UHER 4400 REPORT STEREO (and other portable machines)

[monaro0162]

Good evening fellow tape enthusiasts,

I recently acquired this, a portable ‘professional’ reel to reel field recorder, a MK1 UHER 4400 REPORT STEREO.

It wasn’t fully working when it arrived, on playback the speed was unstable, the rewind wasn’t working, and the unit had an annoying intermittent fault of developing a dead short across the power supply input. Lucky I powered it up on a power supply with a current limit set. After a lot of fiddling about, I found that part of the rewind mechanism had come loose, which in turn was causing one of the reed switches to push too far and short out. This was also causing the steps on the brass flywheel to not align correctly with the rubber on the larger transfer flywheel thus causing the speed instability. The speed change ‘gear lever’ operation was a bit stiff and intermittent too. I sorted it all out by refitting the rewind mechanism and it now works (almost).

Using some pre-recorded 4 track tapes made on an Akai 4000DB, the sound through the single front speaker is clear and will go quite loud, and after making up some din to phono leads, it plays back in stereo through an amplifier very well indeed. Has low background noise, no hum, and no crackle from the pots.

On the record side though, it does have an issue. When I feed a stereo input signal in, via the din socket, I can only hear one of the channels through the speaker. I’ve traced the L&R channel din connections through the little pcb at the rear of the connectors, one channel seems to feed through via a resistor to a point on one half of the main pcb, the other one doesn’t to the corresponding point on the other half of the pcb. So I’m assuming that this is the cause of only one channel being heard on the speaker? I haven’t actually tried recording on it yet, also noticed that neither Level meters seem to respond during record level checks, regardless of the position of the input level controls, or the position of the track selector switch.

Can anybody help with checking the record circuits? Am I checking the right way? I think I’ve tried monitoring the input signal through the speaker, and back out through the line out on the din socket (which works fine in playback mode) but I can only seem to get one input channel to work. The slider switch inside looks ok, I can’t see any broken fingers, but I’m having difficulty tracing what goes where.

I’ve obtained some circuit diagrams for the machine from the net, but there doesn’t seem to be a specific full manual for the 4400 report stereo. All done by top level variant then supplements. The diagram I downloaded is spread across several pdf sheets, they need to be stuck together to see the routing. I could also do with an operators manual.

Anyway, problems aside, what a fascinating machine this is! The case on mine is not in the best of nick, with a fair bit of surface corrosion in the grey crinkle paint, and when viewed from the top, the machine looks like something used to interrogate suspected cold war spies. Inside, the build quality is amazing, and looks almost aerospace. Virtually no plastic, a pcb that lifts out for servicing whilst remaining connected, and extremely neat wire wrapping. With the lid up, the deck plate, front panel and controls are beautiful, with the speed change lever and selector gate looking like a miniaturised version of the transmission selector from a 1960s Mercedes.

I assumed that I would be able to take the chassis out, to get the case prepared and painted (in candy apple red) but as far as I can see, the aluminium case IS the chassis. No doubt this led to the quite small external size and weight of the unit, it’s not much bigger than a Radio cassette unit from the 1970s. Quite an achievement considering that this is a 4speed 4 track stereo reel to reel recorder.

Some may question the sanity of buying old obsolete tape recorders. But it’s not an unknown affliction, judging by the amount of videos on the subject on youtube. To me, they offer something more, compared to other old tech of the era, because they remember things, they can sing, and have a soul. I’ve always had an interest in popular music from childhood probably gained from my Mother who was an avid Tom Jones fan and always had Radio Caroline and latterly Radio 1 on, on the transistor radio in the kitchen.

Since I’ve been playing with reel to reel as a hobby I’ve also acquired many reels and it has been very interesting finding out what is on them. Latest discoveries have been lots of classical music, which I don’t usually listen to, but has been most enjoyable to hear. Also I’ve found somebody’s favourite pop song compilations, some weird religious worship songs, the Beatles abbey Road and what seem to be some recordings from the TV of the Tony Hancock show. The Blood donor sketch did make me laugh and I will be checking out Tony for more of his shows.

My Dad bought his first proper HiFi in 1974 that consisted of a Rotel Amp and a great Akai 4000DS that I used to use a lot to record the top 40 and radio shows. Imprints in my memory from childhood, that were recently revived when I bought a 4000DS a year ago. So I have an affliction for Akai stuff acquired from childhood when reading through the Akai brochures that my Dad had. So naturally I couldn’t resist a couple of rare Akai portables, from the 1960s:

First one is an AKAI X1-V, from around 1965, in a somewhat odd metallic brown colour. It came with a lot of accessories: Two microphones with stands, the power supply/charger (which includes the right channel power amplifier, if using external speakers) , a pair of flat profile speakers with stands, operators manual, circuit diagram, an original akai take up reel, and even an original X-1V demonstration reel, although sadly now it doesn’t have the original demonstration recording on it. This machine works fine on playback, although has some hum and noise on one channel during recording. The speakers are on a wall and they sound remarkably good considering their age and design. I switch them in as a second pair of speakers on my amp as an alternative to the floor standing B&Ws that I have. Although lacking in the bass department, the Akai speakers give a very open sound, good for background listening when working, and I find I use them just as much as the B&Ws.

Second one is an AKAI X-V, from a little later (1966?) in dark blue/grey. This offered a brushless 3 phase motor over the DC/commutator motor in the X-1V, had a built in power supply and charger, and two speakers with both amps built in. Externally it’s the same size as the X-1V. This one came with two microphones, the operators manual, and a pair of the 7” reel adaptors. This machine has a problem on playback. Both channels work, but as soon as the volume is turned, up one channel develops massive distortion during playback. I haven’t tried recording on it yet.

I love the Retro look of both of these machines, and inside the build quality looks very good. They are both in very good cosmetic condition, after several hours was spent cleaning and polishing both. Thwy look great amongst my HiFi collection. The X-1V is almost perfect, with just a few small chips and scratches, the X-V has a few dents in the steel parts of the casing – the deck lid and the rear panel where the mains plug fits in. The rest of the casing on both machines is cast aluminium, and it looks like these can be removed from the chassis for painting. I have full circuit diagrams for both of these, and both will need signal tracing and cap replacement to get them properly working.

So lots of fun ahead (again), happy days!

(Someone call a shrink, I have a Revox A77 still to do, almost complete and awaiting final calibration, an EMI L4, and now a UHER and two AKAI portables!)

[Restoration73]

The Report Monitor Series, e.g. 4000 and 4200 were effectively pro quality at 7.5ips,
and I used them as such, and cheaper than a Nagra.
The manual you want is listed last as "Stereo Report";
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_li...0-report.shtml

[monaro0162]

Thank you Restoration73. I hadn't looked at that manual in detail as it doesn't contain circuit diagrams, but skimming through the amplifier section, it states that the recording process can be monitored through the built in loudspeaker. So I am doing something right, but the question remains why do I only hear one of the channel inputs through the loudspeaker?

Nice to hear that this is regarded as a pro unit, and I read elsewhere that it is referred to as "a poor man's Nagra"

[Spectreman]

Hi.
I own a Report 4400 IC model. The left channel audio is only connected to the front speaker, you will never hear the right channel through the speaker.
You should, however, hear the right channel ok through the right channel external speaker jack on the side of the unit.
There is some problem with your record audio side of things if the meters are not moving in record mode. The meters don't move in playback mode.
My 4400 has unfortunately developed some audio faults, so I don't use it too often now.
I also have a Report Monitor 4000 mono deck, this is fantastic ! I use it a lot for field recordings. The audio quality is excellent. I bought it brand new from SDS in Germany. It was made in 1996.
Cheers, Chris.

[monaro0162]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info.

I haven't got the correct type of din plug at the moment, to go in the loudspeaker outlets, so just using the left channel speaker as a monitor, I made some test recordings, and found that it does record in Stereo.

Using twin phono line outs from my amp, I have to set the record level controls on the Uher just above minimum, any more and the sound starts to distort. Neither meter responds though, regardless of the level setting. The recording plays back in Stereo, although it doesn't sound as good as when I play some pre-recorded tapes that I made on another machine (which sound great on this machine)

So pleased that its working, but some work on the recording side to be carried out.

Could you explain how the track selector push button switch works?