Audio cassette alignment tape

I used to have a Nakamichi, but it was sold when I sold my Nakamichi deck. They do show up occasionally; good luck.

You can make one if you have a high-quality tape deck, Just record some of the higher frequencies in the range of 4K and above, and use that to align your subject tape heads. Should be no problem if you have a audio generator and a good tape deck to make the master alignment tape.

You can make one if you have a high-quality tape deck, Just record some of the higher frequencies in the range of 4K and above, and use that to align your subject tape heads. Should be no problem if you have a audio generator and a good tape deck to make the master alignment tape.

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Check on at least one other good machine that the outputs are balanced, in case the "good" one is not. Then make a number of alignment tapes at the same time. Preferably at a few different f-counter checked frequencies, if you can be sure the speed of the "good" deck is in fact good, ie output beat frequencies checked against at least one other good machine .

This reminds me of the joke about the town that set its public clock when the local fort fired its canon at noon. The fort, of course, fired the canon when the clock struck 12:00.

An old Advent tape might be satisfactory. Advent was the first company to make recorded cassettes to a high standard, and their head alignment is probably close to "perfect".

canon

Then last year in the media they said that the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK had the world's most accurate atomic clock, which begs the question .....

/

/

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/ How do they know? without the paradox of a more accurate one to check it against

non

I have an old Yamaha that is a spare machine. It has always seemed to sound "good" however I never really ran any tones through it to see what playback looks like. I'll have to investigate using that one as my "standard". Back in the 70's I used to align Ampex and Scully professional tape recorders and could A B an output pretty closely by ear. The last few years though the high frequencies have been rolling off, (between my ears) and so now even 10KHZ is difficult to perceive. So I really can't rely on "what seems to sound good" to me any more. I thought that music sounded reasonably good on the faulty channel of the Teac until I looked at the meter while running tones. I'd still like to find a commercial alignment tape though. I have several old reel to reel alignment tapes made by Ampex and Nortronics I think but nothing for cassettes. Lenny

klem kedidelhopper wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@f11g2000yql.googlegroups.com... On Jan 18, 6:59 am, "William Sommerwerck" wrote:

canon

I have an old Yamaha that is a spare machine. It has always seemed to sound "good" however I never really ran any tones through it to see what playback looks like. I'll have to investigate using that one as my "standard". Back in the 70's I used to align Ampex and Scully professional tape recorders and could A B an output pretty closely by ear. The last few years though the high frequencies have been rolling off, (between my ears) and so now even 10KHZ is difficult to perceive. So I really can't rely on "what seems to sound good" to me any more. I thought that music sounded reasonably good on the faulty channel of the Teac until I looked at the meter while running tones. I'd still like to find a commercial alignment tape though. I have several old reel to reel alignment tapes made by Ampex and Nortronics I think but nothing for cassettes. Lenny

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For tape speed checking/adjustment I've used the following for the last year, perhaps 5 repairs and no bounces from any of them, so presumably perceived as correct speed. (My speed test tape is old , slightly ruffled and maybe stretched )

I found a large quantity of salvaged capstans+spindles.

26 off on my mic (rather than callipers before) measure 1.99 +/-0.01 of reading accuracy and 2 nearer 2.00 5 off measure 1.79mm 1 at 2.19mm 9 measure 2.49mm (A sampling of these measured by a mechanical engineer measured at 62 degree F and agree with my figures, ie 0.01mm less than round number)) The machine in question uses 2.49. Either spindles or bearings would have to be an off-size for free movement, so presumably sintered metal bearings are (easier?) made round number size and spindles made 0.01mm smaller diameter and speed of rotation adjusted just as easily to that as any other speed. Assuming it is actually 2.5mm then doing the maths and strobing with quartz f-meter calibrated strobe then my test tapes are 0.4 percent out from calculation via 15/8 ips etc. spindle rotation speed of 6.05 rev per second with an error of about 0.4 percent , needs longer gate time or repeating more times to bring that accuracy up (rounding errors? so probably longer gate time required than my meter has). If 2.49 diameter then 0.6 percent out. Hopefully will revise these figures when I get a bit of cross-calibrated engineering accuracy but above is probably fairly representative and scale for the different spindle diameters. I used a white LED on a stable audio genarator coupled to f counter. I found monitoring strobe at 6 Hz difficult but just painting "tip ex" over about 1/4 circumf of capstan and monitoring for strobing at 4 times frequency was much easier and better for the f meter gate time also. Not as obvious as exact strobing, you have to monitor the relative flaring-up and monitor direction/change of its drift. Another possibility as a test tape - record some constant tone, any f, on a few minutes of tape, pull out a long length and pass a small magnet over two parts a measured distance apart. retract, and then time the interval between dips in play mode (not tried). Where no rear access and have to strobe from the front , assuming enough space for this add-on. 12 or 16 or 20 pin smal plastic cog, Fit to a plastic cylindrer to drill an undersixe hole to the capstan spindle size. Mark one quarter segment black. Cut into anyold cassette casing to reveal the area that the spindle and pinch wheel goes into. Unfortunately usually no more than 1mm of free space over the pinch wheel. So a dot of hotmelt glue to hold well enough to test speed. Place this cassette in th edeck and deck in play and switch off power , leaving pinch wheel touching spindle , to stick this cog in place. Knowing the diameter of the spindle and scaling , eg for 2.19mm diameter then 27.52 Hz on f monitored sig gen for 4 strobe "spokes" in use at x4 frequency.

You can get them from here:

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Michael Karas
Carousel Design Solutions
http://www.carousel-design.com

On Jan 18, 9:29=A0am, klem kedidelhopper wrote: I

Adjust the meter trimmer until is sounds better...

Sorry, couldn't resist.

John

Isn't that remedy sort of like turning up the radio when the engine knock becomes unbearable? Lenny

Wow, I guess that I wasn't prepared for the steep price tag. It's been awhile since I've aligned a tape machine. Lenny

What's wrong with that? It is only a problem when you try to sell the car.

Being accurate also should mean it's stable. Compare the drift rate to many other drifters.

Greg

Or the Platters. Or the Spinners.

Speaking of alignment tapes and such; i would like to find 1/4 inch open reel (7") alignment tape. I am still way uncomfortable with dipping into eprey/preypal. I dream of getting replacement headstacks for my old old Ampex AX-300. Last i saw, a full set of six was about 1800 U$. =20

?-/

when

Laboratory,

the

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I never did see the answer I must try and get someone from the NPL for the Sci Caf talks I organise

I suspect the supraluminal neutrinos thing is something the American military has not divulged concerning GPS relativity corrections and their own alterations for allowing civilian use, and then wrong distance between source and receiver. After all the neutrino peak from that Large Magellanic Cloud supernova a few earth years ago arrived at the same time as the light flux peak and that had been travelling how many thousands of light years? And the neutrinos from a super-nova, I suspect, are far more energetic than anything the LHC could concoct.

Random thought.

Wouldn't lining up against a fixed head 'MP3 cassette adaptor' be pretty spot on, a good quality one without a wobbly slanting head?

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Adrian C

In a word... NO. An even better word is one you hear on "Antiques Road Show" -- provenance.