[Vintage-Audio] Revox B77 Two Track Or Four?

[Sheldon Daitch]

I don't have a Revox catalog handy, I guess I could find one in
tech support maybe.

But here is the easiest way to figure out if it has half-track stereo
heads or quarter-track stereo heads.  Have someone look at the
heads and see if the metal portions of the head surface, the
magnetic pickup surfaces, there will be two, if they are wide,
they are most probably half track stereo.   If the upper edge
of the upper track is at the upper edge of the tape and the lower
edge of the lower track is at the lower edge of the tape, it is a
half track head.

Here is a better description, see:

http://www.reeltoreel.de/worldwide/Tips09.htm

and scroll down to stereo half track and stereo
quarter track for detailed information.

Hope this helps.

I don't think the B-77 has two sets of playback heads, so
there should be only one playback configuration.

On the Teac A-5500, my first inclination is that the
FAST FORWARD should have done that mechanical
function, but I can't tell from a photo of an A-5500 how
the controls are marked.  My Teac A-7030 does not
reverse, and FAST FORWARD does exactly that.

73
Sheldon





Duane Fischer wrote:

> Sheldon,
>
> You are correct. The Revox B77 does not have automatic reverse.
>
> In fact, if I ever owned any deck that did have it, I never used it!
>
> I got quite a surprise the other day when playing a tape on the Teac A-5500. I
> was trying to determine if it had a "scan ahead" feature or not. I pressed the
> "fast forward" button while it was playing and it switched to the other two
> tracks and apparently reversed the play direction! The other tracks were not
> being played backwards. I did not know it did this! These expensive high ends
> decks had features we budget restricted stereo devotees never got to enjoy!
>
> So what number am I supposed to get off the machine for you, Sheldon?
>
> Duane W8DBF
>
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