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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.