tape heads: when is dead dead?

slowmotion

slowmotion

New member
I just picked up a couple of Akai 1710l reel to reels. I bought them originally so I could strip out the tube amps, but it seems like they are both working to some degree so I'd like to have one working reel to reel for stereo recordings and strip the other down to just an amp/preamp. Each unit has it's own problems.

The heads are the biggest concern, and will dictate what I do with each machine.

Machine 1 heads:
reeltoreel001.jpg


Machine 2 heads:
reeltoreel003.jpg


Which one is worse? I believe the second one is completely screwed (beyond repair), but if I'm mistaken, please let me know.

If all of the tape heads are damaged beyond repair (not a bad thing at all), I'll just make a couple of stereo amps out of them.
 
Both sets of heads actually look okay to me based on what I can see in the pictures

There are a couple wasy to answer the question...tape heads aren't dead until you decide you can't stand how they sound anymore...you can run those suckers into the ground and if you don't care about HF loss then who cares? Alive and well. BUT...

In general tape heads are considered "dead" when either the gap starts to open up, or you can no longer cal the machine into spec and you know its the heads. A great resource is on Goreski's Analog Rules website...there is a page about "Bad Heads"

That should help explain what I mean by the gap opening up.

Anyway, like I said they both look okay based on the pictures, but higher res pictures taken straight on with plenty of light and no flash would tell more.

The heads in the first pic look better I think.

Guys?
 
Yes...a top-5 resource for analog enthusiasts. Don't forget to send him a thank you note if you think of it for putting all the info up and maintaining it.
 
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