Realistic TR-3000, bias set at 320nW??

[nettech]

I just picked up a Realistic TR-3000 2-track 3-motor/3-head deck. Cleaned and degaussed it, and seems to be running fine.

I'm not quite sure where the bias is set on this machine. 407 seems to playback -2db and 457 at +1db. Could Teac have set the bias between 250nW and 320nW?? to cover all tape ranges?

Anyone familiar with this and have any idea?

[Beck]

Originally Posted by nettech

I just picked up a Realistic TR-3000 2-track 3-motor/3-head deck. Cleaned and degaussed it, and seems to be running fine.

I'm not quite sure where the bias is set on this machine. 407 seems to playback -2db and 457 at +1db. Could Teac have set the bias between 250nW and 320nW?? to cover all tape ranges?

Anyone familiar with this and have any idea?

The TR-3000 is a 4-track 2-channel (same internals as the TEAC X3). It's factory set at 185 nWb/m. By the way, that’s a level setting. The bias is a different setting. Someone may have monkied with it. In that case the only way to know what its set at is to run an MRL test tape.

If it were still at factory spec, both 407 and 456 would playback above 0 VU. I kinda doubt its capable of 320 nWb/m -- but not sure.

It’s a nice hi-fi deck. There were actually some improvements in the TR-3000 design that were later incorporated in the TEAC X300. So its really somewhere in between an X3 and X300.

-Tim

[nettech]

Thanks Tim!!

Yeah, I meant to say level, sort of obvious that I was wrong as the deck has a "Bias" switch on the front panel.

185nW? What kind of tape could be used at that strange level setting? Maybe the tape technology was drastically different back in the early 80's.

It is a sweet lil tape deck. Seem it doesn't have a lot of headroom in the electronics when recording, it gets pretty ratty sounding distortion above +6vu. I think 407 seems to be the better match for the deck (maybe the ONLY match if it can't be set to 320nW).

Time for me to get a quarter-track 250 MRL tape and tweak things up a bit.

[Beck]

185 nWb/m was an old standard for consumer hi-fi to ensure compatability with consumer tapes. 200 nWb/m was common as well. 250 was (still is) the broadcast and studio standard in the U.S. though later, manufactures did their own thing.

If you could tweak the TR-3000 to 200 or 250 nWb/m and use 407 tape your performance would be better than the original factory specs all around.