[QuadList] AVR 2

[george keller]

Here is my 2 cents.

I loved the AVR-2, it is a great machine, although I didn't do much operating of them.  I found them to be rather complex to troubleshoot due to most of the circuitry was digital and kind of hard to decern with a run of the mill 'scope.  Even in the AVR 2 school (Teacher John Ranke, how's that for memory) most of the practice was done with a logic scope.  Most of the problems I had were signals not making it from one board to another, sometimes due to open little yellow chokes. Also lots of head motor driver transistors, this was evident by the head "Resting" or oscillilating and then "Resting" at one spot or another after a gentle nudge to spin it a little.  Even though it would seem to work I wouldn't let it go, especially on remotes. Also I don't approve of swapping boards on a regular basis.  Ampex quality was the best and they used top quality sockets and other material, but I would get nervous every time I pulled a board, although they held up to my and the rest of the guy's in the shop brutality.  Also there are a lot of odd-ball chips which may be hard to get.  I say this because I was asked by someone who has an AVR 2 if I could locate a couple chips for him that he couldn't get.

The VR 2000 and VR 1200 were mostly transistor, easy to troubleshoot and most of the parts are available now, even the germanium transistors.

The best bet might be an AVR-1 for multi standard.  They aren't too bad to troubleshoot except for the buffer, which can be hairy and some replacement parts might be hard to find like glass delay lines, blowers, etc.  I suppose you could drop a 10uuf cap across a bad glass delay and get away with it for a while although I never tried it.

If I were looking for an AVR 2, I would look for a deal on 2 or 3 of them, just to have plenty of spares.

Here is the part that hurts, in our Management's infinite wisdom, all three AVR 2's went in the dumpster as did all 6 ACR 25's.

That's my opinion, and everybody is entitled to my opinion. Hope this helps.

George Keller


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