Must read coffee table book for an audiophile

[_thelaughingman]

This is a comprehensive history of all things Hi-Fi with good bit of gear over the years.

 

[JRS]

Thanks for sharing your find. Very highly reviewed here, but I will order it locally. Nice XMAS gift to self, of course there were the early Sundara's, oh and a Topping Dx3Pro +. but I have been very good since then.

 

[_thelaughingman]

Thanks for sharing your find. Very highly reviewed here, but I will order it locally. Nice XMAS gift to self, of course there were the early Sundara's, oh and a Topping Dx3Pro +. but I have been very good since then.

My wife gifted this to me today and I had seen it being reviewed a month or so back.

 

[JRS]

My wife gifted this to me today and I had seen it being reviewed a month or so back.

You guys are killing me: with books, we need a one to two sentence review, more if one is inclined. For 70 bucks I could buy me two pair of interconnect cables. We value ASR opinions, last thing I want is a BS Audio type of read.. Though I understand it is more of a historical perspective I don't want a two chapter review on cables..

 

[jsrtheta]

Audio porn goes respectable.

 

[kchap]

View attachment 174561
This is a comprehensive history of all things Hi-Fi with good bit of gear over the years.

I prefer the A77 MKIV. I owned one. So long ago the details are hazy.

 

[gsp1971]

 

[anmpr1]

My impression (never owned one) was that the A700 was more of an outlier. Many A77s in circulation--they were expensive, but nothing like the 700. Shortly thereafter the B77 hit the road, and the 700 was quickly forgotten. Tape handling mechanism on the 700, with the extra flywheels, was better than the B77, IMO. Easier on the tape.

 

[mhardy6647]

I expected to see this -- but then again, I would.

 

[mhardy6647]

My impression (never owned one) was that the A700 was more of an outlier. Many A77s in circulation--they were expensive, but nothing like the 700. Shortly thereafter the B77 hit the road, and the 700 was quickly forgotten. Tape handling mechanism on the 700, with the extra flywheels, was better than the B77, IMO. Easier on the tape.

It's actually hard to imagine that someone would put a book like that together and then put a ReVox on the cover -- as opposed to a Studer.

It's like a Bentley vs. a Rolls-Royce. You know?

 

[Hugo9000]

 

[mhardy6647]

Yeah -- Harry F. Olson pretty much wrote the book.

Volumetrically, his treatises are coffee-table worthy, but the form factor's not of the canonical coffee table kind.
Heck, I'd probably add Langford-Smith to the mix -- but... 1) I'm an old guy and 2) I would, wouldn't I?




PS Y'all can pretend you don't see that LSO Beethoven "box set" -- it was given to me by a dear friend, so it gets to be on the shelf.

 

[Jim Shaw]

You guys are killing me: with books, we need a one to two sentence review, more if one is inclined.

Each of us has different forward speeds. Consider sticking with Twitter.

 

[JRS]

Each of us has different forward speeds. Consider sticking with Twitter.

Perish the thought. I value literacy.

 

[mhardy6647]

Perish the thought. I value literacy.

I think the post you quoted was sarcasm.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

It's actually hard to imagine that someone would put a book like that together and then put a ReVox on the cover -- as opposed to a Studer.

It's like a Bentley vs. a Rolls-Royce. You know?

A Real Studer:

 

[mhardy6647]

A Real Studer:

View attachment 174862

They're all real Studers. An two track A80 would be fine for my house.

 

[anmpr1]

It's actually hard to imagine that someone would put a book like that together and then put a ReVox on the cover -- as opposed to a Studer.

It's like a Bentley vs. a Rolls-Royce. You know?

I don't know the book, but if the subject is consumer hi-fi, then Studer products weren't sold direct to consumers. On the other hand, ReVox brand had a full line of consumer oriented products that anyone with the dollars could purchase: tuners, amps, loudspeakers, and, later, cassette decks. In my average sized city, ReVox tape recorders competed with Tandberg, and sometimes Crown--the latter being more configurable, more massive, and more expensive than either ReVox or Tandberg. My impression was that Crown gear was really more semi to pro-oriented. I don't think I ever personally knew anyone who owned a Crown open reel deck, but I knew people who owned Tandberg and ReVox, including myself. I never personally knew anyone who owned a Studer deck, apart from one reviewer who had Mark Levinson's modified A80 deck, for a while.

Studer was of course sold through specialty outfits. The average hi-fi consumer would have drawn a blank if you mentioned the word 'Studer' to them. If you lived in NYC, Gotham audio sold Studer (along with Neumann, Beyer, EMT...).

Toward the end of my open reel hobby, ReVox tape recorders were advertised using the combined Studer/ReVox logo, and more than less merged into their pro-line. I had a B77 brochure where the company suggested the machine be used as an ancillary to their more expensive gear, and on location (it came with a handle). One thing about the B77, for porta use it was really compact, given its overall robust nature.

By then the company had moved its US distribution to Nashville, and service/support was consolidated for both lines. If you needed to contact them for service, and had to ask what they charged, it would have been best for you to have bought a Teac, Akai, or Pioneer.

 

[mhardy6647]

So -- just to be clear. I was making a little joke about audio status symbols. "ReVox --- yeah, good for you, but the really cool guys have Studers"
To wit, I thought the topic of a coffee table book was impressive (i.e., coffee-table worthy) hifi. I do know lot of folks rockin' Studer decks in 2021. I am not one of them, but only because I'd have to sell a kidney.
At this late date, if one has sufficiently deep pockets, one may have pretty much whatever one wants in one's ("consumer") audio system.
Which explains the Altec & JBL drivers in mine.

As an aside, I note wryly that my ReVox A77 has a handle The A77 was quite portable -- and they definitely got around. Everybody had one, back in the day. Not Studers -- but there was no Studer equivalent to the little A77, AFAIK.

 

[anmpr1]

As an aside, I note wryly that my ReVox A77 has a handle The A77 was quite portable -- and they definitely got around. Everybody had one, back in the day.

I'm just guessing, but I suspect that more A77s were sold than any other top-tier 'consumer' deck. It was really designed for dual duty. For home and 'live' semi-pro use. Progressively improved over years, to include incorporation of Dolby. As I recall, you could get them in pretty much any format you wanted, and pretty much in any speed combo you needed. I don't think, however, they ever offered a model that accommodated the short-lived 'high-bias' open reel tapes--I think that was pretty much a Japanese only, thing.

Also, the company offered a 'lifetime warranty' on all the parts except belts and heads. That was a pretty impressive statement for a time when a one or two year warranty, or even a '90 Day' warranty was common. At the time, no one could have guessed that the company would be lost, due to technology changes.

A77 was expensive, but if you saved your pennies and dimes, they were affordable and not out of the question. Unlike mass-market Japanese imports, I don't think ReVox dealers discounted from list, if at all. But you could probably get your dealer to throw in a reel or two of tape, if you asked.

Memory tells me that the competing Tandberg decks, while making great recordings, were considered somewhat finicky, and less robust.

High-end cassette decks, the first ones coming out of Japan, were over the top expensive, but eventually threw open-reel under the bus; at least for the general consumer. They were 'good enough' for home duty, and after a while you could buy an almost top-tier quality cassette deck for a whole lot less. Media was certainly less costly. Plus, the format was truly portable.

From Audio magazine In 1980:

Nakamichi 1000 ZXL (probably the most 'over the top' expensive pinnacle of cassette) was $3800.00 USD. They made a gold plated one for more money.

Pioneer CT-F 1250 (a top of the line 'mass market with very good specs) $700.00.

ReVox A77 $1400.00 Revox B77 $1500.00 ReVox A700 $2999.00

Media: TDK SA-90 high bias cassette $3.00 TDK L-1800 with plastic reel $6.49