ or 3¾ inch (19 or 9.5 cm) per second: 1100m * 100 / 19 cm/s apparently makes for 5789 seconds, divided by 60 that is a little over 96 minutes per playback direction (side). You can double that for the slower speed, which results in less audio quality due degraded frequency response range and noise floor, etc.

@@renerebe If you are recording in mono you can double it again as you can record individual channels and also playback the two independently as well as together.

@@ianz9916 eh, yeah, but which audiophile wants mono recordings?

@@renerebe 1960's recordings tend to be mono so artificially making them stereo makes no sense.

@@ianz9916 to store quality recordings from that time. one could also use an mp3 recorder and not waste tape on them ;-)

Yeah, black Akai GX are also good looking, ..! ;-)

Lol?

This RTM tapes have good reviews, too, apparently "based on the original AGFA and BASF specifications" - on a first look the Zonal tapes do not appear to be easier or cheaper to source here in Germany.

Richtig. Wenn man Tascam Adapter hat, braucht man allerdings keine Spacer. Ist bei mir jedenfalls so. Bei den Revox Adaptern brauchte ich auch die Spacer.

analoge Technik braucht halt Service. Ggf. ist das durch eine Überholung, d.h. Service, Kondensatortausch, Einmessen behebbar. Ggf. auch ein neuer Löschkopf ;-)

I'm not into techno rave, but thanks! Nirvana actually ain't too bad though ;-)

sell one what? reel-to-reel, tape? or do you mean buy?

Ki have 1. I dont think its the same model... Im waiting RIGHT THIS MINUTE for my neighbor to see if he has a power cord for it. The # on it is PR4A122740

Well, I guess ebay - that is what I'm usually using. Most Revox at the time used a stupidly special power cord connectors :-/ Feel free to later post an update or sales link here ;-)

Any idea what it could possibly sell for.? (ball park figure) its definitly used but not tore up...just very old

what model do you even have? PR4A122740 does not really "google" - maybe that is a serial number? Is it Revox, Akai, Pioneer, Sony? And model, ... like B77 GX620 or whatever ;-)?

Yeah well, ... sure 😉

I'm a scientist and musician. Not falling for snake oil ;-)

Lol

verstehe deine NAB Kritik nicht wirklich, erstens sage ich im Video "others put it directly on the machine, but I like this way more", ich habe es sowieso das letzte Mal vor 15+ Jahren gemacht und nur für das YT Video bei meinem Vater abgestaubt, ... Deine Klebeband Kritik erschließt sich mir genauso wenig, die Machine soll doch beim Vorspanband abschalten, und die werden doch geklebt, ..? Wo genau ist da das Problem?

Du meinst "Klarband".

kolbenschieber Vorlaufband?

Yep Klarband. Das Klarband ist auch ein Vorlaufband. Ist aber durchsichtig. Wenn deine Maschine mit dem roten Vorlaufband abschaltet, haste Glück das es genug Licht durchlässt. Das ist aber selten, weshalb es eben die Klarbänder gibt die dann dazwischen geklebt werden. Was ich mich aber noch frage, wieso es du dir so schwer machst das Band anzukleben. Das kannste auch easy an der Revox-Klebeschere erledigen. Das Band kannste da einlegen und zusammen führen. Klebestreifen drauf und fertig. Das man Schnellspanner so benutzt ist gegen jeden Sinn der Teile.

Ich dachte das ist bei dieser Revox Maschine ein Magnet-Sensor, nein? Wir benutzen die Maschine leider nicht täglich, und hatten bisher keine Bänder geschnitten, werde ich mir nochmals ansehen.

flac compresses lossless, like zip (or XZ) just specialized for audio. It yields bit identical results and typically saves some 50 to 60% or so on compared to the original WAV … It should actually compress better than XZ. At least that is what it was designed for, … and is directly playable.

RenéRebe sorry for my wrong knowledge, thanks for the information

no problem, education is what I make those YT videos for ;-)

Was genau meinen Sie?

Lol, der war gut ;-)!