This is Studers last analogue 2 track machine, these recorders came in multi tracks and in digital formats, though thousands of these were made, they are very hard to track down.
Cheers, I have watched your videos with interest, the funny thing is with the digital machines and the Studers, I find them much easier to fix than the early valve machines, thank you for your comments.
Thank you for your kind comments, the A820 is a fantastic machine, I would love to find a D820 as well, I have the Sony DASH machine which has a SN of 00002 ! I love your collection, you have some very interesting machines.
Variable speed is a good thing to have especially when a tape was recorded from a record player that played a little fast or a slightly slow tape transport with the tape being recorded on.
Cheers for the comments, I would love a M20 / M21 with meter bridge when one comes up, as fro dropping the analogue machines? well thats progress, they are a nighmare to edit with compared to a PC
An amazing machine. Is just a piece of art!!! the desig is just amazing: mechanisms, heads, motors, syncs, electronics, etc. Is just perfect. Unfortunately, digital recordings is now the standard. Do you know the price of this machine when new? Is from 1980's?
FYI - AEG is Anschutz Entertainment Group. NAB is National Association of Broadcasters. Like AEG, NAB is known by it's individual letters, N A B not as a word [nab]
... Studer Engineer had a headache when they sow an ATR100 playing a tape mounted on sqare reels at AES convention in NY in 1976 ;-) Who knows if the digital (and conventional) servo used in the A820 can match with an ATR100...
Sorry... but, for the money honey, I'll take my Studer a807any day. I'm very happy with it. I bought it just about 3 years ago for about $4000.00, that's buck-a-roo$. It operates flawlessly (after a little TLC). Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have an 820. Most of all I'd love to own a J-37 because of the 50 + tubes.
The A807 is an awesome machine, took me ages to get a VU model with the original side panels, have had a couple of J37’s but sold them, got a couple C37’s though, fit my collection better. This video is very old and I think I have had 6 A820’s since, down to 2 now ( a ¼ inch and ½ Inch), a few years ago they were much easier to find ( you don’t want to know how much I paid for the one in this video😉 )
Why in the world did you get rid of your J37’s????!!!! Do you like the sound quality of an A820 better than the legendary J37? I find the sound quality of tubes to be much more superior to solid state. I know the A820 has more bells & whistles, but I’m just talking about the sound quality.
@@steelcantuna The J37 doesnt fit my collection, but I do have a few C37's, in fact, the two machines connected to my main HIFI are the A820 and C37. As to which is better? its a matter of taste really, thats why I use both.
Nice unit, I have his brother D820X DASH format, extremely complex because of its digital processing electronics fully wire wrapped and making use of general purpose TTL IC's TTL IC's and a lot of GAL's, PAL's and PROM's. However I don't hink it can work as here * (search for "Ampex ATR100 - Ooooh" on youtube), keeping its W&F in specs. @30 IPS :-) Continues...
Cheers! the A816 I have not had yet and would probably only get one if it comes up cheap as it does not have a meter bridge, quality difference? I couldnt comment, prices of these machines? they can be from £2000 - £7000
I got my broken A820 one month ago. After half month's struggle to trace the problem, the faults was located: two gold fingers developed a gap so they were virtually open; one MS7524 IC was broken too. I also fixed a problem with position adjustment mechanism by arc welding. Now it works beautifully. Do you have the most up to date firmwares for Mk-I? Mine is 38/86. Is it possible to upgrade it to 06/89? How?
The A820 is a complex machine, I have fixed a fair few now and have to say, having a second machine is very helpful in quick fault finding ( though done it the hard way too), not sure how you update the software without taking the EPROMS out and putting them into a writer connected to a PC.
otari mtr 12 12'5 max the only tape deck that you find as a fix up deck is a scull 280-14 i am working on one jazz up /pimp up deck it's a tascam 38 parts left of from doing alot of tascam 38 decks it's the kg's of the reels full is the same as a full 1/2 spool full been very lucky i am a tec as well
Try to wind an Ampex tape at such high speeds in a bobby platter or in a disassembled NAB spool with only the lower plate and you will see what happens... I'm used to work with only one NAB reel face, the hubs and pancakes, but only when I use BASF tape. Ampex tape shows an annoying trend to unevenly winding at high speeds, thats why one turn tends to stay not exactly over the precedent, but slightly above or below, may doing spitting the tape out with those well-known aftermaths (i know them).
Is there a size between 10½ and 14 Inch? As far as I can see a 14' reel takes twice the amount of tape that a 10½' does and for the rest of the reel system right from 3' to 10½' it alternates so that every second size of reel has the double amount of tape.
There are also 12” reels but I think they are less common, 14” is ultimately more useful once 30ips became popular as then you got the same recording time you would on a 10.5” reel at 15IPS - more suitable to having a full album side at that speed. Or an entire album at a more typical 15ips. My understanding is that the masters for both sides of Dark Side of The Moon are currently stored on one 14” reel
As great as those machines are (and I've worked with them before), I'd really be hesitant putting a three or five inch reel of tape on one side, and a 10.5 inch metal takeup reel on the other. I'd be very afraid of the machines handling of the tape with those awkward differences. Nice video, though. Enjoy the machine. I'd love to have one but have nowhere that kind of money!
Its not a great practice to mismatch reels, for example, if I was to fast rewind to the 3” reel then stop, the weight of the 14" reel may cause over spool, though the machine does recognise this and stops without damaging the tape. But for this video, it demonstrates it can, and quite successfully, even in wind (Library mode), showing great tape handling capabilities, but yes, its good practice to have matched sizes, and in most cases, not to use reels with smaller hubs than the spool hub (something which is apparent in the A820’s setup where it asks what size hub you have, it doesn’t list super small ones).
hi the otari mtr 12 can do the same tricks to play in back play as well and i have set of 1/2 inch head blocks as well and 1/8 tape block never use the rew ff only spool button it rip the tape rew ff are to powerfull full track mono i used to make test full track tape for cassette's i have a DP2700 deck
you are so lucky to own such equipment, i would love to own a Revox B series or a Teac or even a Technics machine, i worked in hifi for a number of years but could never afford a machine. Sold loads of cheaper end Sony machines quiet a few Teac 3340 four track and quiet a few Revox A77 happy days nothing like a 10.5 inch reel on full rewind. Where does one look in the UK to find a clean working machine can anyone let me know. Cheers hifi friends.
Seblington Greetings Question ! I will be looking for a Revox B77 7.5-15 ips machine soon any advice where to look can you help ?? can we natter on email cheers Steve
The Studer A816 is the best Studer ever made........................or the best they sold.................because it was actually AEG Telefunken that made it.
Not sure on that as I do own both, I certainly prefer the A820, the transport is much better than the A812 but they both share the same heads and rec / repro cards. Build wise the A812 is a modified beefy A810, bigger reels, bigger driving amps and more computerised but mechanically very similar to the older A810, I found both the A810 and A812 can stretch the tape. I thought Studer acquired Telefunken and designs of the M20 series where used after the A810, I did not think Telefunken built it, I could be wrong but if you know of any information on the web regarding that I would be glad to see it.
Sorry, my bad, I haven’t had an A816 yet thought I do want one, it’s a shame it never came with a meter bridge. Did Telefunken build it or had Studer acquired Tekefunken and its design was influenced by Telefunken technology? Never heard of anyone building Studer machines but Studer.
In vain you pass the cords through the heads, they contain glue that sits on the heads, while the quality of the records drops sharply. This glue is difficult to remove with alcohol. Always cut out glue traces. Sorry for my english, i don't american. Напрасно пропускаете через головки ракорды, на них содержится клей, который садится на головки, при этом качество записей резко падает. Этот клей трудно выводится спиртом. Всегда вырезайте ракорды со следами клея.
Hello, no worries :-) I think I get what you mean, certain tape such as Ampex 406 and 456 suffer from the glue on the tape comes off and gets stuck not only to the heads but the tape transport, slowing or stopping the machine transport and making the reproduction very poor. The best solution to this is use either new tape or BASF professional 468 or 911
Well they were not for a person as such, they were designed for large studios, according to BAUCH in the UK, they only sold 16 machines, 2 went to Abbey road,the BBC didn't buy any from them and opted for the Nagra T as a cheaper alternative as the A820 at the time cost £45,000 !
Studer, Harmon, Revox are they all the same company?, by the way that is one piece art. cd is so boring, you cant beat a reel to reel, and a turntable.
The best? The transport is arguably, along with the Ampex ATR-100 series, the best at handling tape. But the whole machine, including its record and playback electronics is NOT the best SOUNDING, not even near it. Why? IMO, the use of dozens of opamps in the audio chain, mostly the ubiquitous 5532/5534 series. Not the worst opamp ever for sure, but there are tape electronics using discrete electronics that sound better. And sounding great should be the major goal of a high-end tape recorder, right? The A80 series using discrete electronics was probably Studer’s high-water mark. All the subsequent machines are buckets of opamps. And never mind the sound advantages of the tube machines such as the glorious C37/J37. At the end of the day, the goal of the transport is to slide the tape across the heads with minimal wow and flutter. The 820 does this extremely well, but several other more modest machines do it well enough too. The contribution of the transport to sound quality among top machines is less than the contribution of their audio electronics. Believe it or not, a well-set-up Crown machine, such as a CX-822, will sound more vivid, punchy, dynamic and alive, while remaining smooth and easy to listen to. With not one opamp in sight. The secret is in the audio electronics. To me the ideal machine would be an A820 transport with custom made electronics, maybe even using tubes (gasp!).
