[QuadList] Ampex XVR-7500 details

Tue Feb 14 21:14:53 CST 2012

Hi Chris and everyone!

Yes, the VR-7000 type products could have been much better with torque motors. 

When I started with Ampex in Nov of 1965, I had six years of design experience with Govt. magnetic recorders and before that I had three years of running my own wedding recording business, "Tru-Sound Recording" using an early three motor audio recorder, made by TDC, which had very low W&F and fast winding. 

The VR-7800 was the first machine that I worked on from the start w/ Barry Guislinger as project engineer and I designed all the controls, mechanical interfaces and the i/o areas. 

When we went into production in 1968 (Barry had moved back to Ca, to work on the AVR-1) I moved up to project engineer. 

The 7800 had five DC motors, scanner, capstan, supply & takeup, and slo-motion (this was a small Globe motor w/ a teflon felt drag system for stable low speeds). 

This was the first capstan servoed machine, the first use of Yaskwah printed circuit motors, and the first tension servoed machine and the first editing machine.
Another interesting point was that the "Assemble" mode was fully servo locked, unlike all previous Quad's.

IVC had great tape handling, but in a head to head shootout, the IVC-960 vs. VR-7800 for the EBU (European Broadcast Union) in Paris in 1969, we won hands down on the signal handling quality in both PAL and SECAM.

I had spent 2 weeks in the summer of 1968 in Paris, at the ORTF labs, since they bought about 15, VR-7800's, and I went to tweak the tension servo's since the factory setup caused some problems in Secam. 
It worked well and that caused the shootout, the next year.

Bye for now, Bill & Gewyn & Ginger (whoof...whoof)

________________________________
 From: "Chill315 at aol.com" <Chill315 at aol.com>
To: wcarpen107 at yahoo.com 
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 5:06 AM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Ampex XVR-7500 details

Bill

Thank you for the input.  I remember a number of them at the 
University of Michigan Hospital.  They had a VR-660 as the first video 
recorder.  Then they went to the XVR-7500.  Later to a 5000 series 
machine.  The signal to noise was not an issue as the imaging device was an 
orthicon.  

The biggest issue was the interchange.  The moveable gates just did 
not keep the mechanical tolerances.  The other issue was the rubber belt 
used to drive the head.  It did not last that long.  

I always was of the opinion that if Ampex had used a mechanical layout like 
IVC with their electronics, it would have worked very nicely.

Chris Hill
WA8IGN

In a message dated 2/14/2012 1:46:32 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
wcarpen107 at yahoo.com writes:
Hi Don, and everyone!
>
>
>The Ampex XVR-7500 was 7500 with a wider output filter (trade S/N  for increased BW for B & W xray's) which was built for X-ray customers  like G.E., Westinghouse and such. 
>
>Mainly used in Heart Catherization Lab procedures, and we also made  a 875 line version for some folks with a slightly different capstan speed to  provide slow motion sync pulse line-up with the different line  rate. 
>More 45 year old details if needed.
>
> 
>Bye for now, Bill & Gewyn & Ginger (whoof...whoof)
>
>
>________________________________
> From: Don Norwood  <dwnorwood at embarqmail.com>
>To: Quad List  <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
>Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 5:17  PM
>Subject: Re: [QuadList]  OT: Ampex 7500 on ebay
>
>
> 
>Hi Dave:
> 
>You'll note that this is an XVR version of the 7500.  Parts of the  description do not make sense to me, and maybe this is different from the  XVR-7500 that I am familiar with, but if it is a conventional XVR, it's not  really compatible with standard Type-A tapes recorded on a regular VR-7500 or  other Type-A machine.  Also, even if it really will play standard tapes,  a compatible TBC (wide band direct color, not heterodyne) will be required  since this does not include the color pilot processor that is used with the  VR-7500C.
> 
>Don Norwood
>Digitrak Communications, Inc.
>www.digitrakcom.com
>----- Original Message ----- 
>>From: Dave Sieg 
>>
>>There is an Ampex 7500 on ebay if anybody's interested. 
>>It looks like its in decent shape.
>>I owned one for many years, have no tapes I need to play, 
>>and don't need to own one again, no matter how pristeen it  is...
>Please trim posts to relevant info 
  when replying.
>
>Change subject to reflect thread direction. 
  Thanks.
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