Teac 80-8 .. any info?

EddieVergunst · #1 07-10-2004

I can get one in good condition for 300€, are these good compared to lets say the 38 / Otari 5050?

The Ghost of FM · #2 07-10-2004

The 80-8 is capable of making a fantastically good recording if you find one in decent shape.

It's one short coming is that it's sync response is not equal to its repro heads frequency response so, while over dubbing, your taped tracks will sound pretty muddy but upon normal playback, they will pop back to full response.

The newer decks like the 38, 48, 58 and TSR-8 don't have this design issue and as well being newer machines may offer you fewer service issues and better parts availability.

300 pounds seems a bit on the high side, price wise for one to me but, I am not familiar with the British market place for used gear so this may be a decent deal for that region of the planet?

Cheers!

EddieVergunst · #3 07-10-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ghost of FM

The 80-8 is capable of making a fantastically good recording if you find one in decent shape.

It's one short coming is that it's sync response is not equal to its repro heads frequency response so, while over dubbing, your taped tracks will sound pretty muddy but upon normal playback, they will pop back to full response.

The newer decks like the 38, 48, 58 and TSR-8 don't have this design issue and as well being newer machines may offer you fewer service issues and better parts availability.

300 pounds seems a bit on the high side, price wise for one to me but, I am not familiar with the British market place for used gear so this may be a decent deal for that region of the planet?

Cheers!

Well the guy selling it says it´s in top shape, apparently the machine has low hours. The price is in Euros by the way, so that would equal about 350$ I think. I might get the price down about 50E.
What kind of console you think would go well with this particular machine?
I´ve heard good stuff about Soundcraft, Albini used one in his pre Neotek days apparently.

The Ghost of FM · #4 07-10-2004

Mixers?

Soundcraft did and still do make some nice clean boards. The M12 looks like a decent board.

TASCAM as well, made some very decent desks back in the 80's so, a 300 or 500 series TASCAM would also serve you well. That's what I use myself; a couple of M312B from TASCAM.

Cheers!

EddieVergunst · #5 07-10-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ghost of FM

Mixers?

Soundcraft did and still do make some nice clean boards. The M12 looks like a decent board.

TASCAM as well, made some very decent desks back in the 80's so, a 300 or 500 series TASCAM would also serve you well. That's what I use myself; a couple of M312B from TASCAM.

Cheers!

Thanks for the suggestions.
Wow, I'm getting a great deal on this machine; 200 Euro's !!

Han · #6 07-10-2004

Eddie, does the machine come with DBX NR? Without it its a pretty hissy machine.

EddieVergunst · #7 07-10-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by Han

Eddie, does the machine come with DBX NR? Without it its a pretty hissy machine.

Nope, but I will be purchasing a unit if it is as bad as you say it is.
What are your opinions on this machine? There are 2 for sale at marktplaats right now. The guy I am buying it from is from some studio in Haarlem, dyou know anyone there?
What's also cool is that he's going to calibrate it first before selling it to me.

Han · #8 07-10-2004

Eddie, my brother once bought a new 80-8 which was some hfl 8k I believe.

I don't know the guy from Hlm, but the machine is built like a Centurion tank.
Much depends on the condition of the heads, if they're worn the machine will be a PITA.

Finding an 8 channel DBX NR box will not be very easy bro.

Best of luck!

EddieVergunst · #9 07-11-2004

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly does hfl 8k mean?
There's another 80-8 up for sale too, which comes with DBX and 3 tapes. I might be able to get that for 225. Nice!

The Ghost of FM · #10 07-11-2004

hfl?

High Faluttin?

Heavy Flatulence?

typo.

The second one with the dbx sounds like the winner.

Cheers!

timmerman · #11 07-11-2004

Sun 11th July,Leeds,UK 2004

Hello Eddie Vegunst,
What is the Teac 80-8? What kind of features does it have? Sorry for me asking any of this, it is just that I have not come across one, but then you mentioned that it is an older type, so that is probably one of the reasons that I do not know anything about them? Hey, you can not know everything, can you?

By the way we could converse in Dutch as I am also a native speaker of Nederlands. However this would exclude all our American,Canadian and other friends, so let us keep this in plain English.

Here is something for the Ghost: The Netherlands [as you earlier assumed] is not part of Britain, I know it now all gets confusing: Eddie Vergunst lives in the Netherlands, and I [who is a native from the Netherlands] live in the UK. Sorry for getting all a bit too personal, next time we shall return to gear, see ya later dudes.

Eddie de Hamer

EddieVergunst · #12 07-11-2004

Hi there,
The 80/8 is indeed an older model, it was introduced in ´76. As you might´ve guessed it´s an 8 track. Half inch. 15 IPS.
There are a few pics here http://www.phantomprod.com/vinTeac80-8.html

The Ghost of FM · #13 07-11-2004

Hello Eddie

Hoewel ik van Canada ben, Ik kan, met groot pijnomgekeerde in uw taal. Het is slechts de Amerikanen die moeilijkheid gelovend hebben dat een
wereld voorbij het Engels bestaat.

Ben goed.

Uli_the_Grasso · #14 07-11-2004

A Teac 80-8 can still be good IF

the pinch roller and other rubber parts are still intact. Some wear due to friction is not necessarily bad, but chemical disintegration is.

the tape heads, poles and rolls are o.k..

all transport modes (play/rec, fast rewind, fast forward, edit, cue) work flawlessly and do not stress the tape, the heads nor other parts. If it makes bruises and noises, if the tape touches the play and rec heads even in FF and RR modes, and other anomalies occur, the machine is defected.

all modes (input/sync/repro) work fine. Teacs, newer models like Tascam 38, too, have a design flaw which makes some FET semiconductors (used for signal switching, i.e. a cheap alternative for the traditional electro-magnetic-mechanical relaises) fail after some time and use. I can fix this in an hour. (There still are some electro-magnetic-mechanical relaises in those machines, and while the types used in the Teac 80-8 are heavy-duty, the ones in the Tascam 38 do break occasionally. With the Tascam 38 the spooling motors can fail, too.)

all tracks record fine. Pay attention to a clean constant reproduction of trebles! DBX amplifies the effects of bad tape. Get a good tape as for example a new Quantegy 456 or an Emtec 900! A tape that is as old as the machine will disintegrate and leave lots of brown mud on the machine after a few minutes of playing. A good modern tape has few noise. In case that you record high signal levels, S/N ratio will be fine even without DBX. DBX I/II/III and Dolby B/C/SR alter the sound and impair reliability to an extent that I do not find any serious application. (It was suitable if it worked at lower signal levels, at the levels where Dolby A works.) I am a drummer and cannot stand DBX. If you play Rhodes on lullabies or the low registers of a church organ on meditative music you may prefer DBX.

the counter roll does not slip out (annoying!). A couple of FF and RR and see if the numbers are right! Although this can be fixed by seating small rubber hoops on the roll.

These Teacs are oldtimers, truely vintage gear. And while a radio can play for centuries with just a bit of electrical power and maybe a new electron valve once in a while, tape machines wear out.

Han · #15 07-11-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieVergunst

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly does hfl 8k mean?
There's another 80-8 up for sale too, which comes with DBX and 3 tapes. I might be able to get that for 225. Nice!

Hfl= Hollandsche Florijnen
8k= 8000

Oftewel achtduizend gulden, achtduizend piek, achthonderd joeten, tachtig meier of acht rooie ruggen.

Btw, take the one with DBX, but be sure the machine is in good working order, read Uli_the_Grasso's post carefully.

DBX can sound quite boomy, Dolby A, Dolby S or SR is superior to DBX.
OTOH, DBX is very quiet.

EddieVergunst · #16 07-11-2004

ahh crap... I just found out there's actually no DBX unit included. There was one in the picture, but apparently he doesn't have it anymore.
Is the noise really as bad as you say it is?

Han · #17 07-11-2004

Well, I once owned a Tascam 38 and that machine was een behoorlijke ruisbak (pretty hissy) , I've never owned a 80-8 but I presume it won't be much quieter than the 38 without NR.

A professional machine like a Studer, Otari, MCI, Telefunken will be a lot less hissy, for the electronics and head design is another level.

I can run my Otari 2" machine without NR on most pop/rock recordings.

The Tascam 38 I've had many moons ago sure sounded very good though.

I still have a Fostex B16 on which I've recorded "The Gathering" (Always) back in 1992 and I also have a Tascam MSR24S (Dolby S) machine, both of them get never used anymore.

The Ghost of FM · #18 07-11-2004

Quote:

Han wrote,

Oftewel achtduizend gulden, achtduizend piek, achthonderd joeten, tachtig meier of acht rooie ruggen.

Is hoe veel dat in Amerikaanse dollar?

Uli_the_Grasso · #19 07-11-2004

I do not say that it is. It is a whole lot less than that of a compact casette. DBX kills all the noise, and that does not come for free.

Get proper tape! Get a demagnetizer and learn how to use it!

I forgot one point in my checklist: A second-hand machine could be electrically de-aligned. On the Teac 80-8 the pots are so easy to reach... There are so many different types of tape (456/7, 499, GP9, 900, 911, 358, ...). But the heads are tightened very well, and the tape speed is that high, that the azimut is always right.

Han · #20 07-11-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ghost of FM

Is hoe veel dat in Amerikaanse dollar?

LOL, One euro is 1.19 American dollar, the old Dutch guilder (hfl) is 0.4537802 euro.

You can do the math.

The Ghost of FM · #21 07-11-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by Han

LOL, One euro is 1.19 American dollar, the old Dutch guilder (hfl) is 0.4537802 euro.

You can do the math.

Thanks!

I guess my Dutch sucks, eh?

Han · #22 07-11-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Ghost of FM

Thanks!

I guess my Dutch sucks, eh?

Absolutely not!

"Is hoe veel dat in Amerikaanse dollar?" is almost correct, should be: Hoe veel is dat in Amerikaanse dollar.

Dutch is a very difficult and complicated language, which is only spoken in a part of Belgium and a kind of Dutch is spoken in the South of Africa.

So you are a hero bro!

Paulie · #23 07-11-2004

I posted a link to 6 shortened demos of a Gypsy Jazz Trio on the Mp-3 Mixing Clinic. They were recorded on an 80-8 using seven tracks with no noise reduction. I did not use any muting as this was just for the guys to hear the night we did the takes. If you have cable or download it you can get an idea what an average worn 80-8 sounds like. Paul.
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...d.php?t=125392

Paulie · #24 07-11-2004

I posted but got bumped offline before the thread moved to the top. See post below

timmerman · #25 07-12-2004

Monday 112th July,UK 2004

Thank you Eddie for forwarding me to the link with pics. of the Tascam machine, sorry for my late reply since we were in the middle of all of this. I had to log of, as I do not have my own computer and use one in the library. On Sundays you can only use the facilities until 2.30pm just at the moment where all the fun started. So I missed out on all the money- and language discussion.

Hey Ghost, really good that you have some grasp of the Dutch language, where did you pick that up? Where you born in a Dutch-speaking zone or perhaps even born in the Netherlands?

Good to meet some fellow Dutchmen too, I do not meet many here in England, and have not met many on the web as well, apart from E-mails to friends.

As I am writing all of this I want to set up another discussion, but I do not know if this is the right place, since this is the Tascam forum. I would like to discuss topics such as creativity in songwriting and recording, and of course also include some details about relevant gear. Apart from that I would like us to mention some things about ourselves, things as "Are you professionally engaged in recording or making music or..... so a little bio about yourselve, this to get a picture of what we are like.

Having said all of this, I have to admit that I am new to this newsgroup, and also relatively new to the wonders of the internet. So any personal history about ourselve may have already taken place, since this site was set up in 1999. I will do some reading in the other, older pages, but anyway, what do you guys think, is this any good or does this sound like guble-dii-duck to you. Let me know,

In the meantime ENJOY!!!

Eddie de Hamer