Brand NEW Reel To Reel Machine from Ballinger in Germany

[Bruce B]

If you remember back in the 70’s and 80’s, the big Studers were going upwards of 100k for the top models. What does that equate to in today’s market?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

If you remember back in the 70’s and 80’s, the big Studers were going upwards of 100k for the top models. What does that equate to in today’s market?

I don't remember any of that. but when you say 'big Studer's'; are you referring to 2" 24 track with the big meter bridges? or 'Big' 2 track machines?

 

[topoxforddoc]

A Studer A820 was the same cost as a Steinway Model B grand piano, back in the day. A new Steinway Model B is now GBP70k plus (USD 100k)

 

[Mike Lavigne]

A Studer A820 was the same cost as a Steinway Model B grand piano, back in the day. A new Steinway Model B is now GBP70k plus (USD 100k)

that sounds about right.

and if you remove the top covers and take a look underneath at the A820, that would be no surprise. it's build quality humbles every piece of audio gear ever built, for whatever that is worth.

 

[jdcolombo]

that sounds about right.

and if you remove the top covers and take a look underneath at the A820, that would be no surprise. it's build quality humbles every piece of audio gear ever built, for whatever that is worth.

I've never seen an 820 in person, but the photos of the chassis are awe-inspiring. And the thing weighs, what, 200 lbs.? That's not because of the electronics . . . I wonder how many of them Studer sold . . .

John C.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I've never seen an 820 in person, but the photos of the chassis are awe-inspiring. And the thing weighs, what, 200 lbs.? That's not because of the electronics . . . I wonder how many of them Studer sold . . .

John C.

it's not mainly the weight. there are other heavy master recorders. it's more the massive one piece casting that everything is bolted to and keeps things perfectly aligned (which must be seen in person to be believed), the convection cooling to eliminate any need for fans in rigorous high use environments, the quality of all the bits, the exotic nature of the tape handling without any 'rube goldberg' stuff. it's the most solid deck, and the most delicate toward tape at the same time.

it's the best transport.

and I'm an amateur and don't know so much about some of the deeper design features.

I own darTZeel, and owned the Rockport Sirius III, and am about to own the AS-2000. all amazingly built and finished, and they are not in this league. but; none of those have as complicated a mission to accomplish either.

 

[astrotoy]

Back in the heyday of commercial tape recording, the big Studer machines were the standard for the European studios, as the big Ampex machines were for the US studios. The engineers I interviewed for my Decca book on their classical recordings told me about the big machines that were permanently installed in the various studios that Decca had in London, Geneva and Vienna, and also the big trucks they had to ship the equipment around Europe to record at other venues. When they came to the states to record, the equipment was shipped over, several tons worth, and spent many months at a time in the US as they went from one city to another. Here is a shot of the Decca engineers at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus in 1967 taping the LA Philharmonic. You can see some of the equipment that they brought over from London. They would go from LA to Chicago to Cleveland to Montreal to Washington DC to record different orchestras under contract to Decca. Often more than one team of engineers would work different sessions. From the front are John Culshaw who produced the Solti Ring, engineers Gordon Parry and Jimmy Lock. John Dunkerley gave this to me for my book. Larry

 

[topoxforddoc]

Looks like a pair of strapped Studer J37s in that pic.

 

[awsmone]

Looks stunning
And I wish them every success

To me the difference is Beron and Studer’s have Parts and Technical back
Alternate heads
Repco head amps etc

This is new guy on block and support and reliability take a long time to earn

 

[Edward Pong]

Here's my 2 volume autographed copy of Larry's great book on Decca Records!
Amazing read of how all the great Decca recordings were made + 4 CDs of their most famous LPs!

A MUST HAVE for all audiophiles...
Ed

 

[Bruce B]

Here's my 2 volume autographed copy of Larry's great book on Decca Records!
Amazing read of how all the great Decca recordings were made + 4 CDs of their most famous LPs!

A MUST HAVE for all audiophiles...
Ed

I've got one better..... Winston's autograph......

Now back to the Reel Machine from Ballinger Please.......

 

[jdcolombo]

I'm tickled that a new RTR is coming (for real, it seems, as opposed to the Horch House vaporware). I hope this effort is exceptionally successful, as that might tempt others (Revox, which almost certainly must still have the technical information for resurrecting the B77/PR99; Technics and the RS1500 series; Teac/Tascam, which produced the BR20 until the early 2000's) to join in. Which in turn would tempt more software production - big labels might be more willing to license classic recordings, etc.

But I have to say that for $28,000, I'd tell any friend of mine to find a good used Studer A80 or ATR102 (or if the size of those is a problem, a Studer A810) and have one of the great Studer techs or ATR Services completely refurbish it. At the end, you will have a better machine that will be just as reliable, and since both the Studers and ATR's are still in use by a lot of folks, you will also have a community of service people and parts (mostly used, yes, but nearly everything on these machines can be rebuilt to original specs). I realize, though, that such a route would not be attractive to many people, and for them, the Ballinger would be a perfect alternative (as would Greg Beron's machines or a refurbed Technics from J-Corder).

John C.

 

[Curt Palme]

Am I the only one, but I think the transport looks great.. but the electronics looks... cheap. A redesign of that part to make it look less 'Yorx-ish'
would be a good idea..

 

[Fred]

Well, price notwithstanding, the effort is admirable. From their website it appears they make a lamp, a turntable, watches and now this tape deck. Hope they have deep enough pockets to afford supporting the product. The fear is what happens in 3 to 5 years time when you need parts and service. Will they still be there?

 

[yjwu]

I guess the profit margin would be the sale price of top turntable system minus its R&D/manufacturing/marketing cost, in the assumption that this new R-2-R will compete directly with high end turntable system.

There was another creative proposal of a new reel-to-reel deck from Bulgaria back in 2015. Touch screen control of the deck was just a small spark. I had not seen any discussion or update information; any input?

http://lab2104.tu-plovdiv.bg/index.php/2016/03/03/r2r/

 

[yjwu]

it's not mainly the weight. there are other heavy master recorders. it's more the massive one piece casting that everything is bolted to and keeps things perfectly aligned (which must be seen in person to be believed), the convection cooling to eliminate any need for fans in rigorous high use environments, the quality of all the bits, the exotic nature of the tape handling without any 'rube goldberg' stuff. it's the most solid deck, and the most delicate toward tape at the same time.

it's the best transport.

and I'm an amateur and don't know so much about some of the deeper design features.

I own darTZeel, and owned the Rockport Sirius III, and am about to own the AS-2000. all amazingly built and finished, and they are not in this league. but; none of those have as complicated a mission to accomplish either.

Power consumption:

A820: 450W Max, 160W at spooling, 130W Two track recording w/o TC, 80W tape unloaded;
A812: 280W Max, 190W at spooling, 150W Two track recording, 90W tape unloaded; require fan cooling

Recently my A820 suffered a nearly complete black-out: no response, no light except green LED's monitoring still healthy supply voltages. The problem was diagnosed to be a blown transistor 2SC3012; resulted in missing of 5.6V supply. Here Greg Beron would inject his idea of external pure DC power supply to replace A820's original highly efficient switching power supply (more precisely DC to DC converter; actually this part of circuits was called stabilizer ).

 

[Ron Resnick]

As a non-DIYer/non-tinkerer I find that scary, yjwu!

It is good you were able to track down the problem component!

Thank goodness for Ki, Charlie Bolois and Marc Bischoff!

 

[yjwu]

It was a scary moment indeed! Fortunately it was a single component fault, no collateral damage. With STUDER's detailed service manual tracking down problem was not that difficult. Related components were clearly marked in block diagram. Checking each of them soon revealed the culprit. Another big thumb up was that most critical components were socketed. I can swap IC's from different supply branchs to confirm their status.

As a non-DIYer/non-tinkerer I find that scary, yjwu!

It is good you were able to track down the problem component!

Thank goodness for Ki, Charlie Bolois and Marc Bischoff!