Revox B710 or Nak ZX-7??

[slowpat]

So...here's my dilemma..I'm saving up funds to refurb one of my cassette decks...

1) a NOS Revox B710 which has caked up drive motors that will need to be cleaned up and relubed and a couple of broken toggle switches due to the way the deck was put away incorrectly back in the box

2) a Nak ZX-7 that is making noises in the spindles, not playing some tapes correctly, and all those azimuth adjustments will need to be calibrated. Per Willy Hermann, that will cost a small fortune (to me)

I have listened to the Nak compared to my Luxman K-03, and it's brighter with more details, where as the Luxman was warmer, and the highs slightly rolled off. But unfortunately, the Revox did not get far, as it wouldn't even play the tape, so not sure how the Revox will sound.

Revox is inching up there as my choice sine the heads have 0 hours, while the Nak was the king of cassettes, and ZX-7 was not total TOTL, but still up there, and unknown mileage. Any ideas?

And then I also have a Revox B77 that came out of a studio 30 years ago that will need a reburb... *urgh***

 

[sberger]

Well I only own the ZX-7 so I'm biased. A great machine. But it needed some work done on it so being in the Bay Area myself I bit the bullet and yesterday drove it over to Willy's for him to do his magic on it. A huge plus that this renown Nak specialist lives in the area so I can bring the Zx-7 back to it's original high quality and not have to ship it. As you have said, while it was not TOTL, it was pretty close, and considering what Nak's that Willy has worked on have sold for in the past it's pretty clear that this becomes a good investment in the event I ever decide to sell it. I think both the Revox and Nak are high quality complex units that will need a specialist to really bring them to where they need to be. So for me the answer is easy. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[iloveamps]

Easy answer, forget the cassettes and go big! Get that B-77 up and running, then deal with those cassette decks.

 

[slowpat]

Easy answer, forget the cassettes and go big! Get that B-77 up and running, then deal with those cassette decks.

Aren't you a little biased? (that's quite a few reel to reel in your list of equipment!!)

 

[slowpat]

...

I bit the bullet and yesterday drove it over to Willy's for him to do his magic on it.
...and considering what Nak's that Willy has worked on have sold for in the past it's pretty clear that this becomes a good investment ...

That's certainly worth considering...that investment won't go to waste...hmmmm....

 

[Tinman]

The Revox will cost more to fix because those toggle switches aren't cheap, neither are the pinch rollers. But it is a better deck.

 

[iloveamps]

Aren't you a little biased? (that's quite a few reel to reel in your list of equipment!!)

I have no idea why you might think that....

Yes, I'm definately biased. Cassettes are certainly more convenient and I like them, but as soon as I heard my first open reel I stopped using their younger brothers and became a reel fanatic.

To be fair, I've never had a "great" cassette deck. I've had some pretty nice ones, but nothing top tier or anything. I have a TEAC A-640 (which is literally the heaviest cassette deck I've ever seen- the transport alone weighs more than the entire NAD deck sitting next to it:scratch2, the NAD (model escapes me at the moment), and an older H-K. I used to have a Sony TC-K61, which I really wish I hadn't sold now. It was a MOL machine, but it sounded quite nice. It was good looking, too.

I'm thinking of picking up a TASCAM and trying out cassettes again for their convenience, but I think I'm too far gone to be saved from my open reel obsession.


Anyway, I don't mean to derail your thread. Between those two machines, I would pick the Revox. It's uglier than the Nak, but it's a better machine and it sounds as if it'll be easier to get going again. I wish you luck with whichever machine you wind up choosing. :thmbsp:

 

[perryinva]

I have a couple of each, B710 MKIIs and ZX-7s. Actually, the ZX-7 WAS the TOTL when it came out (besides the 1000zxl, but that's altogether another level of cost). It was replaced later by the ZX-9. Revox only made one deck at a time, so it was both the TOTL and BOTL at the same time ;-) It really depends on what you are looking to do with them. If you actually plan to do any recording on various tapes, then the ZX-7 is the clear choice. Better heads, full bias and level adjustment, easy to use and restore, but as mentioned, to have it done ain't cheap, especially if it has orange cap disease. Once restored it will give may many years of trouble free service. The Revox,on the other hand, even though it is NOS, will, believe it or not, still require a ton of work including total electrolytic recap and new pressure rollers. All those Frako and Philips caps are junk, and did not age well at all. The Revox rubber falls apart with time, so replace or rebuild are your options. So add all that to the motor work, and I think you will find the cost to restore is actually cheaper with the Nak. I know I would charge more, and I've totally restored both. In addition, the B710 is chock full of crappy sounding 4066 digital switches. And with no user bias or level adjustment, it was designed to be calibrated to record on one specific tape (or similar) for each type I, II or IV. That wasn't as big a deal, back in the day, when you could stock up on a favorite tape and any local stereo store could adjust the deck to it.

If you ever find the toggles, he B710 is one of the best looking decks ever made.

 

[Soren Hammer]

The blue Philips capacitors were the best available back then, most of them are still well within their specs and ESR is often lower compared with modern standard capacitors. I did a measurement of the caps from my '78 Beomaster 4400 and 80% of them were within 10% spec and with very low ESR values.

Replace them with low-ESR variants if you would like to recap, but the audible difference may not be that big. The original capacitors (except the Frako and some Elna variants) should last at least ten years more.