Opinion on revox a77 heads

[hansgauffin]

Hi everybody, thinking about buying a mixdown deck and got in touch with a guy selling his revox a77 mkIII Dolby. He lives quite near but I havent seen it in person yet. He posted me a picture of the heads anyway and I´d like to show it for you to get your opinions on the condition of the heads. Don´t know if it´s possible to tell from the pictures I got, but anyway, I´ll give it a try. The price he´s asking for is $200.
Thank you for any answer.

 

[demto]

a77 Head wear

The photo of the heads is quite blurred so it is not possible to give an opinion.

Can you get a sharper photo ?

 

[cjacek]

Yeah, it's a bit difficult to discern wear from the rather blurred photo but the right (playback head) has me a bit worried. Is it just me or do I detect a prominent flat spot? Looks pretty wide to me.

New Revox heads look like a half a circle, curved and this one looks flat on the very top. Is anyone seeing the same thing or is this a reflection?

If this, in fact, is a flat spot and a dramatic one at that, than that head is nearly done for. It's impossible to tell about the center (rec / play) head.

 

[Richard King]

Too blurry to tell. Have him take another picture while he holds a white card in front of the heads. The card will reflect light on to the heads and stop the other reflections that ruin the view.

 

[cjacek]

Also, tell him to use either "macro" or manual focus on his camera.