Studer A-810 studio 4 speed 1/2 track mastering tape deck- SERVICED, BUTTERFLY HEADS, VARISPEED! 198

We are one of the only facilities in the Pacific NorthWest that buys, sells and restores reel to reel tape decks. We have over 35 years experience working on these units, and have the tools and test equipment to properly align and bring these decks to life.
We use MRL calibration tapes, and are dealers for ATR tape. We work on everything from mono tube machines to 2" 24 track studio decks.
We stock many types of ATR tape from 7" reels to 2", in several formulations. We have about 150 decks in stock at all times.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

The Studer A810 is one of our favorite decks, whether for mastering or audiophile home use. This particular unit is loaded, with a ton of Studer options.. 4 speed record and playback, from 3 3/4 to 30 IPS, and the Varispeed option installed. It also has the Studer butterfly heads installed, which were an option on this deck. As shown, this deck comes in a roll-around console that we have put new casters on (not shown), or the VU meters can come out of the meter bridge, along with the Varispeed, and can be installed on the blank panels of the deck (but you'll lose the monitor speaker function as a result)

This deck is the second of 14 decks found as a literal barn find in Manitoba Canada. We were contacted by a tech from a radio station down there that had accumulated these decks and a bunch of other equipment, and was downsizing. He had a TON of electronics equipment, sadly outside of these decks, there was little else worth looking at. Still, to find several Studers (more to be listed this fall), Otaris, an Ampex and sundry other decks that had been abandoned for years was quite the discovery!

All of these decks had indeed not been fired up in years, and this one had a good time blowing fuses at turn-on, due to shorted Frako caps that are known to fail in all Revox and Studer machines. We immediately changed about 30 caps that short out commonly on these decks before doing any more work on it. As expected, the deck fired up fine as soon as the caps were changed. The following work was done to the deck

-30 capacitors changed, replacing all commonly known caps that fail and short out
-all electrolytics caps changed on the motherboard, a common point of failure as well.
-new pinch roller from Terry's Rubber Rollers
-4 new VU meter lights, they were all burned out
-new CPU (MPU) battery installed and dated
-replaced the 3 Rifa motor caps that are known to explode at random
-bias and alignment to ATR Mastertape at +3db,
-12 hour test run, recording and playing at all speeds for long term reliability
-replaced most front panel screws with Philips ones, as the Torx ones can strip easily, even with the right metric bit.

Without question, this deck has the flattest response of all of the 20 or so A810s we've had through here. Flat to virtually 20Khz at 3 3/4 IPS, and well past 20Khz on all other speeds makes this deck an excellent contender for either studio mastering use, or high end audiophile recording and playback of the Tape Project tapes, or other available high end tapes.

All functions of the deck  have been tested, and they work flawlessly. We've run the decks at all speeds, on record and playback with zero issues.

The frequency response charts shown are for 3 3/4 IPS to 30 IPS, in sequential order.

Cosmetically, the deck has some minor scratches, primarily on the blank cover plates on the flip-up cover as shown.  We are absolutely horrible at painting, so we'll leave those for you to repaint if desired. All 3 cover plates come off with 4 screws each, and they can easily be sanded down and repainted. Or, we believe that AudioHouse in Germany still sells these panels new. Or.. convert the deck to 'portable' use (all 90 lbs of it) (we can do that here if you wish for you), and then the meter panels will replace the scratched covers.