ST101137@brownvm.brown.edu (Lee Silverman) (12/04/90)
Disclaimer:I am not an audiophile. I just want a good tape deck.
I am looking at several dubbing decks as potential buys in
the next few weeks, most notably the Sony ES models. (particularly the
second-from-the-top model). These come with a bais adjustment knob for deck B,
but there is no built in way to calibrate the bias. You have to "just play
around with it." Now my question is:If I plug my Macintosh into the deck, and
have it generate a tone at 400 Hz, or whatever the calibration tone happens to
be, can I calibrate to that sound and have it be accurate? Or, alternatively,
can I get a tape of a calibration tone to play in deck A and use it to calibrate
deck B? I switch tapes alot (depending on what's on sale, That's, Maxell, TDK,
Sony, whatever) and so I'll need to adjust the bias frequently.
On a more fundamental note, can someone explain, in not-all-that-technical
terms, what bais really is, how the adjustment affects what goes on the tape,
and how, failing both of my ideas on calibrating the recording deck, I can "play
with it" in an intelligent manner to get the best sound (The guy in the stereo
store said, "Bais adjustment on this deck is easy:For normal tapes, it's 9:00,
for type II, it's 12:00, and for Metal it's 3:00. Then he took me upstairs to
show me his $500 top-o-the-line Sony ES 3-head recorder. On this machine it's
simple too. Just hit this calibration switch and play with the knob until the
line s match up." "Great," I muttered.)
Please E-mail my account, as I am not a regular subscriber to this list.
Adios, :{) | ST101137 @ Brownvm
Dr. Silver B-) /|\ @ Brownvm.brown.edu