I have the same sort of fond memories of the A77 that I had back in the '70s. I can't really budget an 810 right now so you guys have at 'em. If it's a deck for the Tape Project and not your "reel to reel project" I'd say, be patient and keep bidding on nice looking Technics decks. I'm super happy with mine and if I wasn't such a nut, I would never really have a need to upgrade. These mods that Doc and the gang are developing, elevate an already excellent machine right past many stock pro decks (certainly not all!). I'm with you on wanting to have a beautiful 800 series ( or god, have you seen that C37 that's for sale in Germany!) but the potential work and modding to make it a practical home deck would certainly cost at least $1k if you had a tech do it for you. Studer parts are available but man, are they $$$! So I'd say, cool your jets a bit, order your Tape Project subscription ( since they're going to be made on an yearly by order basis) and find a nice 1500/1506/1700. Ask the seller questions about how,how much, and when the deck was last used. People can't look at the heads and give you a decent estimate on wear so budget upgrading the heads fairly soon. Ask the seller to run the deck through it's paces;
1) ff>stop
2) rewind> stop
3) play> stop (@ all speeds)
4) ff>rewind>play
All preferably with 10.5" reels, if there is slack in the tape, tension/brakes(very common) need to be adjusted. If there's a pile of tape on the floor, move on.
5) have him/her record something and playback ( if recording is in your future)
The more pictures the seller has, the better.
More often than not, you'll read " worked perfectly when place in storage". This is probably true but 30 years is a long time for capacitors, rubber belts etc.. Bypassing the playback electronics will solve a whole lot of headaches and in some cases, cost less (modded Seduction). The only 2 rubber belts are for the tape counter. These get hard and stretched out. Between a pair of old belts and a lack of lubrication on the pulley they turn on, it can make a Very loud screaching sound. Some of the time you can just oil the pulley and it'll go away for a while ( for me, 1.5 years so far) for others, it's easier to cut the belts and live with it till you replace them (you have to do some disassembly for this). This is super common and will make the seller think that the whole damn thing is going to fly apart on ff/rewind. That's good for you cause it's nothing.
Things to look out for;
Some of these decks were used in radio stations and project studios. There are pluses and minuses to this ( mostly minus). The number of hours on a mechanical device is critical. So a big minus is that these are All high mileage machines. On the other hand, most radio stations had service done on all their gear at regular intervals. That's why they can run 24/7 with very little down time( advertisers don't like down time).
So how do you tell if a potential deck was used in this way? Sometimes the sellers will leave the tags that have the name/number and date of the last time it was service on it. Think Jiffy Lube decals. Other than that, the general cosmetic condition will be bad. Look for razor blade marks across the headblock or around there ( editing).This isn't to say that you can't get a good one from a pro installation, but your odds are very low. Before so many people were looking for these, you could get one for really cheap from a radio station. But since the prices have gone up, there's no reason not to look for a hardly used home unit. And if the seller is not the original owner, ask where it came from.
That brings us to what we do want. Lots of folks in the late 70-early 80's bought these cause they looked cool. No joke! Panasonic ran a huge ( for reel to reel) ad campaign selling these. I subscribed to Audio magazine for decades and for at least a year, the back cover sported an ad for these. So the High Fidelity/Audio/Stereo Review reading public at the time took these home and recorded some of their records, their friends playing a DIY Heathkit organ etc.. and after the first couple of years ( and 2 regular services) they'd have Hmmm,.. I'd make a wild guess of 25 hours on the thing. Into the closet it goes.
That's what we're looking for here. And it may sound like a day dream, but with enough patience ( and spouses that "Will Not Allow that Thing to collect dust in our home another day") you can find one.
These will Not work perfectly. Like I said, the belts will need to be replaced, grease may have turned into coral, and unless they were really careful the 15 times they moved it, things will need to be adjusted.
Once they are adjusted and lubed, they do lots of things very well, and one thing great,.. handle tape gently and smoothly with a minimum of hassle.
BTW Don't limit yourself to Ebay. Check your local craigslist and you can actually touch the thing before you buy it.
