Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site floyd.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!saf
From: saf@floyd.UUCP (Steve Falco)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Cassette decks: I'm mad as hell, and I'm probably...
Message-ID: <2074@floyd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Jun-84 07:38:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: floyd.2074
Posted: Fri Jun  8 07:38:03 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jun-84 07:44:03 EDT
References: <2087@tekig.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Whippany NJ
Lines: 35

Hate to tell you this (actually I enjoy telling people this) but
JUST having adjustable azimuth is like having a horse with one
leg - the .... thing keeps falling over.

There are (at least) 4 things that MUST be adjustable in order to
have a chance of unit to unit compatibility and/or quality sound.

	Azimuth 	perpendicularity of gaps to slit edge of tape

	Zenith		parallelism of head face to writing surface of
			tape

	Height		centering of head gaps in the "standard"
			allocated track positions

	Tangency	equalizing tape wrap angle on both sides of
			the gap.

I don't think you are likely to find a cassette deck (especially a 3
head deck which burns one shell opening on an extra capstan) which
will let you adjust all of the above.

I had this problem on a 4 channel cassette deck for pseudo-home-studio
use.  The factory couldn't even make the thing play their own alignment tape
well enough to make the first adjustment in the service proceedure!  And
this was after having the original head changed once (it had a bad
channel).

THE BOTTOM LINE:  (choose one or more)

	Give up.  
	Wait for cheap digital tape.  
	Get an open reel deck.

		Steve Falco  AT&T Bell Labs  Whippany NJ