Messages

1

Tape Tech / Re: Head Azimuth Alignment

« on: February 01, 2012, 04:38:19 PM »

I had this problem with a PR99 - although the frequency response was excellent, I could not get a nice and stable lissajous pattern at 10 kHz. The wow and flutter measured with MLR test tapes was normal, and in despair I changed the heads of the machine - it completely solved the problem. I later sent the heads for relaping to JFR and re-fitted them on the machine with success. Apparently the profile of the head was not allowing a stable contact with the head. BTW, the "flatness" of the heads was around 2mm before relaping.

2

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: A80 1"

« on: April 30, 2011, 01:29:34 PM »

An A80 with a pair of 300b's on top? Where are you hiding the other tubes? :-)

BTW, how did you manage to polish the razor slash on the panel?

3

Tape Project Machines / Re: What IC With Direct Head Out

« on: November 26, 2010, 04:11:29 PM »

Thanks for your opinions. The following was taken from from the van den Hul datasheet:

>To support the tone-arm and mixing console industry, this mat black HULLIFLEX ? 3 jacketed balanced cable was
designed: very flexible and with extremely good electrical qualities.
The D - 501 HYBRID is a cable with a very high shielding factor.
Sonically this is one of the best cables in our program. Not really expensive and with a very high performance quality.
The D - 501 HYBRID is regularly used as a microphone cable in critical professional recordings and as a standard
product for e.g. SME in England together with the prestigious Type V tonearm. This already since 1987.
The 2 signal lines are made each of 19 x 0.1 mm. very high grade OFC wires with the highest density of very pure silver
coating.
As an extra layer around the metal group, we use a Linear Structured Carbon ? (LSC) saturated coating.
The signal line insulation with the colours white and yellow is made of cell-PE, so the stripping can even be done with
your fingernails to prevent wire damage on the silver coated copper strands commonly caused by mechanical stripping.
The resistance per signal lead is: 11.3 Ohm/100 meter.
The capacitance between the 2 signal leads is: 75 pF/meter.
Very flexible specially treated artificial fibres are used as a filler to prevent any harm caused by external humidity or
chemicals.
The shielding consists of 96 x 0.10 mm. wires of a high grade Matched Crystal (MC) OFC with a dense and very pure
silver coating and a LSC saturated helical tape.
The resistance of the shielding is: 2.3 Ohm/100 meter

4

Tape Project Machines / Re: What IC With Direct Head Out

« on: November 25, 2010, 07:28:18 PM »

I sure would like to check out Paul's new cable though. The grapevine says it should be pretty nice.

I am sure my A80 will deserve them! :-)

Currently I was considering van den Hul D501 - if it is good enough for SME tonearms and MC cartridges it should be good for tape heads.

5

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Studer A101

« on: September 30, 2010, 04:12:06 PM »

I can find at less three versions of this hybrid IC - one with a large round blog (capacitor?) encapsulated in light blue epoxy, another with a square thin capacitor, also encapsulated in light blue epoxy and finally a non encapsulated board using bc550c and bc560c transistors.
Which do you think it is the better sounding?
 

6

Tape Project Machines / Re: Studer A810 head rewire

« on: August 17, 2010, 05:48:09 PM »

Yeah, ProGold works better as a protective coating once the pins are clean.
You should clean the pins with something that removes oxidation before using ProGold or you're just sealing it in.

If the tube pins look dirty or oxide I clean them with a Dremel felt polishing tip at 12000 rpm. Only in desperate cases I use se a bit of polishing cream. After that I wash with water and soap using a tooth brush, rinse with plenty of water and a give a final wash to the pins using ethanol. Progold is just the final touch to protect them.

7

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Studer/Revox green grease

« on: July 24, 2010, 08:11:12 AM »

I have a bizarre question - what is the green translucent grease that seems to be used in Studer/Revox tape machines and for what purpose? I have spent hours in the past cleaning a Revox PR99 and a Studer A80, bought in different countries at different times, from this horrible sticky substance, and a few A80 parts I just received from Ebay also have the same substance. Happily it can be removed with a cloth slightly damped with alcohol. But I can not understand the coincidence!

8

Tape Tech / Re: MRL Labs

« on: July 14, 2010, 05:17:34 PM »

Just got an email from MRL yesterday and a wow and flutter calibration tape two weeks ago - they are always very fast answering. Are you using the correct mail address    [email protected]    ?

9

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Studer A80 tape spooling in FF and REW mode

« on: July 12, 2010, 05:59:43 AM »

Do you think the differences should shown in the wow and flutter measurements?
I have just bought two special bearings from the referred eBay source and they seem very smooth, less noisy than the SKF 61900 2Z. Being located in Europe, I would prefer to find a source in EC, otherwise shipping and customs can be an expensive and long process, even for a few ball bearings! 

10

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Studer A80 tape spooling in FF and REW mode

« on: July 11, 2010, 04:25:51 PM »

it would probably be wise to just buy them from someone like Studer while they're still available.

Thanks, Steve. I feel the same, but where can I get the real A80 Studer bearings?

11

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Re: Studer A80 tape spooling in FF and REW mode

« on: July 11, 2010, 11:48:57 AM »

I then cannibalised bearings for the best from all 4 machines and was really horrified how gritty some of their bearings felt. Some of the bearings in the pinch roller and stabilising rollers were then replaced with highest quality SKF and NTN bearings with a substantial improvement in sound quality.
Finally I bit the bullet and ordered genuine Studer bearings at huge prices.

What are exactly "genuine Studer bearings"? As far as I was told Studer never manufactured bearings, they just ordered bearings from several suppliers. I have recently ordered bearings for my A80 from several Studer parts suppliers and I received ball bearings coming from different manufacturers, but I am still thinking about a fast way to compare their performance.

12

Tape Tech / Re: Studer A80 DIN/AEG table reels

« on: July 05, 2010, 06:01:50 PM »

Hi Ki,

Thanks. Unhappily the type of DIN table reel I bought is different from the one shown in the A820 manual - it is more complicated as it has a floating outer ring and a plate screwed from bottom. I am used to assembling strange mechanisms, but this time I can not figure where to put the springs and how to keep them in place when re-assembling. As they say curiosity killed the cat!
Happily I was able to find all the springs, although the last one was far from my table.
 

13

Tape Tech / Studer A80 DIN/AEG table reels

« on: July 05, 2010, 04:26:03 AM »

I have just bought  a pair A80 RC A80 DIN/AEG table reels of the later model. They were quite dirty and I disassembled them for cleaning. Unhappily as soon as I take the screws out, three little springs jumped out and I can not find in the several A80 manuals a diagram of assembly for this type of table reel. Any help will be very much appreciated.  Also I would like to know the purpose of the second under disk that is able to rotate freely.
If by chance you know where I can buy the cine adapters for these reels at a nice price please drop me mail - I am now looking for a pair.

14

Reel to Reel Tape Machines / Technics 1500 review in HFNRR July 1978

« on: June 30, 2010, 04:05:12 PM »

Owners of the Technics RS1500-1700 series will be very proud with results of a test published in HiFi News and Record Review magazine in June 1978. Wow and flutter was very low at 15 ips (.012% DIN pk to pk), and flutter analysis at 10kHz showed very low scrape modulation. If you want a copy of the full test please email me.
Do you know of any similar test of the Studer A80?

15

Tape Tech / Re: Wow and fluter meter calibration

« on: June 18, 2010, 02:42:43 PM »

It is great to have some one who is an expert and also very friendly and helpful - I received today my Panasonic (National)  VP7750A wow and flutter meter and could check its calibration using the test wave Alan supplied. I am an happy man - the VP7750A reads .52% and the test tone wave has .507% flutter. Thanks Alan!

The unit come without a service manual. Do you know where I can find or buy one?