Defiant Otari 5050 B ll

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

First, I want to say to everyone, Have a blessed and joyous Christmas and great New Year.

Early this Sunday morning (5:30am) I decided to prepare my Otari 5050 to record some of the great choral music that usually comes on FM radion about this time of year. Initially I've had no problems with the XLR connectors from the tape output to my amps inputs and can play my tapes without problems. Mind you, I did not have to do any re-wiring. These cables played right out of the package.  However, when I sought to record music from radio I am not able to get anything onto tape. I put the Otari in the recorde mode, but nothing happens. The VU meters did not move indicating no signal was getting to the tape.

According to the Otari manual and I quote, "MX-5050 ll series have active balanced input and output circuits. However both balanced and unbalanced connections will operate with no problems".  I take this to mean that I don't have to worry about re-wiring the XLR connectors in order to record?????  I would appreciate any pointers I can get regarding what might be wrong. Thanks much my friends.

Bob W.

[docb]

I believe the problem is that Otari XLRs are pin 3 hot and your source is probably pin 2 hot. You will need a crossover adapter.

[rbwtapeinterlink-Bob]

Dear Doc,

Somehow I had reached that conclusion. Actually, My cassette tape recorder would record everything coming its way. However, when I plugged in the Otari into the same outputs nothing happened. It's amazing that the outputs from the Otari have no problems playing loud and clear and need no modifications. I just don't understand that, but I am sure that you do. Again, thanks much for your input. Have a blessed and Happy Holiday please.

Bob W.