My Sony TC 500A is on the blink, it’s only producing sound from one channel. So, I need a new player, preferably one that plays 10 ½” reels. I have about a 10 large reels that I haven’t been able to listen to yet.
The A77 at about £400 and B77 at £600 look good value for the money, but is the B77 worth the extra.
One more thing. Some of the tapes appear to have ben recorded using a Teac X1000, would there be any problems replaying the tapes on the A77/B77 given they where probably recorded using the Teacs noise reduction system.
I bought the tapes at an auction, so I don’t know if DBX was used. If DBX was used, would they still play on the revox, but not sound right. I know if they where recorded with dolby, they would sound hissy if played back without dolby.
If you play back a DBX encoded tape with decoding it then you get a very compressed and tinny sound. Not nice. Only thing worse is when it’s DBX decoded, and then you get weird level shifts, and breathing effects, and a rather nasty flat and processed feel to the sound. Give me the full tape hiss any day over any noise reduction, particularly horrid DBX.
As to the Revoxes, buy on condition, and make sure you get one that is appropriate for your needs (i.e 2 or 4 track and normal of high speed - avoid any high speed conversions and any very low speed units). If you like Sony, then don’t pass up on the TC-755 or TC-765, either of which should come in at similar money - in some respects their sound performance can surpass even the Revoxes.
I have a B77 and a Sony TC765. The Sony was bought off an auction site as an almost unused item. As I was still in brasil at the time and in no real hurry I had it shipped straight to a guy for service. He confirmed it had only seen a little use, but being boxed for probably 20 plus years parts had deteriorated but he managed to get it running perfectly and to perform better than the original spec. Not cheap though - the purchase and service came to well over a grand.
Picking up on Richards comment. The 765 can sound every bit as good as the B77 when running at the same speed, and produce a warmer sound than the Revox. Also in many ways it is a nicer machine to use. You don’t have the problem with the coating on the case turning to a sticky mess like mine has!
I’ll keep a look out for one of the sonys’ as well as the revox, they look really nice. I’m in no rush so, I’ll take my time and try and get something in good nick, I’d probably prefer a revox, as there appears to be a few people around that can service/repair.
At the moment, I’m still able to play mono tapes with two speakers. One speaker connected to the good amp channel and a QB connected to line out.
I run a totally refurbished B77 and love it. No tape hiss at least to these ears and that’s without NR. Just be conscious that there are plenty of third rate machines out there serviced by some folk who really don’t know what they’re doing. I finally found the right outfit and 3 years down the line all is good with new heads, capstan, motor rebuilds and a complete electrical overhaul. My less than positive previous experiences included fitting wrong value caps, adjusting head azimuth though headphones and spraying the motor bearings with isopropyl in situ then soaking them with WD40 - horrible!
I’ve even managed to get the Nextel paint replaced on the case. This tends to go like goo over time.
