saf@floyd.UUCP (Steve Falco) (06/08/84)
Hate to tell you this (actually I enjoy telling people this) but JUST having adjustable azimuth is like having a horse with one leg - the .... thing keeps falling over. There are (at least) 4 things that MUST be adjustable in order to have a chance of unit to unit compatibility and/or quality sound. Azimuth perpendicularity of gaps to slit edge of tape Zenith parallelism of head face to writing surface of tape Height centering of head gaps in the "standard" allocated track positions Tangency equalizing tape wrap angle on both sides of the gap. I don't think you are likely to find a cassette deck (especially a 3 head deck which burns one shell opening on an extra capstan) which will let you adjust all of the above. I had this problem on a 4 channel cassette deck for pseudo-home-studio use. The factory couldn't even make the thing play their own alignment tape well enough to make the first adjustment in the service proceedure! And this was after having the original head changed once (it had a bad channel). THE BOTTOM LINE: (choose one or more) Give up. Wait for cheap digital tape. Get an open reel deck. Steve Falco AT&T Bell Labs Whippany NJ
jaw@ames-lm.UUCP (James A. Woods) (06/12/84)
# When in danger,
Or when in doubt,
Run in circles,
Scream and shout. -- Uncle Schaupp
You want to copy tapes?
The Aiwa dubbing deck (WD 110) does just fine. I've recorded and
copied scores of tapes with it with no problems. Using double speed,
two sided dubbing, I have yet to find anyone who can reliably A/B the
difference between the copy and the original. (But then, I and friends
listen to the music, rather than the space between songs, as most
anal-retentive audio nuts do.)
Anyway, the "automatic level adjust" of which tekig!davidl spoke
is actually no adjust at all--it just reads the signal from both channels
and lays it down on a blank--with no signal re-processing of Dolby, etc.
As simple as needs be. The "automatic bias adjust", not of the individual
tape-computer-adaptive variety, is just an RC-network coupled to some
sensors at the tape shell edge. For those dealing with with disparate
tape types (a double concern for dubbing), it's a boon. Who needs more panel
switches? I used to have one of those tune-for-maximum-smoke bias adjusters,
but it got to be a bore. The folks sitting around Nakamichis with screwdrivers
to tweak pots are dinosaurs. Bias adjust is a non-issue with the advent
of more consistent tape standards and formulations.
And, for the people who "need" play/record heads--the advertising
industry needs you! Again, more useless and costly microinch tolerances to
keep only a dog's ear company. As for "phenolic" circuit boards which
supposedly "sleep with animals"--you can have your gold-plated 100 db
Mark Levinson overkill (spinoff from an aerospace downturn, admittedly
better than cruise missiles)--I have better ways to spend money.
P.S.
Aiwa is 51% owned by Sony, for what it's worth.
-- James A. Woods
{dual,hplabs,hao,research}!ames-lm!jaw (jaw@riacs.ARPA)