(made circa 1989)
Text - summer 2006 / 2008
Lampizator meets a worthy partner.
I was really excited unpacking the Revox from my ebay shipment.
I was about to meet a legend. A CD player from one of the world's most
reputable companies.
I skipped the B225 because it had too old DAC chip (14 bit). But B226S
-
this has the famous TDA1541A-1by some considered the best ever.
Add the Philips all cast magnesium CDM1 Pro spinner and a legend of
Studer - and my hopes were riding high.
(Actually I was a fool underestimating the old B225 - it is a great player
but I found out two years later)
Well, I swear that Revox used to make reel to reel tape players which
must have been the best in the world 30 years ago. Mechanical
engineering at
its peak.
My own tuner, Revox 740B, after opening the hood -brought me on
my
knees.
But the CD player B226S - well it is very solid and nicely built but
not that
awfully special.
It is an "OK player".
I
played it "as it is"
and I liked it a lot. The sound was good, all-round nice and mature.
But
after seeing a row of 20 years old op-amps I thought - lets see this
babe lampized.
The TDA
1541A/S1 chip is "just" 16 bit and single ended only. But
so is the Sony/Philips red book format. 16 bit. And Philips invented
CD, so shouldn't their best chip ever make the best music?
Lampizator hookup took just minutes thanks to antique PCB mounting
technique (single layer conventional component board).
The first notes struck me as different from all earlier attempts on
other players. Something about the Revox is SO RIGHT that it is beyond
description. And it is not sweet or mellow - it kicks ass at the same
time as it is
incurably romantic. This player became my benchmark reference for a
while, untill - well, untill I met Grundig. If only
they made them balanced ...
I lampized the Revox internally in concealed mode.
Everything inside..
To honour
Revox' legend I used only PIO capacitors (silver cans).
Revox with
aftermarket superclock
I added the superclock (YES, EVEN REVOX in their top player uses cheap
crystal for clocking).
Please look at
these piano finish wooden cheeks...
Revox meets
another Revox
5 powerful regulators of DC on a heat sink
Clean separate DC is the key to success with TDA1541A DAC player. The
chip and its friend - SAA7220p/B generate
HUGE power supply noises so it better have his own line - in fact -
three lines: -15V, -5V and +5V.
Premium German parts everywhere !
Ugly old op-amps in the analogue output stage. (the four square IC's
with S letter on them) Horrible sound-busters.
The DAC chip is nicely crowded by 14 premium MKP decouplers, not SMD
like in Philips or Marantz, No need for tweaking.
The proximity of SAA7220 and saa7210 makes this player ideal candidate
for non-oversampling mod.
The TDA 1541A DAC to sound its best MUST be run in zero oversampling
mode.
This is described HERE.
At the time of the Revox lampization I did not know it yet.
So now (2008) I bought another 226 to try it again.
I will post the results as soon as I have 'em.
Click to get full schematics.
Revox B126
This
is a cheaper cousin of Revox B226S. In
fact - for us, audio tweakers it is the same inside.
Only differences are:
DAC is non-S - it is not proven that S is in fact better. Personally I
like most the older non-A version.
There is no headphone output (but lampizator circuit makes a much
better headphone driver !!!)
There is no variable output (we bypass it anyway with lampizator).
Revox B126 has a better display - less likely to fail and easier to
substitute. Display failures are a plague among the Revox B226S crowd.
Revox
B126 is waaay easier to buy.
And last but not least - it looks better in my opinion. Wooden cheeks
of the Revox B226S do not
match the macho techno look auf der Revox.
So my advice- buy yourself a well kept B126 and lampize it with NOS mod
and absolutely only 6N2P tubes.
If you do not want to lampize - just do the NOS, and change the op-amps
for OPA2604 and add
a shortcut wire from leg 1 of op-amp straight to the RCA (drill new
proper RCA's in the cover) and add a cap in series to stop the DC. This
way - for 25 Euro extra for op-amps - you make a MUCH better player out
of an already good one.
Good luck.
This is the B126 - a cheaper and better option than B226S.
New opamps sit in the sockets, leg one is equal to cap leg as seen on
the photo.
WARNING: The remote of revox is a nightmare to find. If you buy one
without remote, be ready to spend 90 Euro for the oryginal. Nothing
else works.
2 YEARS LATER: THE NEW TUBE
6N2P arrived
Direct plug-in of 6N2P will blow you away if you already liked
the 6N1P
!!! Highly recommended , please upgrade immediately !
Just please read the SATCH story and
schematics
BACK