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Author Topic: Butterfly heads.  (Read 7706 times)

Offline john

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Butterfly heads.
« on: January 29, 2009, 12:23:54 PM »
I recently came across an advert for a pair of butterfly heads for a Revox C270 is there an advantage in using them over the standard heads. They are very expensive 560GB pounds so i assume that there is.
John Taylor

Revox C270, Teac X-2000R, Technics RS1506, RS7500, Nakamichi Dragon, CR7E, Sony WM-D6C, Sony EL7 ( Elcaset! ) Brinkmann balance, Brinkmann Ti Cart, Clearaudio Balanced Ref, Esoteric XO1-D2, ARC Ref3, Ref 210, JM Lab Micro Utopia Be and Jas Audio Plato.

Offline Tubes n tapes

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Re: Butterfly heads.
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2009, 01:06:15 PM »
John,

The main difference between butterfly heads (CCIR) and the 'normal' heads (NAB) that you find on most machines is the gap between the two tracks on the tape. NAB heads have 2mm spacing between the tracks where butterfly heads have 0.75mm spacing.

Butterfly heads only make sense if your tapes are recorded that way or you record them yourself with these heads. If you play a tape back that is recorded with NAB heads, like the TTP tapes, you will lose about 1.5dB of signal to noise ratio. There may also be the risk that your butterfly heads pick up unerased crap from the 2mm gap of an NAB tape, such as a time code signal. (Not with TTP tapes obviously, since they are recorded at on new tape stock) There is however no real penalty if you play back a CCIR tape on NAB heads.

So, in summary, don't spend a lot of money on butterfly heads unless you do some recording of your own.

A different question: Is the capstan of your C270 completely silent or can you hear some whine of the motor? My C270 is a bit noisy in that regard, even though it doesn't show in the W&F spectrum. I have not been able to find any reference whether that capstan noise is normal or not. For me it is just a little bit too loud, which makes it sometimes annoying.

Arian Jansen.

SonoruS Audio.
VP of technology of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOCAS).
ESL/OTL builder and modest Studer/ReVox collector.

Offline john

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Re: Butterfly heads.
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2009, 02:25:45 PM »
Thanks Arian, I can't say that i have noticed any noise from the capstan motor, next time i'm home i will have a listen and let you know. It could just be a noisy bearing on the way out.
John Taylor

Revox C270, Teac X-2000R, Technics RS1506, RS7500, Nakamichi Dragon, CR7E, Sony WM-D6C, Sony EL7 ( Elcaset! ) Brinkmann balance, Brinkmann Ti Cart, Clearaudio Balanced Ref, Esoteric XO1-D2, ARC Ref3, Ref 210, JM Lab Micro Utopia Be and Jas Audio Plato.

Offline ironbut

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Re: Butterfly heads.
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2009, 02:57:36 PM »
Hi you guys. I'm not familiar with the C270. I'm hoping that one or the both of you might start a fresh thread with features, and configurations that you might find on one. A link to some photos would be cool too.
BTW Thanks for posting it in the tape machines sticky John.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2009, 02:59:08 PM by ironbut »
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