What to do with a B77?

[Robert Young]

This is a major problem, particularly in the USA. These 'drops' can come from being pushed out of trucks and off of conveyor belts as a 'punishment' for the parcel being heavy. I've had similar situations.

I am however mostly to blame for the duration of this fiasco. I didn’t open the box for months. The lesson is to check immediately for any damage, even if you don’t intend to use it for a while. I’m glad that box i sent to you with the remarkable Tedeska cartridge wasn’t a victim of the same blithe transport that my B77 went through!

i love love love the B77, from its overall form-factor to the quality of its construction to Revox aesthetic. I’m excited to hear the results of the transition from 3.75/7.5 to 7.5/15, and board with both iec and nab equalization switched from the front panel. I have 2 extra head blocks (both NOS) and i’m thinking hard about doing a head-out conversion for use of an optimized pre. But first i need to hear it working….a few months to go, i think.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Not in the same league as B77.

Maybe not mechanically, but definitely in terms of sound, my opinion.

 

[Tapetech]

You have to expect that the shipping box will sometimes be dropped off a truck or off a conveyor belt. The B77 can be packed in such a way to prevent any damage from such drops and my guess is that your B77 was not packed properly.

 

[Robert Young]

You have to expect that the shipping box will sometimes be dropped off a truck or off a conveyor belt. The B77 can be packed in such a way to prevent any damage from such drops and my guess is that your B77 was not packed properly.

It was packed very well. JM Technical Arts has sent hundreds of Revox around the world. A few get beaten up by the troglodytes at fedex. It happens. There are very few “packed properly” boxes that would survive a 20’ drop from a cargo bay. Hence it is going back (and presumably will be returned) in a military hard case.

i’m not looking for a determination of what might have happened. I’m just reporting where i am, as this effort to get my B77 running the way i want started a few years back, when i began this thread. This set-back is about me not checking if everything arrived ok immediately. Because i didn’t bother, i’ll be paying again for repairs instead of fedex’ insurance paying. So if you’re really interested in what went wrong, the answer is I went wrong.

 

[adrianywu]

Not in the same league as B77.

Hi Victor, how would you rate the B77 compared to the various Studer machines of the same vintage (A810 etc.) ?

 

[Foxbat]

Hi Adrian,

They are clearly designed for different application. The B77 is a wonderful home machine with very natural sound, but its transport has some quirks.

The A8xx machines are directly opposite, in my view. Their transports are simply superb, but their audio circuits are designed for fast and easy calibration, and as result their sound lacks the transparency. I am also not crazy about the butterfly heads in general.

In the Studer line the best sounding machine is, again, in my view, the A80 RC.

 

[Pacha]

Along with a B77, I also use the PR99 which shares much of its internals with the B77. For my home playback and recording use these represent to me the best compromise between performance and cost.

 

[Foxbat]

The PR99's sound is heavily compromised by its balanced output board.

 

[Pacha]

I know I've been told that but, to my ears at 7.5ips and15ips it still provides many hours of fabulous listening and I still prefer it to the B77 it replaced.

 

[Robert Young]

So i converted my B77 to 7 1/2 and 15 ips, and changed out a board with the Audvance switchable NAB and IEC board, and modified it to 2-track as well. There’s a little tweak that will allow me to go directly from the head block to a tape pre at a later date (purely a financial issue). But since it hasn’t been sent back for the frame straightening yet, i have no idea how it will sound. On the other hand, i will never have a chance to compare it to another machine at any level, so given that i’m predisposed to like the B77 from both aesthetics and contruction quality, i’m quite certain that i’m going to like its sound as well. Does this bother me? Only a little bit. Life’s too short and a bit too hard to worry about this somewhat hi-class problem. I’m losing fine motor skills in my hands, and at this stage really just want to cut to the chase and listen to music. My diy and constant fiddling and never-ending adjustment days are over.

 

[Foxbat]

You are 1000% correct, Robert! Life is too short not to enjoy every minute you can spend with music. My balance is too shifted heavily towards listening and enjoying.

 

[Robert Young]

You are 1000% correct, Robert! Life is too short not to enjoy every minute you can spend with music. My balance is too shifted heavily towards listening and enjoying.

I don’t i’ve ever been 1000% right about anything, but thank you.
I’m trimming a tree with my family in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and listening to Bing Crosby through my phone on a little Bose thingie that came with the house.

And we’re having a great time.

 

[Pacha]

You are 1000% correct, Robert! Life is too short not to enjoy every minute you can spend with music. My balance is too shifted heavily towards listening and enjoying.

I too have been losing the fine motor control in my hands from injuries acquired in Vietnam and even though I may not have the best system, I have a very satisfying system and the enjoyment of the music I get to play on it is of most importance.

 

[adrianywu]

I too have been losing the fine motor control in my hands from injuries acquired in Vietnam and even though I may not have the best system, I have a very satisfying system and the enjoyment of the music I get to play on it is of most importance.

For me, the eyesight is the problem. I am very shortsighted, and now with presbyopia, it makes getting a perfect prescription for eyeglasses a challenge. I have a pair of glasses with 2 diopter less correction, which is perfect for doing close work with a soldering iron.

 

[Robert Young]

For me, the eyesight is the problem. I am very shortsighted, and now with presbyopia, it makes getting a perfect prescription for eyeglasses a challenge. I have a pair of glasses with 2 diopter less correction, which is perfect for doing close work with a soldering iron.

I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but for me this aging thing hasn’t been easy! My hand issue makes it hard to do things that i could do 5 years ago without thinking or looking. Eyesight is going too, so i’m now getting rid of most of my cartridge collection before i break them all. But we do all have the music. Guess that means my hearing will be completely gone in a few months. The tinnitus in my right ear already has replaced one supertweeter…

 

[Foxbat]

Robert - don't despair! Your body, and especially your brain, has tremendous ability to adopt. For instance, one of my ears was neatly totally gone for about a month due to infection, but my music enjoyment did not go anywhere, and stereo still sounded like stereo, just somewhat different. And hands... that's what we have the young folks for!

 

[adrianywu]

I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but for me this aging thing hasn’t been easy! My hand issue makes it hard to do things that i could do 5 years ago without thinking or looking. Eyesight is going too, so i’m now getting rid of most of my cartridge collection before i break them all. But we do all have the music. Guess that means my hearing will be completely gone in a few months. The tinnitus in my right ear already has replaced one supertweeter…

Be positive. I like to tell this story about a friend I made just before the pandemic. He was 86 at the time and still very enthusiastic about audio. He had to wear a hearing aid for conversation. Our audio group visited his dedicated listening room with about a dozen R2R machines, a set of Genesis One loudspeakers, a pair of Altec VOT AND a pair of JBL 4350. He told us about how his new cables changed the sound of his system. We were all pretty sceptical. He then came to my home with the same group of audiophiles. I played him the Analogue Productions tape of the Power of the Orchestra, once through my King Cello tape head pre, and again through my DIY tube tape head pre. He was the first one to point out the pertinent differences, which we all agreed on.

 

[Robert Young]

Be positive. I like to tell this story about a friend I made just before the pandemic. He was 86 at the time and still very enthusiastic about audio. He had to wear a hearing aid for conversation. Our audio group visited his dedicated listening room with about a dozen R2R machines, a set of Genesis One loudspeakers, a pair of Altec VOT AND a pair of JBL 4350. He told us about how his new cables changed the sound of his system. We were all pretty sceptical. He then came to my home with the same group of audiophiles. I played him the Analogue Productions tape of the Power of the Orchestra, once through my King Cello tape head pre, and again through my DIY tube tape head pre. He was the first one to point out the pertinent differences, which we all agreed on.

To Foxbat and Adrian, thank you both for the kind words…