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