I have been wondering what is the nature of the loss of playing a 2 track stereo tape with a 1/4 track stereo head.
Some of my classic (ahem...relic) tape machines have a mechanical lever or switch that actually shifts the 1/4 track head downward to center it on the tape rather than covering positions "1 & 3" as it normally would. This as opposed to an electrical switch for another head as some newer decks have. Aside from the wisdom of designing a mechanism that physically moves the head, pretending it all works correctly, how much is lost by playing 2 track tapes with the narrower gap head properly centered? I understand there must be some loss, but is it signal to noise? Frequency response should be OK IF the head is in alignment. I know it does not work so well to play one with a 1/4 track head in it's normal position. I think that would lead to high frequency loss from not being centered on the track, even if azimuth is spot-on, but I am not sure of that.
Anybody ever do any critical evaluation of this? I would think that those lucky enough to have 2 PB heads with a switch could simply change it and hear what changes in the middle of playback.
When I change my 1/4 track head to the 2 track position, I hear a slight balance change and it gets a bit louder, but frequency response seems to be unaffected.