MELOS DISK ECHO EM-200

Crazy, obsolete 80s technology alert! It’s a Melos Disk Echo for sale in superb condition, serviced and in good working order. 

Scroll down for a couple of quick instagram demos.

Soundgas are vintage echo experts – we specialise in Binsons, Copicats, Rolands, and Echoplexes.

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These machines are fairly rare (in good working order) because of the unique method they use to generate the echoes – heads positioned above a spinning magnetic disk, not unlike an old computer floppy disk. The idea was to make a machine where changing the recording surface was easy and did not necessitate re-aligning the heads, but unfortunately since they stopped making the machines the replacement disks have become pretty much impossible to find, so we were pleased to find one in this condition. They were produced around the beginning of the 80s and can also be found in various colours badged Echolette, JBX, Monacor and Univox.

Sonically they are like no other echo – we’ve had one in the studio for some years and we haven’t found anything that sounds quite like it. Clear, bright echoes are produced without as much wow and flutter as tape, but inevitably given the age of the disc, it’s not perfect – but then if you’re interested in this, you probably don’t need perfect. It’s brighter than tape, but exhibits similar characteristics when abused: switching the coarse speed control from fastest through to slowest when repeats are self-oscillating yields some impressive divebombs that are reminiscent of dub yet unmistakably different (‘space age’ dub anyone?). There are some low-level but audible clicks/pops at slower speed settings – probably from the ageing disc – but I don’t find them a problem. This machine has enough character to make its idiosyncrasies bearable.

The two-knob speed control comprises a six-speed switched pot together with a rotary fine tuning control which work well for tempo-matching or echo-abusing.

More info below, but first here are two quick instagram demos we made featuring this unit for sale plus a rumba beat courtesy of a nice Maestro MRK-2 (also currently available):

 

The Melos Disk Echo page on Estecho.com is also a useful resource, and this video demo of the Univox badged Disk Echo will tell you more (with thanks to the uploader).

Very clean condition with just a few very minor scuffs to the tolex.

Price includes VAT at 20% (for sales in UK/EU) – buyers outside the EU please contact us for tax-free prices. VAT-free sales possible to businesses and individuals in the EU with a valid VAT Number.

It is a 100v Japanese model and will run fine on North American mains 115/120v without a transformer (we run all our tests using 120v power); however, a step-down transformer is recommended for extended use.

A step-down transformer is required in the UK/EU.

We do not recommend using cheap generic Chinese mains transformers and can supply a high quality UK-made unit if required.