Hello, Barbara,
Your problem is indicative of the problems we will see more and more as
the world of analog magnetic tape spirals down.
While I would like to be able to get my Uher 4000 Report S working, I
haven't spent the time doing it. The only tape machine with real factory
support that I am aware of is the Studer A807 and its factory support is
only through 2010. It was discontinued in 2002 or 2003, if I recall
correctly.
Studer/Harman is being wonderful about this, actually, but repair is not
inexpensive by any means.
My approach has been to standardize on relatively inexpensive, relatively
plentiful, and extremely capable tape machines for my tape transfer
business. For reel tapes, I do all my 1/4-inch transfer work on Studer
A810s and Sony APR-5000s. The Sony APR-5000 can be coaxed into doing 1.88
(1-7/8) in/s. You set it at 3.75 in/s and then dial in -50% varispeed.
I have a 1.88 in/s MRL alignment tape, so I adjust tape type preset 3 for
3.75 in/s to have the proper reproduce response for 1.88 in/s. Quick,
operation: Dial in -50% varispeed, push tape type 3 on the alignment
panel, press play after you start your computer recording.
What to do with 15/16 in/s? Simple: Record it at 88.2 ks/s and then play
the file back at 44.1 ks/s.
At 1.88 in/s and below we're talking voice grade on reels. There isn't
much "fidelity" there like there is in cassettes. Response is flat to
about 8 kHz on the APR-5000 at 1.88 in/s, and then starts to fall off and
is down about 2 dB at 10 kHz if I remember correctly.
So, at 15/16 in/s you'll barely get to 5 kHz, but only Nakamichi cassette
decks did much better than this at 15/16 (apparently one or two had this
speed and did very well with it).
One of the problems is optimizing the head for both fast and slow speed
operation.
Now I do have a Racal Store 4DS instrumentation recorder that runs from
15/16 to 60 in/s in the normal speed steps and its amazing response is
here
http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/instrumentation/
but its noise performance isn't as good and the normal equalization is not
applied, so that would have to be post produced in the computer. "Direct"
means essentially no "audio" equalization, just a constant current record.
You might find the Racal with computer or outboard EQs to be a good
solution to listening to these tapes, but it has its own problems.
One of the reasons that I chose to get into this business is I also do my
own repairs on most equipment.
I fear the Uhers are an end-of-life product.
Cheers,
Richard
At 04:50 PM 6/13/2006, you wrote:
The University of Chicago Language Laboratories and Archives has four old
Uhers (4xxx models) (used by various faculty in the field). None of them
works, but two of them seemed repairable. I sent them out at the end of
last year and got them back a week or so ago. Apart from personal problems
for the proprietor, there was a delay in getting parts from Germany--and
then only one machine was actually "repaired". I put it that way because,
when it came back, it still did not work properly. Does anyone have any
suggestions as to where I can get this repaired? I need the 1 7/8 ips (and
would like to have the 15/16 and 3 3/4 ips) for some of the tapes in the
archive.
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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