The service manual of this tape deck is a masterpiece of service manuals, it is my favorite bedside reading material, it is that amazing.

Great job Dave

Great video !

It's better than nothing in this case, for the occasional playback. I have a pioneer 909 where someone calibrated the heads wrong and now the heads have uneven wear to the point that 1 track actually opened. There's no real fixing it other than swapping the whole assembly since everything else in the tape path has wear as well, so putting a differently aligned head in will probably eat the tape edges. Fun stuff, analogue audio!

Nice attempt sir

nice job again

Sounds pretty good.

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

In 15ips it sounds wonderful.

schematics service manuals speciations of stereo grear some of my favorite reading very interesting info lol!

Dave, Wish I knew about this Sony recorder calibration activity back last year. I would have sent my Sony calibration/alignment tapes for you to use. The very first mechanical align/Cal process is head position. You don't need the "factory" test jig to perfectly align tape path across all heads. So, you just eyeball the head replacement/install so that it is reasonably "square" to tape path. Then, you mark-up the face of the head(s) with dark blue or black wax marker, then run a spare tape past the head for a few minutes. Retract the tape and examine the "wear pattern" of the wax marker. You can tell immediately if you need to tilt the head "toward or away" from the head. This only takes a few minutes. But, it has to be done first. Then, when all head surfaces are parallel to tape surface, you can perform the Azimuth "tilt" of the playback head with good, factory, alignment tape. Since the playback head(s) are now perfectly adjusted (aligned), they become your reference for all subsequent calibrations. I bought the alignment tapes directly from Sony America (New Jersey) back in '83 for a small fortune. I used these alignment tapes about 3 years ago to test & align my Sony TC-730 bi-directional recorder. I bought this tape deck back in '82 ($ 100 used) and it was in mint condition except for the heads. Both of the record heads and both of the playback heads had severe wear and etching into the metal surfaces. I then purchased 4 new heads from Sony as part of the alignment tape parts order. Hope this info helps someone out there who is confronted with performing head alignments in the "field" (kitchen table).

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

Believe me I didn't want to take this one on. I really don't like working on stuff that the "customer" has worked on, and I let this one sit for months until they were calling me. With the jigs it is a piece of cake, and that is how I was trained to so it. You set the head in, and put in the screws, then play the alignment tape to set the azimuth. Never done it with the crayon method, because when I was doing this work I had the service jig. Have to try the crayon method some time.

@garyspencer1711

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Yes. You have said this many times over the years. "Don't Like To Screw Around With Customer Repair Attempts". However, theses days, there are no competent technicians to work on electro-mechanical or electronic equipment. They all fell in love with "board swap" or "sub-assembly swap" to narrow down the problem. Therefore, anyone that has audio gear with a failure mode, and has a little technical knowledge, will attempt to fix a problem even if they don't know how to solder properly because they can't find a good repair depot in their state (or province). I love watching your channel because you fetch & grab hold of the problem so quickly ! I have watched all of your power amp, pre-amp, FM tuner, and integrated amp repairs over the last 6 or 7 years. Nothing short of excellent. I wish I had some RF test equipment to perform FM Tuner alignments on my gear. Lastly, I have never used a crayon to mask the head. I used a wax type of marker which is used in medical labs to label microscope slides (mark directly on the glass). So, marking the record or play head to align ........works. It's not an approximation. You end up with perfectly registered head location (with the correct amount of "tape pressure" against the entire head surface). THANKS for all your hard work producing these excellent tutorials !

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

@@garyspencer1711 the "crayon" was a joke. I would imagine a dry erase marker would perform that task nicely.

@garyspencer1711

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Ahhhhhhhhhhh .......that's a great suggestion. That is far better than the old-school wax marker. And, it will wear away in just a few seconds making the trial-and-error adjustment process go quicker.

Fantastic video. alignment job is fantastic under the circumstances ,you know .you not having the alignment jigs and tapes.

if in a cassette player that supports sound quality the 10,000 hz head we change the head with one that supports 14,000 hz will there be a difference in sound quality?

What size are those tape reels,,,,as they're going really fast in record/playback. 50 year old tape? That,s just as old as me. Is the Sony reel to reel machine the same age?

You repeated yourself at least 4 times about not having the jigs and calibration tapes. No one would pick fault with how well you set the heads up, sounds perfect, don't worry. The owner should not have messed with it. Charge him 4000 dollars ha ha :-D

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

This was recorded over several months and I wasn't paying attention when I edited it. Had a betamax that someone overpaid on ebay for on my mind.

I have a Sony tc-630 and it’s strange because the motors work ok and all but when the tape is loaded and press play it stops and doesn’t play even though I put the tape without the reel it dose work it only stops working when I thread the tape to the other reel

Hello I have a same model I hear capstan flywheels sound in quite room on speed 38 especially ? Is that normal ,or need to change flywheels bearings ? Regards

I totally agree, even with tape decks, if it's too worn out, just let it there. A face same issue with the test tape. I got myself a nice JVC 3 head closed loop dual capstan DD and lets call it "the reference" and made my test tape there. My main concern is speed, and this machine can play its own recording between 1Hz variations at 3150hz tone. So, transport at least is stable. But I should bring this machine to a PROPER repair shop with test tapes to spot the callibration. Some guys are selling test tapes made on HIGH END MACHINES .... well ... I dont know. True test tapes are epxnesive and guess what is next ? .... the machine will chew it ... It happened in the past even when pinch roller is new, tension "feels" good ... sound fine ... a random chew will ocurr. No wasting 150 dollars LOL, I guess I need my JVC properly calibrated and sit on the shelf just to make reference tapes.

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

That's what I do. I have a reference cassette that i used to verify speed on my technics direct drive rsm275 and I use that deck to make tone tapes. As far as reel to reel i have none. My 2 Akai and teac 4 track are all factory paint sealed and all have very low hours. I can record tone tapes on them but I don't know if they are perfect, but in 2020 who cares. They are close enough for me. Even these so called "reference" tapes that go for 150 bucks, you have no way of knowing how accurate they are because they are not factory tapes. You can't get factory tapes anymore because they don't make new reel to reel, or new cassette decks for that matter now.

@38911bytefree

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids So true .... I tried myself TWO tricks in the past to adjust a reference (my concern is more on the speed side, I cant stand speed variation) First, launch a CD (on a CD player) and the tape version (same album) and put tape and CD player in sync (manually). Then adjust speed and repat until I get the Sync longer than ... lets 1 minute or 2 minutes. Tape will average the CD, you can hear the echo going from one to another. Of course, Im using a comercial tape as a reference. I use But seriously (HPill Collins) made at US by Atlantic which is WAY superior than the WEA conterpart recorded in Europe. I trust them better. Still comercial machines The second, this is CRUDE, i cut a GIVEN distance of tape, layed on the floor, gave it a bit of tension, cut into a KNOWN lenght (lets say 9 feet). Then splice with one blank segment on each end, put in a cassette again, record sound on it. And play the segment with a cronograph (from sound to nosound). Adjust until you got the expected play time for this physical length and the expected transport speed as defined (4.78cm/s). I know that tape is under tension, tried to do my best. This last one, really hold againt my JVC, almost spot on. ....Azimuth ... I have been for years using the criteria on getting the max in high freq. Them the scope as you do, but XY grap flctuates a lot ... Dont know why really. It pretty hard to get it consistent. Also it is required to test at 3Khz then at 8 ... and somehow I cant so both consistently. Probably because all the machines I had around are pretty baseline models

@mkhammoudeh7228

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids where are you located? I have Samsung TV need your pretty hands ....

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

@@mkhammoudeh7228 I dont work on tv much these days and by that i mean i dont work on tv at all unless it is my set

Good good good

Hope you show how to adjust a Tascam mk2 3 head one day : )

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

If I ever see one.

@killmore75

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids Have one but someone played with all 5 adjustment nobs : ( . Managed to aligned the heads at best I can by looking at tape to head contact. Then adjust the middle head screw during a monitor recording and the sound sounded great but this took time to adjusting by ear only! I changed all caps in the direct drive motor and drive belt for tape head engaging mechanism. The middle screw on the head adjusted the alignment from the record head and the playback head . This was saved from a friend from the scrap ward!

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

@@killmore75 I should be receiving a real high end dual capstan direct drive 3 head JVC soon. Friend is giving me one to overhaul and sell... Or keep.

I had a MRL 15 IPS alignment tape with all the documentation which I sold on eBay thinking I will never use this. I still have my Teac, BASF, TDK, and RCA alignment tapes for cassette and I still use them. Hey folks, please don't buy those home brew alignment tapes off of eBay. True alignment tapes have to be made on a FULL track machine. A four track recording can get you in the ball park, but you are at the mercy of the calibration of the machine it was recorded on.

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

Correct. However if the 4 track machine was calibrated using a full track tape it will be very close. More than good enough for home recordings. You have to remember that no matter how well you aligned your machine after about 20 tape passes it won't be exactly the same anyway because parts (head, guides, rollers) wear constantly at the microscopic level so, every time you play a tape is is slightly different. Not to mention tape stretch.

Would the average person notice, I know I used to, but these days I doubt i would, it would need to be well off.

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

In these days of digital i still wonder why anyone is still messing around with reel to reel tape. Musicians aside that are using analog tape as part of the creative process to get a specific sound, i honestly don't understand why cassettes and reel to reel are still being used. Sure a big old reel to reel looks cool from an estetic point of view and i have a big one sitting next to my thorens and tube amp but it isn't even connected.

@segasonic9117

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids But you were SO excited in the TEAC 3440 video! :p Because recording records to R2R is better than capturing to a PC and making a CD. Analogue to analogue recording is far better and people are finally realising that. Digital sucks. Compare those "high tech" "state of the art", "superior" digital recordings like Brothers In Arms or even Tue Visitors from 1981; those recordings are stuck at 44khz forever. Analogue tape can be recorded to digital at 192khz. Just as film is infinite resolution but digital video recordings are forever stuck at what ever resolution it was recorded in. Sure both video and music can be "upscaled" but it is not a true high resolution such as film and tape can have. I miss film grain, texture makes films look so much better. I especially detest the companies in Japan stripping everything of grain! They call it "noise", grain is not noise! Ahem, but anyway.... that is why I bought decks. Plus I wanted one since I was 3 years old :D

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

@@segasonic9117 Only for the look. I don't use it, and it hasn't run since the video. Just on display. I have listened to digital since it came out. I hate noise tape hiss drives me crazy. When i had to deal with tape i used dbx to try and remove the hiss. That created troubles of its own.

@BoB4jjjjs

3 жыл бұрын

@@12voltvids I just love reel to reel machines, play forever running slower, not so good quality, but turn on and forget for hours.

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

@@BoB4jjjjs i turn my media player on and let it play random tracks. 20000 tracks on the media card. I just leave it playing and then the amp off when done. Turn it on and get music. Nothing mechanical, nothing to wear out.

16:36

Muy inestable

if it helps you good pain in ass to me your videos worth it

10 adds in 11-minutes to many fu-king adds

@12voltvids

3 жыл бұрын

Woo hoo i just got paid.