Revox B-126 (1988–1992)
A compact disc player built around two Philips chips that still make collectors' ears prick up, and a faceplate that has aged better than its reputation.
Overview
The B-126 is one of those Revox components that slips through the cracks. It isn't a tape machine, it isn't a tuner, and it isn't one of the big B-2xx separates that dominate the brand's secondhand market. It's a CD player, sold as the "Revox B126 Stereo Compact Disc Player," and it ran from 1988 to 1992 according to hifi-wiki's production record. Forum chatter dates its release to 1988, though at least one dealer listing carries a "1987" in its title, so treat the first year as 1988 with a grain of salt. Country of manufacture is reported as Germany, even though the Revox name is Swiss. The sourcing here is thin and stated as found, not confirmed.
The interesting part is inside. Owners and tinkerers have identified the converter chain as the Philips SAA7220P/B oversampling digital filter feeding a TDA1541A DAC. That is the same multibit converter family a whole subculture of listeners still seeks out for its non-oversampling-adjacent, slightly warmer presentation compared with later one-bit designs. The chip pairing is the reason a diyAudio thread exists asking, plainly, "Anyone knows what DAC is used on the ReVox B-126?"
The rest of the feature set is modest. There are two coaxial RCA digital outputs on the back, remote control capability, and a black/silver finish that matches the rest of the Revox line of the period. No balanced outputs are documented, no analog output specs are published in the sources available, and no measurements appear anywhere in the record - no frequency response, THD or signal-to-noise. You judge this player by its chipset and its build, not by a spec sheet.
Key Features
Philips SAA7220P/B Oversampling Filter
The SAA7220P/B is the digital filter stage. Its presence tells you the B-126 was designed when oversampling was the selling point, the thing that separated a "proper" CD player from the first-generation 14-bit machines. In the Revox it's paired with the TDA1541A, and that combination is what owners point to when they describe the player's character. The filter does the interpolation work ahead of the converter, and the converter does the rest. The specific chipset is the single most documented thing about the B-126.
TDA1541A Multibit DAC
The TDA1541A is the reason the B-126 has any collector profile at all. It's a multibit converter, the kind of chip that later became fetishized precisely because it wasn't a cheap one-bit solution. The diyAudio thread asking which DAC the B-126 uses shows the pattern: people buy these players, open them up, and want to know what they've got.
Twin Coaxial Digital Outputs
Two coaxial RCA digital outputs is a slightly unusual provision for a consumer CD player of the era, since most had one, if any. A pair means the B-126 can feed two digital destinations at once, which is the sort of thing that mattered to the studio-adjacent buyer Revox was courting. It's a small detail, and it's confirmed in the product information.
Remote Control and Black/Silver Finish
The B-126 is remote-controlled and finished in black/silver, matching the look of the Revox separates of the late '80s. The finish is documented. The remote itself and its functions are not, so there's no detail on what buttons it carried. Revox intended this as a system component.
Historical Context
The B-126 sat in Revox's CD/SACD player lineup - Audiogon's Bluebook indexes it under exactly that heading - during the years when the company was shifting from tape-machine specialist to full-line separates manufacturer. Production ran 1988 to 1992 per hifi-wiki, a four-year window in the middle of the first CD boom. Forum recollection holds that it was released in 1988 at a relatively high price for the time, though no original retail figure survives in the sources consulted. People still argue about its DAC, but the paper trail of price lists, brochures and service documentation is thin.
Collectibility & Value
Values are soft and thinly reported. A willhaben.at listing for a "STUDER REVOX CD PLAYER B126, TOP ZUSTAND" carried a €400 asking price, dated as shown on the aggregator. That's an asking price, not a sale, and asking prices on optimistic European listings tend to run ahead of what actually moves. Audiogon maintains a dedicated B-126 Bluebook page drawing on twenty years of marketplace data, but the excerpt doesn't state a value, so any number you see is anecdotal.
Condition notes from sellers are encouraging on serviceability. One listing describes a unit as "Fully refurbished; - Tested," and another advertises "Rare Condition Box Disc Vintage," so the box-and-manual premium applies here as it does to most Revox gear. Beyond that, no reliability data specific to the B-126 is documented, and no repair-service listing that names the model was found.
eBay Listings
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