The Return of an Icon: The New Revox B77 MK III Tape Recorder

A German company called Revox Klangwerk is now manufacturing reel to reel machines again, and is selling improved versions of the famous Revox B77 reel-to-reel analog recorder. Given the demand, and following a limited reissue B77 MK II in 2023, the company is now introducing the new Revox B77 MK III tape recorder, which the company says was redesigned and improved with significant new features, and using updated electronics, optimized with components available today. They are even selling Master Tapes to pair with this reissue.
 
Attendees to the High End Munich in May 2024 show had the opportunity to witness the launch of the “new” Revox B77 MK II Yellow Limited Edition, which the Swiss duo Yello endorsed as a limited edition (ten units worldwide), as the famous band relesed its Yello albums available on tape as a “Yello Master Tape Edition.”

Those Revox B77 MK II special editions were available also for a limited time, selling for 13,500 Euros, while the standard version of the B77 MK II was sold for for EUR 7200. Out of curiosity, a “standard version” of the Yello Stella Reel-to-Reel Tape album costs €479 (more than $500 USD), while the special, limited edition Yello Stella Studio Master Tape sold for EUR €1350 - talk about expensive music.
  For those who don’t remember, Revox was the brand name for amateur recorders made in Switzerland by Studer, with the first Revox-branded tape recorder launched in 1952. In 1990, Willi Studer sold the Studer Revox Group to the Swiss company Motor-Columbus AG, which split the Studer Revox Group into Studer (Pro) and Revox (Hi-Fi). Studer was sold to Harman International in 1994, while Revox was excluded and sold to private investors, which continued to use the brand in consumer products, including portable radios and TVs sold almost exclusively in Switzerland and Germany.

The original B77 solid state reel-to-reel with logic control and direct-drive was built between 1980 and 1998, even long after Studer had stoped making tape machines. The initiative to bring back the famous machine as B77 MK II was from a German company using the name Revox Klangwerk (or Revox Deutschland), based in Villingen, where the tape machines are being manufactured. Following the success of the B77 MK II, the company now launched a new Revox B77 MK III and its new, own Revox Analog Master Tapes Collection.

To realize the Revox B77 MK III, an engineering team redesigned the original analog classic tape recorder. The entire electronics have been optimized with the components and simulation options available today. Proven components are still used, such as improved original Revox pickups with a considerably longer service life and the unique Revox motors. The result is this outstanding new version: the B77 MK III.

All the new details, such as the audio technology for even better sound reproduction and recording quality, the precisely manufactured, high-quality Revox pickups, a digital counter, the ability to play all common tape standards, a wide range of connection and optional expansion options have been perfected by the new company, and manufactured in their factory in Villingen, in the South of Germany - very close to Switzerland.

The result is immediately recognizable, and the company says the performance will beat the original while the construction is said to be “built for eternity”. “Like its predecessors, the new B77 MK III is manufactured to the highest quality standards (...) The high level of production and quality control required for the B77 MK III means that no more than 20 machines can be produced per month,” the company says.
 
Price for the new machine, now intended to be “audiophile” grade (which Willi Studer would find insulting), is USD $15,950. The new Revox Analog Master Tapes Collection (USD $479) are intended for recording studios to still produce analog masters and are manufactured through an exclusive cooperation with Horch House.

“In the Revox Klangwerk, Revox has now set up a copying line with a Horch House Master System consisting of professional Studer / Revox tape machines. Here, the exclusive master tapes with the original recordings from the recording studios are copied slowly and with the greatest care at 1:1 speed in the best possible quality.” The available catalog can be found at www.revox.com/music-shop

For sales and service in the US, Revox is supported by Reel to Reel Haven in New York, Pro Audio Ltd in Chicago, and Joseph Cali Systems Design in West Hollywood.
www.revox.com