Messages

1

Tape Project Machines / Re: Quality of record electronics in Otari 5050 MIII

« on: July 08, 2009, 05:10:40 PM »

Thanks everyone.  I'll keep researching a bit, talk to Mike at ATR, talk some more to the guys at Bottlehead and then make a decision.  Once I do I'll report back:-).

2

Tape Project Machines / Quality of record electronics in Otari 5050 MIII

« on: July 06, 2009, 01:56:53 PM »

This is my first post so I suppose I should take the opportunity to introduce myself.  My name is Matt, I live in Austin, Tx. and I recently have purchased an Otari 5050 MIII and am in the process of sending it in to Bottlehead for modification.  In reading through the threads here, and the info posted on the Tape Project website, there has been much discussion of bypassing the playback electronics, but I've seen little mention of the quality of the record electronics.  I'm curious if any of you have bypassed that circuitry as well and used something else in it's place.  Or perhaps the recording part of the machine is of higher quality??? One of the attractions to this for me was also to be able to make high quality recordings for personal use/pleasure.

I have taken a short look at the Aria from ATR, but it leads to another couple of questions.  First off something probably very basic, my system runs all balanced, but I'm not familiar with the +4dB or -10dB terms.  Is this just another way of saying balanced and single-ended?  Two, would using the Aria be something pretty straight forward to modify the 5050 to accept?  Would you just wire the current XLR inputs directly to the heads like is done with the playback head?

I'll probably have more questions as I continue to think of how I want to set this up in my system, but I'll try and make use of the "search" function as much as possible:-).  Thanks for any help!