News

Covid 19 virus has forced many of our customers to be house bound, and
some are taking advantage of this time out to work on their hobby projects.

Nagravox is still operating, fulfilling orders and providing support to all our wonderful customers. We are a small family run business (mainly just Pete!) with our own workshop facilities maintaining excellent hygiene practices in all our business operations.  Shipments are still picked up by Australia Post and delivered in a reasonable time frame by postal authorities in North America, UK, EU and other countries. There is also DHL services for other areas where the postal service is less reliable. We currently have a good stock of kits and most spare parts, so look forward to helping you get started on your next tape project.

From the family at Nagravox we wish all our customers resilience and good health as the world is faced with the covid-19 pandemic. We hope that in the wonderful world of tape machines you can find a sense of calm and distraction in these difficult times.

Over the past few weeks we have been doing a full overhaul and restoration of a Revox F36 & G36 mk2. This has been an excellent opportunity to revise and update our service sheets for the 36 series. Already we have decided that although dismantling the top chassis is ‘extreme’, it’s a lot easier to work on the inside guts. Check out the insides of these F36 and the G36 machines!

The rationale behind Nagravox calibration kits is to provide an appropriate set of tools, instructions and resources to calibrate and setup a specific model Revox or Studer machine.

Click here to see these products in our store

A cheap short generic reel of tape recorded by an enthusiast to try and make some money from his tape machine on ebay is frankly not going to help you to really setup and calibrate your machine properly.  Calibration is the final step and is not just a process of throwing on a playback tape and tweaking some trimmers!  All 3 chains must be considered as well what gear you need to do it all. Modern tape formulations, relevant steps and the peculiarities of a particular model and later factory updates not in factory manuals need to all be taken into account. The Nagravox calibration kit is designed to setup and calibrate your machine fully and properly.  Each kit is tailored for a specific machine and your requirements.

Nagravox kits include

• Playback calibration tape or tapes  - most Revox are 1 but Studer machines require 2 – 6   
• Record setup tape for calibrating the record chain
• A set of detailed instructions, explanations, equipment needed, diagrams and check sheets SPECIFIC to your particular model machine. These are based on Revox Studer manuals, Factory Tech Bulletins, industry best practice and Nagravox’s own experience repairing, updating and restoring tape machines. 

Discover more in our comprehensive calibration brochure

SOME GUIDELINES ON TAPE TYPE

Sometimes you may have to use tape that perhaps your machine was not set up on. I make the following comments, bearing in mind 'you dont get something for nothing' and these are rough guidelines.

• SM900 and LPR90 have the same magnetic properties as does SM911 and LPR35. So setting up on one is applicable to both alternatives respectively.
• Due to the higher 'magnetic density' of SM900 / LPR90   using LPR35 and LPR90 interchangeably will be problematic but not impossible.
• SM900 /LPR90 is a superior tape in my opinion. SM900 is obviously far more durable than the thinner long play variant LPR90. (Similar comment applies to SM911/LPR35). Again, in my opinion, I suggest the following rough use guidelines for 1/4" tape
• Re-recording over  SM900 / SM911 - 15x    LPR35/LPR90/SM468  8x
• Playing pre-recorded. This is dependent on machine but generally I would apply the following: 
• early Revox 36 series & early Studer C/J37 machines  80 - 150x     
• Revox A77, B77, PR99 mk1/2 150 300x,  
• Revox PR99 mk3, C270, A700 and all Studer machines  200 - 400x 
• If you will use mainly LPR35/SM911 and occasionally SM900/LPR90
• Calibrate and setup on SM911/LPR35
• Increase max recording level  by +3 Db for SM900/LPR90
• If you will use mainly SM900/LPR90
•     Calibrate and setup on SM900/LPR90
•     Reduce max recording level by -3 Db for SM911/LPR35 
• SM468 is again another case. If you mainly use SM468 then you should calibrate for it exclusively and occasionally if you use
• SM911/LPR35 - you could, increase max recording level by ~ +2 Db
• SM900/LPR90 - you could increase max recording level by ~ +4 Db