Tape Project Forum
Tape Machines => Service Resources => Topic started by: ironbut on April 12, 2007, 11:12:30 PM
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I took my RS1500 to Adam Liberman for regular servicing, alignment, and to have the record bias set for RMGI SM911 tape. This was a few weeks before Doc announced that he'd be doing servicing and mods to optimize the Technics machines. Adam works on tape and film machines and has a very impressive list of regular clients listed on his web site. He does a lot of "on location servicing" of film gear and has a small but very well equipped shop in El Cerrito Ca.( just a couple of miles north of Berkeley ). He's pretty busy so unless you specify when you will need your deck back, it could take a while.
When I took my 1500 in, I thought it was working great ( I've had it about 1.5 years) and was interested to get a baseline of performance. As far as I can figure, I think it sounds at least 10-15% better! I guess it did need alignment! Adam provided a detailed description of the work performed along with a graph of freq. responce of 15 ips 2T playback,7.5 ips 2T playback,7.5 ips 4T playback, record@15ips (which I asked for the bias to set for) and record @7.5 ips. I've been listening to a stack of tapes that I've gotten while it was in the shop and it seems like sounds like triangles, drum hits and pianos are more real sounding. I think that the work done to the tape handling areas may be the reason for this improvement. I can't wait to have Doc reduce flutter even more!
To conclude, Liberman was recommended by Richard Links over on Tape Trail and I'd like to pass it along. I like the little "pro" touches , like a sticker that gives what the bias is set for, when it was done, the work order #, and the position of the switches for that bias.
Like I said though, he's busy, so in the future, I'll give him a date that I want the machine back.
BTW there were a couple of surface scratches on the headblock. One of the few cosmetic flaws on my beloved 1500. Well, they aren't there no more! I tried to rub them out once with no luck. And he didn't even mention it! Now that my decks off his bench, he's starting on a Studer 810.libermansound.com (http://libermansound.com)
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how much did he charge?
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It was $250 which I believe is his default regular servicing charge. I didn't need any parts or extra labor for anything that was seriously wrong with it. Knowing that Doc is going to set up a refurb/mod service, I think I would wait to have him do it if posable. As I mentioned in my post, I didn't know that when I took mine in for servicing. I think, once that the mods have been done, I might still take it to Adam once a year or so.
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As of July of 2007 ( I think) Adam and his family moved north. If you're in the Portland area, you're in luck! The only complaint I had with Adam was he was so busy keeping professional machines running right that it took a while for him to get around to servicing us audiophiles. Like I said in my original post, if it has reels, he's your man.
BTW he has the same website so you can contact him there.