Nos revox b77!

  • Thread starter Thread starter James K
  • Start date Start date
Impressive. I'm not completely sure it's worth 3 grand for a low-speed version, though. If I had that kind of money to throw around I'd look at a refurbished A807 (which was about 2.5) or maybe a 2" machine...
 
Something needs to be done about the tape recorder situation. There needs to be a newly manufactured deck.
 
It might be mint condition but still not worth dropping 3k on it.
As i understand it the caps still might be no good given there life expectancy of 20 yrs.
I could be wrong though because i'm a newbie to tape and not an electronics guru so feel free to correct me guys
I'd go with jp's plan if i had that kinda cash monay.
Good luck mate.
 
I remember coming close to paying £1800 for a new BR-20 in 2003. That would have been very stupid since I needed the money at the time. What really upset me was that they had already sold the last one when I finally did have that much money to spend a year or two later.
 
So did you spend it on another bit of studio kit then jp? :guitar:
 
I remember coming close to paying £1800 for a new BR-20 in 2003. That would have been very stupid since I needed the money at the time. What really upset me was that they had already sold the last one when I finally did have that much money to spend a year or two later.

That's incredibly annoying. Again... New analogue deck!!
 
That's incredibly annoying. Again... New analogue deck!!

Yeah, I'm just thinking - around £1500 or so might be the sweet spot. After all, people are willing to pay about twice that for a minimoog...
 
It's my dream to design and build a new analogue reel to reel recorder. I'm positive that it's possible. The whole thing could be built from stock parts and a few milled transport parts. I should really get started soon. I go back to university in October. I'm sure I can find some other guys that are interested in this completely crazy project.
 
It's my dream to design and build a new analogue reel to reel recorder. I'm positive that it's possible. The whole thing could be built from stock parts and a few milled transport parts. I should really get started soon. I go back to university in October. I'm sure I can find some other guys that are interested in this completely crazy project.

I always felt that something like the Stephens or ATR-100 design would be a good idea. Capstanless and I don't think it has any rubber parts. It uses the reel motors to pull the tape, maintaining tension under servo control. That means you get to cut out a whole load of moving parts like the pinch roller, which will cut the cost and make it less failure-prone. The drawback is that it can't play tape loops, but for normal record/playback usage it has a lot going for it. You could use an Arduino board to handle all the logic (the TASCAMs and A807 getting by with significantly less processing power)
 
I didn't realise that the ATR-100 was capstanless. It seems like a capstanless design might be more complicated. I assume it would need an optical encoder wheel to regulate the tape speed. It's just an idea at the moment (and a pretty far-fetched one at that) but I feel that it needs to be done. People always seem to say that it's impossible to produce an entirely new analogue r2r but I don't see why. As far as I know, the only specific parts are the heads. Everything else can be either milled or just bought off the shelf. The electronics I'm sure can be (and should be) entirely generic. My plan so far is to buy a 2 track r2r (probably a Revox) and get to grips with its functioning completely. Then to construct a brand new transport (computer controlled at first) and use the electronics and heads from the existing recorder. Once the transport was functioning correctly we could replace the electronics and thus have a completely new recorder.

As I said, it's seems like a pie in the sky idea at the moment but it needs to be done by someone at some point. The future of analogue recording needs to be secured and the only way that can happen is with a new recorder.
 
I didn't realise that the ATR-100 was capstanless. It seems like a capstanless design might be more complicated. I assume it would need an optical encoder wheel to regulate the tape speed.

Yeah, pretty much all the microprocessor decks do that already.
 
For that kind of money you can get a Nagra IV-S. 15ips, great mic preamps (bypassable if needed). And the best part is factory service and parts are still available.
 
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