Revox A700 (1973–1978)

Twenty-four kilograms of pressure-cast aluminum and a quartz-locked capstan - the consumer deck that behaved like a broadcast machine.

Overview

Set one down on the bench and the first thing you notice is the mass: 24 kg, most of it a pressure-cast solid aluminum alloy plate that Studer Revox used as the chassis foundation. This is not a machine you slide onto a shelf and forget. The A700 was built from 1973 to 1978 as a high-end consumer open reel tape recorder. It is a stereo deck that ran quarter-inch tape at 3¾, 7½, and 15 inches per second, with a servo-controlled three-motor transport (two reels, one capstan, per the parts breakdown) and direct-drive capstan motors.

The electronics set the A700 apart from everything else in the consumer Revox line. It is the only consumer reel-to-reel deck Revox made with a built-in preamplifier, including a magnetic phono input, a moving-magnet stage built into a tape recorder. Owners describe the configuration as a semi-professional unit with a built-in mixer alongside that phono preamp, and the front panel carries four input slide controls plus a master fader. It can be operated horizontally, vertically, or in an inclined position. A machine this heavy needs to fit the room, not the other way around.

Production ran from 1973 to 1978, and according to available documentation the design later became the Studer A67 - a consumer deck promoted into the professional catalog rather than the reverse. Original cost was $1800, which in early-1970s dollars put it squarely in flagship territory. Contemporary advertising framed it as part of the 700 Series alongside the A720 tuner/preamp and A722 power amplifier, promising superb performance and lavish engineering as a new standard in high fidelity (Audio, May 1974, p.49).

Key Features

Quartz-Locked Three-Speed Capstan

The transport runs at 3¾, 7½, and 15 ips. The European documentation gives the same three speeds as 9.5/19/38 cm/s. Fifteen ips is the speed that counts on the spec sheet: wow and flutter is rated at 0.06% there, and frequency response reaches 30Hz to 22kHz (sources differ on whether that figure is referenced to 15 ips or 7½ ips). Those are studio-adjacent figures, and owners of the period treated the A700 as a transcription machine rather than a toy. One long-term owner noted that three speeds made it unusually useful for archive work, a capability most Revox decks of the era didn't offer.

Electronic Tape Tension in Every Mode

Tape tension is electronically regulated during all operating modes, including the stop sequence. A servo system governs the reel motors instead of a mechanical brake arrangement. The deck handles mixed reel sizes without the operator switching anything, and the tape isn't shocked when you hit stop. Contemporary coverage of the transport highlighted a quartz crystal controlled three-speed drive capstan and an LSI-controlled triple-motor transport with photoelectric and motion-sensing tape protection (HiFI-Stereo, July 1974, p.28).

LED Bar-Graph Metering with Overload Detection

Instead of needles, the A700 uses LED arrays - two banks of 20 segments with overload indication. The overload circuit responds at +6 dB above 0 VU (514 nWb/m), with a response time of 10 ms and a hold time of 0.2 seconds, so a transient that trips the indicator stays visible long enough to read. Contemporary coverage praised the deck's superb performance and lavish engineering, calling it a new standard in high fidelity (Audio, May 1974, p.49).

Built-In Phono Preamplifier and Input Mixer

Input sensitivity runs 40mV on line, 3mV on DIN, and 0.15mV on mic. The mic figure is low enough to take a moving-coil-adjacent signal, though the built-in stage is specified as moving-magnet. A phono input on a tape deck was genuinely unusual, and it meant the A700 could sit at the center of a system rather than at the end of one. The built-in mixer lets four sources be blended to tape without outboard gear.

Three Heads, and a Track-Format Question

The head complement is one record, one play, one erase. Track format is where the documentation gets slippery: the spec table states 4-track, 2-channel stereo, while at least one collector source describes the machine as 2-track, 2-channel. Both configurations circulated, so buyers should confirm which head assembly a specific unit carries before assuming compatibility with a tape library.

Damped Lever Pivot

One detail that surfaces in teardown accounts: the tape lever's oscillation is damped with thick organosilicon fluid injected into the pivot. It costs real money to implement and never appears on a brochure. The lever simply doesn't chatter.

Historical Context

The A700 was positioned as the ultimate consumer tape recorder of its time and served as the flagship consumer reel-to-reel in the Revox lineup during its production run. It followed the A77 and preceded the B77 and PR99, a lineage the documentation states explicitly. From 1973, Revox produced the A700, which later became the Studer A67.

Auction-house copy has called it one of the most sophisticated reel-to-reel machines ever produced for the consumer and semi-professional market, and the pinnacle of 1970s Swiss engineering. That is marketing, not measurement, but the underlying claim that this was a consumer deck built to professional standards is borne out by the transport and the spec sheet. One owner's certificate of ownership dates a unit to 1974, bought new in New York City as a professional consumer recorder.

Collectibility & Value

Today, units are highly collectible, with listings running from €900 to €1,600 against an original $1800 sticker. The gap between those numbers tells you most of what you need to know: the A700 has held its value in real terms, which is more than most 1970s tape hardware can claim.

The failure modes are well documented. Failing power transistors can damage servo ICs. That is the one that turns a working deck into a parts unit, so any A700 with transport oddities should be treated as a servo problem until proven otherwise. Noisy slide potentiometers are endemic and usually respond to cleaning. Sticky transport mechanisms from degraded rubber are common, and transport controls malfunction often enough that a logic fault is a known category: one dealer listing describes a cosmetically good unit that plays but will not record or erase. Standard maintenance covers recapping, potentiometer cleaning, and tension arm damper repairs.

Parts circulate - side panel frames around $39.95, mic input Switchcraft connectors around $49, two-track head assemblies, and heatsinks with transistors - and at least one specialist notes it can supply VU meters from repair stocks. A new-old-stock unit in original packaging surfaced for sale at one point, complete with the perspex reel cover.

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