Re: [ARSCLIST] 1/4" tape player

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:19 PM 2007-12-31, carlstephen koto wrote:
> Great info Richard, thanks.  What is it that you like about the Sony
> APR series? It must be much more difficult to source parts etc. for
> them so I'm sure there are reasons for using them.

Hello, Carlstephen,

What I initially liked most about the Sony APR series was its ability 
to store the presets for 12 different head assemblies in memory and 
that it was an excellent machine. At the time it was being designed, 
I recall conversing with some of the Sony/MCI people who were aiming 
to beat Studer. I don't think they achieved that in all regards, and, 
Studer didn't match Studer in some areas on their own machines, either.

While I am sure I would like a Studer A820/2CH, the cost of these 
machines is very high and the electronics are the same as the A810 
which I do have. The A810 didn't fare as well in a shootout with the 
Studer A80RC as I had hoped. The APR did slightly better, but didn't 
match the A80. Now, I don't know precisely where the difference lies 
technically, but it's in openness and clarity of the sound. The A80 
is essentially an all-discrete design.

So, for me, the A80 is used for the high quality tapes. A lot of my 
work, however, is transferring terrible tapes that are the only (or 
best) surviving/available copy of someone speaking some important 
words. I am not convinced that the A80's improvements would be as 
audible here as they are on high-end music. I already had the APRs 
set up for this prior to obtaining the A80s and making the A80s do 
the oddball tricks that I can already get the APRs to do would be a 
LOT of work. If I had to start all over with what I know now, I would 
probably make the A80 my major/only transport/platform, and would 
modify it to do 4-tracks and limit myself to 1-4 tracks on 1/4 and 
1/2-inch tape as that is the bulk of my business.

But, I digress. There is nothing wrong with the APR, and I do own 27 
or so machines in various states of (dis) repair. About a third are 
very good to excellent, a third have hope, and a third are carcasses.

Plusses in addition to the setup memory are:
--pretty good tape handling
--very gentle tape handling
--large ceramic capstan
--ceramic tape lifters (bypass or buy for parts any older models
   with metal lifters
--ability for modified threading to bypass any fixed guides for spooling
   (similar to the A810 and native to the A80's standard threading)
--speed adjustable from 1.88 in/s to 45 in/s
--rigid tape block that in its common form accepts the 5/8-inch-square
   Nortronics heads that Joe Dundovic has a cache of
--ease of azimuth adjustment with a 2mm hex driver
--no screwdriver tweaks as all the settings are increment/decrement
   so they can be stored.
--the 12 head assemblies can be assigned to either low (3.75-15) or
   high (7.5-30) and for each of the three official speeds has three presets
   I use Preset 3 for 3.75 for 1.88 in/s (using an MRL 1.88 in/s tape)
   and it comes pretty close

Not only do I have 27 APR-5000s, I also have the only APR-16 ever 
made, so my parts support is common across the 1/4-1/2-inch machines 
as well as the single 1/2-1-inch machine.

Parts are either stock electronics parts, stripped from carcasses, or 
manufactured...and I've gone all three routes, with John French doing 
the manufacturing for me -- a from-almost-scratch new headblock for 
the APR-16. Fortunately, the MCI decks had a lot in common with the 
multitrack APRs, so I think he used that plate as a starter.

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.