wjm (04/15/83)
At the risk of re-opening a discussion of two months ago on the net, here
are some comments on tape deck care. Cleaning is essential, and the only
two safe cleaners to use are isopropyl alcohol (preferably the 91% variety
which you can get from a drugstore) and Freon TF (trichorotriflouroethane)
which is the active ingredient in the Nortronics tape head cleaner. If you
can't reach the heads with cotton swabs (as is often true in car decks), the
Discwasher cleaning cassette is a reasonable alternative (I wouldn't use any
other head cleaning cassette however, since some of these products can be
rather abrasive.). The TDK demagnetizer works well (I have one) but you might
want to consider Discwasher's new model (which is also built into a cassette).
Since it uses permanent magnets, you don't have to worry about replacing the
battery (although the battery in the TDK - a silver-oxide watch battery - has
lasted at least 3 years in mine, and is still OK). I've been trying to get
a look at one of the Discwasher units but so far they haven't appeared in the
NYC stereo stores I frequent.
Bill Mitchell
Bell Laboratories
Whippany, NJ
(whuxk!wjm)