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Re: [ARSCLIST] reel choices was help in fair pricing of reel to reel machines



Hi Richard:

Yes, that is very advanced. As you know, I'm more of a boutique shoppe here, so I just manually align for each case.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] reel choices was help in fair pricing of reel to reel machines



At 07:11 PM 2007-01-24, Tom Fine wrote:

By the way, the big problem with any machine that feeds 2T and QT heads through the same electronics (ie any machine with 2 play heads and a switch) is that you need to optimize playback for one or the other. Now, if both heads are really nicely buffed and aligned, it'll be close enough for most playbacks, but it won't be perfect unless you tweak for each head when you switch. I have a quarter-track play head on one of my Ampex AG-440B's and it has its own cables going to AG-445 type playback electronics, which are adjusted for that head alone. Meanwhile, the main play/record electronics are optimized for 2T.

Yes, this is crucial and why I like the electronic setups with memory. When I swap heads on an APR-5000, it recalls the last alignment for that head assembly (there are 12 different head registers). I have a spreadsheet showing which machine is aligned for which head assembly. With the APR, it goes farther. For each of the three valid speeds (it's a 4-speed machine, but you select slow or fast per headstack) there are three presets. For some of my head assemblies, 3.75 in/s, preset 3 is actually done with a 1.88 in/s test tape and at -50% varispeed.


It's that flexibility as well as the wonderful sound that makes the APR one of my two favourite machines. The A810 has NAB and CCIR for four speeds as well as a Tape A and Tape B setting which permits two head stacks. However, one of my A810s is dedicated NAB 2T with an external play azimuth KNOB (original Studer accessory).

Cheers,

Richard

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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