Some Revox pics

[perry]

Just finished a total restore and upgrade of a minty B710MKII. Very nice deck to use and operate, and while I love the look, feel, and ergonomics of the B710, I prefer the sound of my upgraded B215. Plus I love the button-ness of the B2XX setup. I have also restored (total recap, component upgrades, etc) on the B225 CD player, the B791 turntable, and the B285 Receiver. Ask any questions.

[Elite-ist]

Wow, Perry, I love it when I see a matched series of components, together. The Revoxes are something else, visually. Besides a Revox R2R, I haven't seen any other Revox components, up close. So, it's a treat to see your collection. Are the controls on your B710MKII feather touch, or electric-solenoid assisted? Have you got any other matched series components as large as this one? I'm thinking, perhaps, Nakamichi.

Nando.

[Dazen1]

Perry,

How do you rate the CD player?

[Naknut]

Jealousy is my only emotion right now.

[perry]

Nando, they are feather touch. Everything is controlled via logic by the uProcessor. In fact, and I have no idea why they did this, except for "impressiveness", the 4 huge toggles just toggle a state input to cmos switches. They just as easily could have been a press/detent switch, but the toggles ARE cooler. The B710 is chock full of all the worst switches, 14066 or 4066, 4051, and the worst non-standard quad opamp, the 4136, naturally because of it's age. Some of them are +15/gnd, some are +7.4/-4.5, it all depended on what the logic switch level was. Amazingly, I was able to use either the Maxim Max4066, which is a +17V max switch for many (at, choke, $2.70 each, 7 needed) and two Fairchid HC4066 which handle the +12V. Quieted down the base noise immensely. I subbed 2134s for the 4559s, and built two 4136 replacements with SOIC 2134s and Brown Dog adapters. It is a little quieter than the B215s, but has a weaker lower bass, and less impressive upper highs. The B215s record and play back far better. I'm curious as to why Alex stated he liked the sound of the B710 better. My restored Nak 680ZX sounds quite a bit better on playback of quality pre-recorded tapes than the B710, even with the higher W&F. The Nak is about .01% higher than the B710s direct drive .035%.

Dazen, the B225 is just plain cool. That massive drawer comes out with the motor and laser right there, and it just shouts "Built like a tank!". No mistaking it for a plastic cup holder! For a 2nd gen CDP (1982!) it is impressive. I did replace all the caps and upgraded the audio ones to Nichicon FG or KZ, since there are so few, and replaced the 4559 op amps with LM4562, which helped tremendously with spatial depth. Mine is a very late B225, as it had a number of revisions beyond the last revs on in the SM. Even still, I have to be honest..most CDPs sound almost the same to me. This one sounds more analog in the midrange than my Denon, Sony, and Yamaha, but it is not as good as my best CDP, which is a Pioneer Elite PDR-99 player/recorder. It seems to have a bit less bass punch. I will experiment with some other opamps, and maybe the coupling caps to see if there is an issue there. They coupled the op amp outputs with 22uF, which seems high to me. I am going to try some 10uF. Like all Revox gear it is a breeze to work on, and all the boards are modular. It also has a better quality trace on the PCBs than the B710 and B215s. What I need is a test/calibration CD.

What I will say I found out, is that it is the only CDP I own that will pass my homemade "scratched CD test" . I have a 2 CD Van Halen set, and one disc got slid across a floor by accident. Two songs just keep skipping on every CD player I own. I keep meaning to try to polish it but never got around to it. For the heck of it I threw it in the B225 and it appeared to play it fine except for a small "burble" or maybe "interpolation" at the spot of two bad scratches. The fact that it works so well after 30 years is just plain amazing, to me. It is obtuse to program, doesn't tell you time remaining, and the drawer motor looks like the starter off a VW, but I LOVE it! It is also very fast to switch between tracks, which I wasn't expecting.

[westgate]

wow! i'm impressed.*bigthumbup*

[Dazen1]

Dazen, the B225 is just plain cool. That massive drawer comes out with the motor and laser right there, and it just shouts "Built like a tank!". No mistaking it for a plastic cup holder! For a 2nd gen CDP (1982!) it is impressive. I did replace all the caps and upgraded the audio ones to Nichicon FG or KZ, since there are so few, and replaced the 4559 op amps with LM4562, which helped tremendously with spatial depth. Mine is a very late B225, as it had a number of revisions beyond the last revs on in the SM. Even still, I have to be honest..most CDPs sound almost the same to me. This one sounds more analog in the midrange than my Denon, Sony, and Yamaha, but it is not as good as my best CDP, which is a Pioneer Elite PDR-99 player/recorder. It seems to have a bit less bass punch. I will experiment with some other opamps, and maybe the coupling caps to see if there is an issue there. They coupled the op amp outputs with 22uF, which seems high to me. I am going to try some 10uF. Like all Revox gear it is a breeze to work on, and all the boards are modular. It also has a better quality trace on the PCBs than the B710 and B215s. What I need is a test/calibration CD.

What I will say I found out, is that it is the only CDP I own that will pass my homemade "scratched CD test" . I have a 2 CD Van Halen set, and one disc got slid across a floor by accident. Two songs just keep skipping on every CD player I own. I keep meaning to try to polish it but never got around to it. For the heck of it I threw it in the B225 and it appeared to play it fine except for a small "burble" or maybe "interpolation" at the spot of two bad scratches. The fact that it works so well after 30 years is just plain amazing, to me. It is obtuse to program, doesn't tell you time remaining, and the drawer motor looks like the starter off a VW, but I LOVE it! It is also very fast to switch between tracks, which I wasn't expecting.

Thanks Perry,

Revox CD players always seem to be in demand just like their other stuff. The build quality is fabulous.

The majority of CD players from the 1980s sound a little harsh compared to modern examples but I think the error correction in the older units is much better. It comes as no surprise that your Revox is able to play a scratched disc so well.

[perry]

Revox is definitely an aquired taste. It was priced WAY over what it should have been when new, like the B285, 100 WPC, receiver, was $2995 new. SO there aren't a ton of them out there, and most pieces have unique qualities. I'm always surprised at what the Revox stuff brings, since almost all seems to be "not working" or "never touched". Naturally, none of the pieces I bought worked when I got them. I thought $225 for the B225 was a great price, as all you're really betting on is that the laser and LCD are all still good. Everything else is restoreable.WHen my wife saw me working on it, she was shocked that it wasn't a tape deck, and a bit peeved that I would pay that much for a non working unit. However, I told her, if I wanted (which I most definitely DON'T at this time) I told her I was sure I could get $600 or more for it now that it is proven, which she always replies " If you die before me, I'm going to have one HELL of a garage sale for all this crap" I told her she just needed to let TH know I was dead and she'd have no trouble selling it all...

[A.N.T.]

The B215s record and play back far better. I'm curious as to why Alex stated he liked the sound of the B710 better.

Better than unmodified B215, more natural on playback, IMHO. Modified B215 is better thought.

Cheers

Alex

[Emo-Fan]

Wow! I never knew Will Studer ReVox made turntables! Very snappy indeed!!

[perry]

AHHH, well I'd probably agree there, as even modified, the noise floor is still higher on the B215, than the B710, and curiously, even though there are way more 4066s in the B710 (11) vs the B215 (1), all the 14051, 52, and 53s in the B215 must contribute significantly to that less than realistic sound. I said in my first post on the first B215 I got working, with all the original switches, how seriously disappointed I was with the sound of it. It was flatter and a bit lifeless on first play. In an A/B with any Nak I had, it was easily trounced. Of course I also had the W&F issues at the time, as I still had the old rollers, but once fully upgraded, it's in the same class and thoroughly enjoyable now. The same upgrades in the B710 were quite effective, but not as dramatic as on the B215. Thanks for clarifying that, Alex.

[perry]

Wow! I never knew Will Studer ReVox made turntables! Very snappy indeed!!

Yes, that is the B791, the second to last one of the 4 linear tracking turntables they made. It was followed by the rarer B291, which is totally identical in every way, except the IR remote receiver is standard and built in, where as you had to use a B202 to get remote control on the B791. Again, totally unique in it's operation and design. That TT actually worked when I bought it, once I cleaned the rails the carts travels on and the cart had a stylus in it, but after reading the horror posts about caps taking out some of the truly impossible to replace ICs on the arm control board, I did a total recap very soon after I got it. It is quartz locked PLL, that is adjustable in .01% increments up to IIRC, 5%, in either direction (33 1/3 & 45 rpm only) so you can precisely compensate for out of pitch LPs, and STILL have locked in speed for exemplary W&F. Very cool and thankfully under appreciated. I got it local at a used record store with a V15 Type V cart, in dirty, but unblemished condition, for $200. Even had the original multi language manuals. It had been there for months with a $300 tag on it, and they wouldn't budge. But then they did a major revamp of the store. (the used LPs and gear were in the basement, together, with CDs upstairs, but they've been getting so much used LP traffic, they decided to move the LPs upstairs.) So I made my usual $200 offer again while the place was a mess from all the moving, and they took it. Works for me!

[Naknut]

Back in the day (early 80s) and when I first became aware of linear tracking turntables this was what I lusted after. I thought that you (perry) would like to see this.

[perry]

Cool! Thanks I printed it out. The 795 was the "econo" version of the 791, with no speed adjustment. Also, didn't have the B202 interface built in. Tonearm was identical.

[parman]

Good looking setup, I'm suprised by all the pre-recorded tapes.

[perry]

Thanks. That's about 1/2 or less of all the pre-recorded ones I have. I originally got back into tapes a few years back, just because I noticed how cheap albums were and wondered how they sounded on a real quality deck, as like most people, my opinion of pre-recorded tapes was pretty low. I still had my bought by me new Yamaha K-960 tape deck, but it needed a total R&R, and it never played pre-recorded tapes that well. So I bought a Nak RX-505 ($135), that supposedly was in perfect working shape, and after my first restoration was astounded at the quality of the sound from these old tapes (in general..there are plenty of just plain awful ones). Too many tapedecks, and way too many $$ later, here I am.....