[Wayner]

I was just ready to record an LP when a cloud of smoke poured out of my trusty old (38 years) Revox. Hate to part with it and I guess it was gonna happen. May she rest in peace(s).

This is yet another example of why you should never leave vintage equipment on or for that matter, plugged in. You will burn your house down by doing so.......

[Quiet Earth]

Sorry to hear the bad news Wayner. Is it a reel to reel, or a cassette deck? Sounds like the fuse did not blow so is it something after the power supply that burned up?

Also now I am wondering, since the failure did not occur until you switched the power on, what would be the risk of leaving a vintage piece of gear plugged in but switched off?

Again, sorry about the bad news..... 

[Wayner]

It was my A77 half track reel to reel from 1976 (7 1/2, 15ips) deck. It was running all morning and I happened to thread a tape in and did a fast forward, then she smoked. I'm pretty sure it could have smoked at any time.

You don't have to take my advice, nor do you have to believe it. I do not leave old sh!t on just for this very reason......you just never know.

[dB Cooper]

I heard a rumor that "a certain" European mfr (which I guess would have to be Revox or Tandberg) was putting an open reel tape deck back into production. Hope it's true if for no other reason than to assure playability of tape archives.

[Quiet Earth]

I do not leave old sh!t on just for this very reason......you just never know.

I am in 100% agreement with you and of course I do believe you. You made me do a double take or rather a rethink when you said "plugged in "though. I would like to think that my old gear is safe when the power switch is switched off but still plugged in. I never really thought to unplug it from the wall when I'm not using it, as long as it was turned off.

Anyway, I hope you can get her fixed or find a suitable replacement. Best of luck!

[Quiet Earth]

I heard a rumor that "a certain" European mfr (which I guess would have to be Revox or Tandberg) was putting an open reel tape deck back into production. Hope it's true if for no other reason than to assure playability of tape archives.

Wow! I hope that is true too.

[Wayner]

I am in 100% agreement with you and of course I do believe you. You made me do a double take or rather a rethink when you said "plugged in "though. I would like to think that my old gear is safe when the power switch is switched off but still plugged in. I never really thought to unplug it from the wall when I'm not using it, as long as it was turned off.

Anyway, I hope you can get her fixed or find a suitable replacement. Best of luck!

I have much respect for you and I know that you have a level head about things like this. As you may (or may not know) I have worked with the AC stuff for most of my life and have seen the most bizarre things happen to even new stuff. I have also taken several courses on NFPA 79e that will scare the crap out of most people. Obviously, I don't want anyone to become panic manics, but I do want to point out that there is a real risk to the old, fun, vintage stuff. Again, I would never trust it.

[*Scotty*]

Wayner what part of the REVOX went up in smoke? Perhaps it could be repaired and put back into service.
Scotty.

[TomS]

I would take a wild guess and say after that long of reliable service, some electrolytics gave up if they've never been replaced. Maybe there is hope, but you don't know what else they might take out. There are folks who repair and restore the A77 and B77 Revox's, though I'm sure it's not cheap. There are several threads about them on AudioKarma. I've owned a few over the years and they are great decks.

[Russell Dawkins]

I'd sure look into fixing it or having it fixed if the mechanical parts are good and the head is fresh. Those are nice sounding decks, especially the half track versions.

[dB Cooper]

Whatever the outcome, for any electronic device (especially one chock full of moving parts such as a tape deck) to serve for 38 years is damned impressive and attests to the build quality. They really don't build them like that any more...

[AmpDesigner333]

Can you share a photo?

[Wayner]

I've decided to recycle it. I didn't use it very much lately and it has given me 38 years of service. I don't see a value in spending lots of money on fixing it up, recalibrating, shipping (both ways), just so I can record occasionally on it. It just doesn't make sense.

I think one of the motors (left one) and maybe a portion of the power supply went.

[SteveFord]

That's bad news.
Perhaps one of the members here could use it for parts?

[avahifi]

Wayne, you should check with Dean Kayser before trashing the Revox.  He has lots of experience with refurbishing tape decks and has several in use.

Frank

[Wayner]

Here is the problem with fixing up a 38 year old machine.....everything is 38 years old. Caps, motors, capstan........So, that being said, I'm not interest nor in the mood to restore or have someone else attempt to restore the machine. As far as parts for AC members, everything is pretty worn out, so I don't see any point to that either.

I also have a Sony cassette deck (TC-K707es) that is going to get recycled too.

Here is the problem with recording on tape. They were designed for recording LPs onto them. That means at 1800 feet on a 7" reel, you get 48 minutes per tape. Since it's a half track, you can't flip the tape over. The cassette has 45 minutes per side. My vinyl playback is very nondestructive, so there really isn't any point to putting an LP onto tape. Newer LPs are longer then 48 minutes, so I would have to use up 2 tapes for them.

If I wished to record some CDs onto tape, just to get a little of the analog sound back, basically none of the CDs would fit on either the reel to reel or cassette. I'd need to have two reel to reel tapes for every CD and would have to flip the cassette over to finish recording on the second side, and then not having any room for another CD to record on the second side.

I do have a Tascam CD recorder that can do everything the tape can, and everything fits on the CR-Rs.

To top it all off, recording stuff onto tape takes a long time to do, at least correctly. You can't really walk away from it for long periods of time. You become a attached to the machine.

So, it truly is an end to an era.....

[mick wolfe]

Thx Wayner. I just went over and unplugged my 36 year old Teac A-3300SX as a precautionary measure. Like you, this deck sees very little use these days. Just use it for playback and that's getting to be pretty rare. Still love the sound though.

[Wayner]

I hear ya Mike. It's not like it been fun for me, but it's been a bad week here for tapes, as I also got rid of all of my VHS tapes and player. The tapes went to a charitable organization and the player went to a guy that turns VHS into DVD for people (like home movies and stuff). Now the Revox breaks camp, along with the cassette deck.

Wait awhile and I might post in the market place section of the AC for about 20 reel to reel tapes (mostly Maxell UD 35-90) when I get around to posting it there, and I might see if anyone wants some cassettes, too.

Please don't PM me now about either item, wait until I do it the official and correct way, in the marketplace. I may keep the tapes for the time being, too. Just haven't decided yet......

[dB Cooper]

I knd of have been going through the same thing with an olfd FM3 I have had laying around here for years in disassembled form. Never seem to have the time to finish it and not sure what I would do with it anyway- there isn't much quality broadcasting here anymore- one station that plays jazz and one so-so classical station. May bite the bullet and offer it to some AC member who would finish it and give it a good home....

[rcag_ils]

Don't trash it just yet, get a cannibalize unit and fix it. The draw back is getting the calibration tape to align it, they are simply not available. I have two reel to reel decks are still in service and used regularly.