akai m8 tube RtoR as mic preamps??

[aryl]

hello. havn't been on here before. i am considering picking up an akai m-8 tube reel to reel at a local junk shop. both its channels are seperatable and have 1/4" jacks for both ins and outs(speaker). i know alot of people do this with the ampex 600 series. i'm sure the ampex is much nicer...
i figure i could just use a DI(or just a low to high imp transformer) to the in to match impedance and put some sort of pad from the speaker out. really couldn't i just use the -20 or -40 db pad on the mixer i'm using?
has anyone ever used these things for preamps? i figure if i like it i can get more into it and mabey figure out how to wire it up balanced and with phantom power. not sure if thats feasible.
anyways, any suggestions would be great.

 

[CJ]

Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple used a reel to reel as a preamp.
With great results I might add!
I use to see it lurking off to the side of the stage.
I do not know if it was an Akai or a Revox or what.
Could be used as a delay also. All that tape, more quality and wear time.. Lot better than an echoplex that spins two feet of tape over and over again.
You might find all kinds of uses for that thing.
Snag it. And welcome to the Lab!
cj
:thumb:

 

[Bryson]

[quote author="cjenrick"]Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple used a reel to reel as a preamp.
With great results I might add!
I use to see it lurking off to the side of the stage.
I do not know if it was an Akai or a Revox or what.
Could be used as a delay also. All that tape, more quality and wear time.. Lot better than an echoplex that spins two feet of tape over and over again.
You might find all kinds of uses for that thing.
Snag it. And welcome to the Lab!
cj
:thumb:[/quote]

What year? What venue? Which Purple?

 

[Nick S]

i have one of these decks myself...id like to hack the pres out...id like to find a service manual, or at least a schematic before i do it though, anyone know where i can score one on the web?

btw...i dunno if all m-8s are like this...but when i recorded with mine...you could hear the tape speeding up and slowing down during recording...i chalked it up to the deck being over 30 years old.

 

[TriggerX]

The AKAI M8 was marketed in the US as a Roberts 770X. As far as I know (and I am not too sure) the Blackmore Akai was a 700s (mono and rare). I think that it is a good idea to get the M8.

 

[MikoKensington]

Aren't these things pretty much Ampex 600 copies? They came out when Ampex replaced the 602 with it's solid state successor.

Who's got schematics?

 

[NewYorkDave]

No, they're not Ampex 600 copies.

 

[PRR]

> a Roberts 770X

IIRC, the Roberts schematic is in the older edition of Tremaine's Audio Cyclopedia.

It is not an impressive design, and sure not an Ampex. Straight-up low-price "hi"-fi (i.e., better than a dictation machine).