You ask, and you may receive! Well, next week atleast. I bought an '80's Revox CD player from TLSguy today. I'll post pics when I receive it next week, or TLS can share some he already took. Thanks again Mark, can't wait to hook her up!
These were his options.
A 1985 Denon DCD 1800. Flagship player made in Japan by Denon Corporation.
A 1984 Revox B225 I bought new in 1984. Made in Switzerland by Studer/Revox.
http://mdcarter.smugmug.com/Walberswick-Studios/Vintage-CD-palyers/i-gVWRcsZ/0/XL/IMGP3670-XL.jpg
Note that since the whole drive moves, it is an easy matter to clean the laser lens.
The Denon was working, but the Revox unfortunately shut down when you pressed the load button.
The draw motor on the Revox was ceased solid. I got it unstuck and cleaned the commutator and brushes. I lubricated the reduction gear box. After reinstallation the player worked for a morning and then the motor lost torque. The force I had to use to free up the armature from the permanent magnets had caused the gear to loosen on the motor shaft. There was no remedy for this except motor replacement.
So I got hold of one of my excellent contacts, Jack Clark of
JM Technical Arts.
He was service manager for Studer/Revox in Nashville back in the glory days. He is the go to guy about any Revox problems in the US. Fortunately he had one good used drawer motor, which he sold to me for $30.
This motor is quite large, and has to develop a lot of torque, as the Revox has a powerful magnetic disc clamp, to hold the disc in place firmly. The motor has to have enough torque to break the magnetic attraction.
The motor arrived yesterday, and I installed it right away. The Revox is fully restored.
I bought this unit new in 1984. I have manual and original packing. The remote is connected by cable and was an extra. I never bought one.
I connected it to my studio rig via my Quad 44 preamp. It sounds superb. It was so beguiling, I could not get out of my chair. I had to listen, and was totally adsorbed in the music.
After this reverie, I did some measurements. The unit was flat from 10 Hz to 20 kHz to a small fraction of a db. Even out to 20 kHz the waveforms were perfect. Here are the left and right channel 20 kHz tones on a test disc on my scope.
This is superb performance for a new player, let alone a first generation player now 28 years old.
The disc drive was the top of the line Philips drive of the day built at Eindhoven. The digital circuits were designed by Roger Lagadec. After Willi Studer's death he was poached by Sony and designed the ES series. These were good players, but did not have the build quality of the Revox, but cost more!
As I serviced and repaired this unit, I noted how beautifully made and easy to access and service it was. It is a far cry from the Far Eastern products we have to put up with now. An era destroyed by socialism, with high taxes, especially death taxes which was the prime reason for the breakup and selling off in parts of most of these fine European firms. This should never have been allowed to happen. We are now paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for this.
The Revox is very fast in all its actions. It plays discs of unlimited tracks and very unusually for a first generation player, it will play computer generated discs, at least ones from my Plextor burner in my workstation.
The Denon DCD 1800, I bought off eBay in 1999, to use at our Lake home when it was largely a seasonal home.
This was a player I quickly remembered I did not have a lot of love for. It looks gorgeous and impressive.
However were the Revox is smooth, this has the early digital upper end harshness. Every action is so slow, you darn need to go and have a cup of coffee. It will not cue beyond 1 tracks, which was typical of the period. It will not play computer burned discs, again this is typical of the period.
This player is a piece of Far Eastern mutton dressed up as lamb. In other words dressed up to sell as they say.
I checked the Audiogon Blue book and there are not enough sales to graph the resale is quoted as $120.
There are many more Revox B225 sales, at the top end $500, and at the lower end $200.
I have seen them sell on eBay for up to $1200, but when they get those prices it is normally a Far Eastern buyer. I have noted that Far Eastern buyers are prepared to pay very high prices for older classy Western Equipment. I take this as admission that they have replaced it with largely junk.
Since this unit is now a perfect example of the iconic Revox B225, I sold it to the OP for $375, which I thought was a very good deal.
If any member wants the Denon DCD 1800, they can have it just for the cost of shipping. If you want it PM me. It is built like a tank and is the heavier machine.