Studer Pricing (?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter frederic
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frederic

frederic

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A good friend of mine in CT recently decided to dump his pair of MX2424's and re-become an analog purist/bigot, and made me an offer on my pair of Studer A80-24's I have in storage. I have the remotes, the Studer sync box, and two wooden racks containing 2 power strips and 24 DBX266's each.

Harriet, the master, has low hours on a new head, and a new capsan motor, and Henry has low hours on his first head lap job. The transports glide and snap into place as one would expect, and overall they are in what I would consider very good condition. Couple of gouges on the wood casing of the remotes, but that really all the damage for the most part. I have a 96 ch snake that connects them to the DBX units (9-10'), and another snake that connects to the DBX units and has cut wire on the other end (I swiped the patch bays for here long time ago), about 30' more or less. I have 2" thick of maintanence records and history, and probably 4 miles of used bulk erased tape I could give him if he really wanted it.

Of course the twins have been sitting in climate control storage for about 3-4 years.

What would a setup like this be worth, wild ballpark? I did a lot of googling and searching of eeeek-bay this week and the pricing is so wild/random its hard to really guestimate if what he offered is reasonable. While I don't want to rape my pal's wallet, I also don't want to give Harriet and Henry away. I have fond memories of petting them gently before recordings to avoid bad-tape days :D

What do you think? Wild ballpark would be fine. Just need a reality check.
 
I'd guess around $10000-15000 for the pair. A lot would depend on the cosmetic appearance and workability of all the little thingies.

That's my guess...take it how you will.
 
But why wouldn't you be using them?


That's the really confusing thing...analog sound too good?
 
I'd guess around $10000-15000 for the pair. A lot would depend on the cosmetic appearance and workability of all the little thingies. That's my guess...take it how you will. [/B]
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The recorders are cosmetically mint. Everything works well, and I have all the cabling (especially the less common sync box and cabling). The remotes are a little beat up, there is some wear on the transport buttons, and the wooden part has a few scuffs. Nothing terrible, they work just dandy. I just wouldn't call them "mint".

He offered more than the range you ballparked, so me thinks I won't hesitate very long. I've already delayed this decision about a week or so.

But why wouldn't you be using them?
That's the really confusing thing...analog sound too good? [/B]
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this most of the week and came up with the following list:

1. Tape is expensive, and both machines sling tape past the heads like its free.

2. They are physically large. Both recorders are about 6' high and 24" wide, and the DBX racks are about 4' high and 24" wide. Thats a lot of space to give up in a small home studio.

3. They are finicky. While both these units have served me very well, every once in a while something needs to be adjusted, or retensioned, or it slings tape everywhere. These were rare occurances, very rare actually, I was good about keeping up on the maintanence, but when it happens, its a pain in the arse. Downtime until the serviceman shows up with a big grin on his face (and another big grin when he hands me a bill).

4. Hard disks are cheap. In fact, nearly free. At home, I have 5 recorders, and I put together an external SCSI enclosure that provides a removable drive per recorder. Then I buy spare trays, mount drives on them, and keep one "set" per project. I use 4 gig drives so if one goes bad, I don't lose that much data.

5. Digital anything autolocates extremely quickly. Tape, well, has to wind and wind. Minor relocations across the smtpe timespan is not a big deal, but go back to a prior song? Takes a while.

Those five were the big ones for me, I'm sure others would have additional or different reasons, or easily explain why analog is better than digital. Thats all good. Everyone has their preferences.

For me, I like convienence, reliability, small footprint, and quick editing features. Now that I found and bought a DL1500 remote, the syncing issues of my Akai recorders will basically go away. So, its now just so much better.

Hope you didn't mind the long-winded reply, you did ask :) I didn't want you to think I'm a nut. I just really can't see using two pieces of gear that will eat up all my space, cost me a lot to keep in tip-top shape, and suck tape down like its free. But do trust me when I say this - the sound will be irreplacable. They are amazing, clear units, which is why I bought them way back when :)
 
I wouldn't part with those for anything less than a 60-foot sailboat and AT LEAST one teenaged daughter.

I'm serious.

Maintainence on the boat and the daughter should work out to be a push with the decks.:D
 
jake-owa said:
I'd guess around $10000-15000 for the pair.
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What version of A80? Mark II or Mark VI?

Mark VI A80 with 24 track stack are going for $10,000 to $12,000 each.

Frederic,
IMO I'd sell one for around what it would take to putting a 2 track stack for Mastering off the digital setup. Well worth the invesment and you keep the 24 tack stack for gigs where the client prefers analog. Even big studios keep the biggies on site because some people change their mind about Alsihad. Keeping your options open if you can afford to is how you survive during technology transfers. Do some more research on sale prices at other places than Ebay. Sometimes prices are not what is reasonable because someone like jake got some incredible deal that only comes around once in a few decades.
If you don't want to rape your friends wallet, maybe you could rent it out at a price he can afford until he changes his mind. From your gear list you could easily convert to pro audio rental gig.

SoMm
 
Mark III's with IV heads and minor electronic updates. I'd have to pull the workorder out that updated them, but I am fairly sure of this. I'll have to pull out the folder of receipts.

Thanks SoM for the thoughts, tips, and ideas. I'm still fairly torn, and you gave me a lot more to think about.
 
Frederic - If I remember right, you were/are/will-be in the process of building a commercial space in a very cool vacant building that you own and have the mortgage covered by a machine shop next door... phew :)

Why not keep the Studers as an option there? What ever you sell them for, it will be very difficult to replace them for the same money.

Besides, tracking to tape and flying to digital is IMHO awesome.

Cheers
Kevin.
 
Keep at least one of them. I didn't realize they were so (relatively) new and in such great shape.
 
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