question about a simple consumer tape player

[Rock Star 87]

i own a home studio and i have a component hooked up for analog sampling, it is a 8-track/record player/tape player/ and AM/FM radio. Everything works fine except the tape player. It sounds like the bass is turned all the way up and the treble is all the way down. the tape i am attempting to play is older, but christ, not that bad. any clues on what might be wrong. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[The Ghost of FM]

The head could be dirty, which requires cleaning with an approved head cleaning tape or via q-tips and alcohol and as well, the head might have drifted out of alignment which would require an azimuth adjustment via tuning a small set-screw that is probably set in position with a red paint/glue, often refered to as Loc-tite.

The other possibility is that the unit is just a POS and never had a decent frequency response to begin with as many of the units under that description were far from the audiophile concepts of the day.

Cheers!

[Rock Star 87]

good point, it was my grandmothers.

[Track Rat]

An 8 track????????? Good Lord!

[Rock Star 87]

i love being able to play any format of music, ever, u name it, i can play it. and henceforth, sample it.

[Rock Star 87]

it didn't always play this bad, my old man mentioned de-magnetizing it. what is this, and what does it mean.

[Rock Star 87]

i figured the problem out, i had it hooked up to my analog Pyramid 880 mixing board with the phono jacks instead of the line jacks, which brings me to my next question, what the hell is the difference. is it the volume that the sound is sent out at, or are different frequencies involved? im not sure, but the important thing is that i have 2 remaining line channels, perfect for my brand new XM satellite radio. hehe