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Author Topic: What I learned about my Tascam 42B tape deck  (Read 3404 times)

Offline rbwtapeinterlink-Bob

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What I learned about my Tascam 42B tape deck
« on: July 08, 2013, 05:42:41 PM »
Hello all and hope you, your family and friends all had a great 4th of July. I was sick but am feeling much better today. Most of you know I've had my Tascam modified with cables running out from the playback heads and terminated in high end RCA plugs. Before I share what I learned about my Tascam tape deck, I've got to give lots of credit to our friend and mentor to many, Mr. Paul Stubblebine. This fine gentleman did an outstanding presentation at our meeting (Audio Video Club Of Atlanta). I don't want to blow what's coming from Nick our program director in terms of photo and videos. However, I've got to say that Mr. Stubblebine brought alone the "Tube Pro" pre amp and permitted us to plug my Tascam in to see what would happen regarding music output. Mind you the pre and power amp were top-of-the-line tube EAR stuff provided by our club VP of Industry Relationships (Chuck). His pre and power amp was in pristine condition as was the Tape Project's "Tube Pro". To make a long story short, the music being played via my Tascam could barely be heard.

As a matter of fact, I found that the playback head on my tape deck was below 100mHy which was OK playing though the tape decks internal solid state electronics, but would just barely produce a whisper playing back through a tube tape head pre amp. Actually, this was great news, because I will need to replace the original TEAC playback head with one that has higher output. Nortronics produces such a playback head. The problem has to do with it's shape is different from the TEAC requiring a special bracket and shoe to hold it in place in the Tascam head block.
I spoke with Mr. John French before he went on vacation. He notes that Nortronics produced 400 or 600mHy playback heads. I've got to say this is exciting news and I can hardly wait for John to return from vacation. Just sharing folks and thanks for your patience. Comments welcomed.

Bob Williams
« Last Edit: July 08, 2013, 06:54:30 PM by rbwtapeinterlink-Bob »
Bob W. (African American) VPI, Ref Standard Grado, Denon 103r, Threshold, DecWare tube pre and Classe pre amp, Jolida tube phono pre amp, (Peter Gunn) modified Magnapan 1.6, Tascam 32-2B & 42B tape decks, Parasound belt drive CD transport, Pacific Valve tube DAC, VPI  TT, various upscale cables.