Studer A810 Poland

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Al,
I spoke to Stewart about your machine shortly before he passed away. He suspects that the levels and bias are all over the place - that's why it's 6dB down on one channel record. The machine pulls tape and Philip cleaned it up a fair bit, as I gather it was pretty filthy. Stewart thought that it might well be ok if the repro, record and bias set up are taken right back to basics with everything set to level and a fresh start. That could take most of a day even with a test tape, the right tools and instruments. Realistically that's probably very doable, but paying for a full day of an engineer's time ain't cheap.
Getting my original Sony APR5002 back to spec cost me almost £450 with Stewart. However, just like your MTR12, you're looking at a machine which would be £20-30k new, if it was in production today. I have always bought my R2R machines accepting that they will cost something to get them spot on. Once there, there is nothing better, given the right source tapes.
Charlie