NAB Aluminum Hub Adapters

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Good afternoon all,

Does anyone know if the fancy and sometimes colorful NAB hub adapters will fit any reel to reel than the Revox? And if they fit other tape recorders where would be the very best place to purchase them from and not have to hock my house?

I have seen various colors on Ebay but hesitate to buy because there are some dishonest sellers there. I would hate to make a purchase only to find they don't fit my tape decks.

So,  I am thinking of buying a pair for my Tascam 42B and 32-2B tape decks.  I will thank you in advance for all responses. As always I very much appreciate your input.

bob williams

[ironbut]

Hi Bob,

I have a pair that I bought on eBay a few years back from a fellow in Italy. I use them on my Technics RS1500. I just tried them on an Ampex ATR700 (which is just a Teac/Tascam with an Ampex badge) and they fit that one fine also.
The ATR700 has the reel hold downs that screw out to release and screw in to tighten the reel/hub. I know that other systems were used by Teac/Tascam latter on.
The only machines (so far) that I've found that the Revox style hubs won't work on are the older Otari's and some of the Ampex studio machines which require the "pinch" type hubs (where the reel spindle has no mechanism for holding any sized reel and is just a solid spindle).

I think mine are the "cheaper" version which don't have the "Revox" logo on the center.

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Good evening Steve and thanks for chiming in. I wanted to be as certain as possible that these things would fit. And yes, the Ampex 700 series tape decks were made by Teac, and if the hubs you purchased fit them, I should not have a problem. I am not looking for the hubs with the Revox logo. However, I do want aluminum and not plastic. I will look good and ask questions before I buy. Thanks again my friend.

bob williams

[Waltzingbear]

I have never had a set with the metal flanges, it is my belief that they are indeed just flanges, the center piece is the same plastic workings. I have seen a site in Europe that seems to be the source of the non-revox adapters, Darklab.  Its in German
http://www.darklab-magnetics.de/darklab_webshop/index.htm
go to the NAB adapters, 29 Euros

quite willing to be told differently if they are metal in the workings

Alan

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Good Monday Morning Alan,

Thanks for the feedback. I will certainly try the link you have been kind enough to send me and see what's up there. I am still trying to gather as much information as I can on this.

bob

[docb]

Revox or copy they are all plastic with (I think) Delrin internal pucks. At some point I had an adapter that was missing the pucks and I made some from Teflon. Didn't really notice any difference in functionality. The spun aluminum top is strictly for decoration, done to make the adapters look like the machined aluminum spindles and hold downs used on big Studers. Well, I suppose they make it a little easier to cue tape by hand too. IME the Revox and the Darklabs work about the same. They are pretty easy to use (much easier than the crappy Technics hold downs). I have had minor issues with reels sitting off center on them but that seems to have as much to do with the reel hub internal diameter tolerance as anything. One can simply stop the tape and nudge the reel a bit to get it centered.

[Listens2tubes]

I looked at the link. Each product has one line in english. Some more descriptive than others.

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Good evening guys and thank you so much for responding. It's more than exciting to hear from you with this kind of feedback. Actually, the NAB Hubs look like real metal. I am more than happy I've not ordered any yet. I would rather wait until I can afford the real deal (metal) hubs. Now it's obvious why some cost so much more than others.

bob williams

[docb]

Just to clarify the terminology-

We are talking about hub adapters, not hubs. The hub is part of the reel. The spindle is what a reel mounts on. Consumer and prosumer decks like Revox, Tascam, Technics, later Otari, etc. come with spindles for cine hubs. Those spindles need hub adapters to fit NAB hubs. To a fair extent they are interchangeable. Unfortunately in my experience the little "pull and twist" clamp of the cine spindle itself is the weak point of the whole concept. Adapters that clamp onto a long spindle like an earlier Otari or an 300/350/440 or ATR has seem to work a lot better, but there is no easy way to change over to that kind of spindle.

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Thank you DocB I got that. I appreciate the clarification.

bob w.