mamm7215
Member
This is a continuation from this thread: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=257332
I thought I'd start a new thread as I'm reporting on the unit and there are issues. Much to my chagrin and inline with the warnings from Cjacek, I discovered the unit wasn't paletted though I specifically asked. Sinking feeling #1. Got the box home and found that while not paletted, it was wrapped pretty good. Unit covered in poly/plastic, then wrapped in 3 layers of large bubble bubblewrap, then boxed, then in a larger box with styrofoam sides and completely stuffed with foam peanuts. And it came with another box of 8 reels of 1/2" tape including 2 new ones, 2 open but unused and 4 slightly used. Quantegy 499, GP9, and 456. So I set it up. Transport works fine. Found a tape with some music still on a few tracks, seems to playback fine tho I can't test all of them. Thought I'd try to record. Here's where the problem starts. Track 1 seems ok, records but plays back slightly lower levels, 2-6 all record ok, at least on the meters (so the machine is seeing an input) but playback is WAY lower, to varying degrees. Tracks 7 and 8 record levels seem ok but nothing on playback. The heads looked in good shape with little wear but there was a LOT of shed. Very little dirt/debris on all the rollers, didn't clean the rubber on the tach and pinch rollers but they aren't in bad shape. Rubber is very good. Almost no wear on the guides near the heads. I DID clean the heads with 99% alcohol before turning on, cleaned out the shed and the heads themselved left very little residue when cleaned. So my quandry is this...what's up with the playback levels. I haven't received my degausser yet so I can't do that. I don't think I need to reseat the PBR cards as is the record levels seem good and the tracks that already have music play fine...any suggestions?
Oh and the unit was very clean coming out of the box.
I thought I'd start a new thread as I'm reporting on the unit and there are issues. Much to my chagrin and inline with the warnings from Cjacek, I discovered the unit wasn't paletted though I specifically asked. Sinking feeling #1. Got the box home and found that while not paletted, it was wrapped pretty good. Unit covered in poly/plastic, then wrapped in 3 layers of large bubble bubblewrap, then boxed, then in a larger box with styrofoam sides and completely stuffed with foam peanuts. And it came with another box of 8 reels of 1/2" tape including 2 new ones, 2 open but unused and 4 slightly used. Quantegy 499, GP9, and 456. So I set it up. Transport works fine. Found a tape with some music still on a few tracks, seems to playback fine tho I can't test all of them. Thought I'd try to record. Here's where the problem starts. Track 1 seems ok, records but plays back slightly lower levels, 2-6 all record ok, at least on the meters (so the machine is seeing an input) but playback is WAY lower, to varying degrees. Tracks 7 and 8 record levels seem ok but nothing on playback. The heads looked in good shape with little wear but there was a LOT of shed. Very little dirt/debris on all the rollers, didn't clean the rubber on the tach and pinch rollers but they aren't in bad shape. Rubber is very good. Almost no wear on the guides near the heads. I DID clean the heads with 99% alcohol before turning on, cleaned out the shed and the heads themselved left very little residue when cleaned. So my quandry is this...what's up with the playback levels. I haven't received my degausser yet so I can't do that. I don't think I need to reseat the PBR cards as is the record levels seem good and the tracks that already have music play fine...any suggestions?
Oh and the unit was very clean coming out of the box.