Re: [ARSCLIST] Wollensak (was: cassette crackle)

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

At 10:12 PM 2008-09-18, Michael Biel wrote:
> Michael Biel wrote:
> > >... ...My first machine 48 years ago was an ill-fated Wollensak T-1616
>
> Richard L. Hess wrote:
> > That is an odd coincidence, so was mine! Did it really come out in 
> > 1960? I must have gotten it towards the end of the run, as I think 
> > I got mine in 1962 or 1963. I know I had it in 1963 as I recorded a 
> > bunch of Kennedy funeral off-air stuff which I still have.
> Then you must have gotten one of the good ones.  I got mine too early.

I saved my money for several years and bought the T-1616-4 and we had 
the local TV repairman remote an RCA jack for my phonograph for the 
second channel amplifier for stereo. Alas, he didn't really 
understand about "hot chassis" and I can't believe we didn't blow 
something up. While the power amp in the Wollensak was a hot chassis 
(to line), it was isolated in and out by audio transformers if I 
recall correctly.

My T-1616-4 was in the shop more than it was out and had an annoying 
tick-tick-tick related to the capstan flywheel, I guess. I finally 
said, I'm going to learn how to fix this blasted thing myself and dug 
into the Sams PhotoFact and took it apart and fixed a whole bunch of 
minor irritations, including fabricating a replacement for a cracked 
plastic lever out of brass tubing and solder.

However, this was one of those machines that recorded better than 
they played back. There were worse machines, and the styling was 
pretty cool. I had lusted after the later T1818 but then got a used 
Tandberg 74b in 1969 and gave the Wollensak away and never looked 
back. I had the Tandberg until about 1982 and gave that away.

I bought several ReVox A77s from about 1972-1980, and ended up with 
four by 1981. I sold two of them in 2000 (the two 7.5/15 machines to 
two friends who were copying 15 in/s tapes and didn't ahve any 
machines to play them on).

In 1998 I bought my first Sony APR-5000 and obtained my first Studer 
A810 in 2001-2002. I got my A80s in 2006 or early 2007

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.