Revox T700 Black Edition Review
We’ve already hosted the Revox T700 turntable. Now, however, the Black Edition with a new design and the Ortofon MC Quintet Black S takes the stage.
The fully refurbished B791 with a tangential tonearm from the Revox Classic Collection truly impressed us. The technology was sophisticated, and the performance was perfectionist – especially for a nearly forty-year-old device! In fact, the B791 easily outclassed many modern turntables.
For its 75th anniversary, Revox reintroduced some classic models, including the semi-automatic B791. This turntable, equipped with a tangential tonearm, delivers precision playback and unique features like rewind, fast forward, and digitally adjustable rotation speed. Revox’s legacy is unsurprising, given that the brand is from the same founders as the iconic company Studer, known for their legendary tape machines like the A77 and J37.
Now, we couldn’t miss including a classic brand like Revox in this edition.
A Joyful Reunion
Instead of reviewing a completely new model, we revisited one previously tested by our colleague Johannes Strom about three and a half years ago: the Revox T700. Now, however, the manufacturer offers the turntable in a new color variant, paired with a new cartridge. That was reason enough for us to take another look and celebrate our magazine’s milestone with Revox.
The Revox Studiomaster T700 Black Edition, a direct descendant of the legendary Revox B790, impresses at first glance with its understated, timeless design. The new version features a sleek black chassis and an integrated glass plate. The new tonearm design and the discreet built-in phono preamp cater to MC systems, which can be configured using a six-position impedance switch and four gain settings. Additionally, an infrasonic filter cuts off signals below 10Hz with a 6dB/octave slope. The preamp’s specs are exemplary, with a signal-to-noise ratio of about 69 dB and a distortion rate of only 0.005%.
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The T700 Black Edition once again features a massive polyoxymethylene (POM) platter, which offers excellent resonance damping, eliminating the need for a separate mat, though one can be added if desired.
Built-in Preamp
The platter is driven by a flat belt attached to a motor recessed into the chassis. The motor is regulated by an optical sensor and a highly precise PLL speed control, ensuring exceptionally accurate and constant rotation speed. If necessary, the speed can be fine-tuned.
Ortofon Quintet and Tonearm
The turntable features a straight tonearm paired with an Ortofon Moving Coil Quintet Black S cartridge. This cartridge is equipped with a nude Shibata diamond stylus, which is known for its excellent groove tracking. The Shibata stylus’s slim profile offers a wide contact area, allowing it to extract even the finest details from the record. High-frequency details, in particular, are rendered with incredible accuracy. The needle is mounted on a high-performance sapphire cantilever.
The tonearm wiring is soldered by hand to the preamp and housed inside the carbon tonearm tube. Revox uses only top-quality materials for the tonearm base, anti-skating, and counterweight. The tonearm lift is manually operated and oil-damped for smooth motion.
Accessories
As with our previous encounter with the Revox T700, the Black Edition comes with a generous set of accessories. The turntable includes not only tools but also an electronic tonearm scale, a brush, and a level for adjusting the tonearm and platter, all packaged in an elegant wooden box. An acrylic dust cover is available as an optional add-on.
Revox has thankfully avoided digital features like Bluetooth or network compatibility, maintaining a purely analog performance free from potential interference. The T700 Black Edition can be integrated into any system thanks to its high-level output and can be connected to multi-room systems, like those Revox offers.
Performance
We had several top-tier products to compare the Revox T700 Black Edition against. We chose to pair it with the Meridian Audio DSP 9 active design floor-standing speaker. Through its optional analog module, the Revox T700 Black Edition connects seamlessly with the active speaker. Setting up the T700 Black Edition is simple: just install the platter and counterweight, and you’re ready to go. We started with the debut album “Movies” by Swiss musician To Athena (Tiffany Limacher), released last fall on the Bern-based label Mouthwatering Records. A Swiss record on a Swiss turntable – why not? Revox Germany may be based in the Black Forest, but the brand’s heart remains in Switzerland.
But let’s focus on the music: the sound is simply mesmerizing. The refined orchestration wraps around us like warm Gruyere cheese. The T700 Black Edition reproduces the rich timbres of strings and vocals with audiophile precision, offering a soundstage of incredible depth. Every snare drum hit is clear, and each note of the piano and harp is crystal-clear.
Dance music also sounds fantastic on this system. Like with the B791, we spun Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” and let the T700 Black Edition and Meridian Audio DSP 9 fill the room. As soon as the first track, “Give Life Back to Music,” started, the energy surged through the room, and it felt like we were being pushed out by the music’s sheer force. The combination of finesse and power is simply irresistible.
It’s hard to stay still. This is pure music, pure energy. The Revox T700 Black Edition transforms our listening room into a dance floor in no time. Dear readers, we apologize, but we have to stop here: we need to dance.
The fine dip switch allows the preamp to be adjusted to match the installed cartridge. Six impedance levels and four gain settings are available.
With the small adjustment screws, the two rotation speeds can be finely tuned.
Revox uses a manual tonearm lift with oil damping to position the carbon tonearm.
CONCLUSION
What else could we expect: the Revox T700 was already a true discovery. The Black Edition with Ortofon MC Quintet Black S is equally impressive. The system leaves little to be desired – perhaps just the ability to connect a separate preamp? However, the built-in preamp is of outstanding quality. Overall, the T700 is one of the most musical turntables we’ve encountered in this price range.
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