REVOX A-700 Rebuild by ISR-EV Germany

eugen_syd

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2010
44
0
351
Hi REEL to REEL lovers,

I mentioned a few times about my story on a REVOX A-700 rebuild by ISR-EV. I met Peter Anaker and ISR-EV on my visit in Germany last summer (that includes Andy the baker, which can "cook" some nice REVOXEs not only bread) You can check their web site:
http://www.isr-ev.de/ and select english laguage. Lots of interesting things in their house but I had to drive 900km to visit them in Germany (450km each way).

I had my REVOX A-700 for a while but always gave me trouble, big noise on power up, hard to keep the tape tight to the heads, all sorts of problems, never reliable maybe due to its age. I had a great respect for the machine as ABBA used them in their studios but mine was a different kind. On my visit Peter assure me that this is a different "kind of machine" just my experiences are bad. They had a cult for the A-700, I even saw their B-700 (A-700 converted with lots of B77 parts and GRUNDIG 1000 VU meters, so sorry I did not take a picture of the machine). Here is a picture of finished product.

I pulled my A-700 appart and send nearly every part, lower part, head block, left and right tensioners, and every other board as instructed by Peter. I sent them on 17.09.2010 and arrived around end of September. All was carefuly rebuilt. See attached files. All sent back on 1st of November 2010 and send standard via DHL. Parcel reached me on 24 JANUARY 2011. Took a while as parcel came via SEA???? Yea I know I had no control over this. Wrote a bunch of e-mails but obviously I did not get much response.

I was so excited when all arrived. All looked so good and I even got a calibration tape sent by ISR-EV because I did not sent my VU meters not to get damaged. It was really easy to adjust them with the calibration tape. Took me a few days to put it back together as a bit of time passed by. The pictures I took on pulling off helped. I put some board side by side as before and after rebuild. I think is easy to spot the differences!
WOOOOOW sound is amazing and most of my problems are gone. Only one little problem, machine does not cut out when tape finishes. it is easy to adjust. However I did not record yet with it but play back is amazing. I will try it soon and report back if anyone is interested. I was a little bit concerned with my flat spots on the heads but according with Peter I have to be like 200 years old to wear the heads. Hmmmmm I do not quite agree with that but does sound good. Anyone interested in this can write me and happy to give more details.
Another successful project.
Pros: wonderful finished machine, nice to run and is a real ASSET!!!!
Cons: took some time and for a while I thought all is lost!!! Lost some sleep over it....
Still no not know the charges, waiting on that, so far just the freight charges to Germany which are not that small from Australia plus membership which was 120.00 EURO for a year with 2 machines to be rebuild at cost (so far just one made).

Regards from down under,

EUGEN
 

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Last edited:

MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,236
81
1,725
New York City
Keep us apprised of your progress :)
 

eugen_syd

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2010
44
0
351
Hi Myles,

I used one of my MAXWELL UD-XL I and recorded on this machine. I use as source CD's and records (LP's). I love to mix the songs in my own way. All came out very good. Hard to compare with the recordings I've done in the past with my C-270. Maybe someone can suggest a method to compare 2 recordings. My ear can not detect any differences and I do not have any sofisticated equipment. My ear tells me that all is fine! Sound is very warm and is a pleasure to use the machine now. All my recordings are done on 7.5ips, 2channel 4track.

I can call the project done!!!

Eugen
 

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