Hello Ken,
There indeed were some bad batches of pinch rollers.
But the running hot as hell matter gives me pause. The excessive heat
can be a symptom on that model, but it should not be the case with a
properly reconditioned machine.
Regardless, in addressing the needs of this community, I have advised
against adopting the A810 for archival uses (for a host of technical
reasons) for at least twenty years.
(Yes, I think the A810 was a wonderful marvel, as was its predecessor.
But I do not recommend these models for commercial duty and certainly
not for important, high-throughput transfer work.)
I also want to caution this community about unscrupulous individuals
selling A810 (and A807) machines on eBay. I recently saw a purportedly
reconditioned (by others) A810 here at ATAE. It had been configured to
a so-called archivist model, with both quarter-track stereo and NAB
two-track repro heads fitted.
Of course, Studer never offered such a thing in the A810. If you
examine the reproduce circuitry architecture in the A810, you can see
why this combination of switch selectable repro heads could never work
properly. So what I witnessed was a fraud.
I have been criticized on this list, before, for posting about my
business. So let me add yet further disclosure. I make my living
working with Studer products. Specifically I remanufacture selected
Studer machines for dedicated use by the archival industry. But I do
not recommend the A810 (or A807) for these purposes. Studer made far
better platforms for this need, and those should be the machines we
preserve and rebuild today.
Fred Thal
ATAE / ATL
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