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Revox A77 MkIV 3 3/4 and 7 1/2 speed Question

W

WBCarson

New Member
Its very nice, actual one owner, recently serviced with paperwork. It is a quarter track. Price is right, comes with a Dolby unit.
When i go online to look it up many people say opt for the faster machine. This is a
"consumer" grade machine and not that good.
I know how picky some people can get concerning audio equipment.
My tube system is not high end but ok and i wont be recording so much as using it for listening.
Before i send the funds is this a good unit, would it be fine for casual listening or should i really wait until a faster machine comes up?
 
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Unless you are having an old tape collection you wish to enjoy again I wonder what is the point in slower speed machines, esp given all the streaming options available today.
 
WBCarson said:
Its very nice, actual one owner, recently serviced with paperwork. It is a quarter track. Price is right, comes with a Dolby unit.
When i go online to look it up many people say opt for the faster machine. This is a
"consumer" grade machine and not that good.
I know how picky some people can get concerning audio equipment.
My tube system is not high end but ok and i wont be recording so much as using it for listening.
Before i send the funds is this a good unit, would it be fine for casual listening or should i really wait until a faster machine comes up?
Click to expand...

MK IV is a great machine, 1/4 track at 7.5ips is probably the best setting for home use, as 7.5/15ips machines are going to be 1/2 track almost exclusively, and 15ips at 1/2 track goes through tape like you would not believe. I have prerecorded 1/4 track tapes at 7.5ips that would blow you away, 1/2 track 7.5ips prerecorded tapes are excellent but are expensive and difficult to find. Any 15ips tapes you find on ebay, etc. are 99% guaranteed to be fake.

If that A77 has been serviced and works as advertised, snap it up, as long as the heads are still good -- you're getting a machine that sounds like a PR99 for a fraction of the price. Cheers, and enjoy the music.
 
I think most enthusiasts here would agree that an A77 3 3/4\7.5ips version is a great deck for their use. Of course, better decks exist-higher speed, wider tracks, etc., but at rapidly escalating prices, and cost of tape.

A well calibrated A77, when run at 7.5ips, will equal or surpass any consumer deck. Moving up the chain to 'prosumer' or 'pro' machines will escalate deck purchase and running costs by many multiples of consumer decks.

If you are intending to use it primarily for playback, it begs the question-what will be the tapes played. If you are considering playing commercially recorded popular titles-they go for stupid money, and many are mediocre. It's an expensive crap shoot. They will be almost all 1/4 track tapes. Half track is almost non-existent, unless quite old titles suit your taste.

I use R2R to record needle drops, and from CD (I find the tape version playback more enjoyable). I think most here use their decks in a similar way.
 
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