REVOX B226-S and B126(read waay down below)

(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


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