Lance Lawson
New member
This weekend I set aside to calibrate my TEAC A-2300 SD give it a service and adjust a few issues that have been present since the machine was new. Specifically this was an imbalance in the playback EQ between left and right channels. The right channel has always had slightly more highs in the right channel. Also the right meter has been showing slightly low even when the playback gains are perfectly balanced. Since I've decided to stick with RMG 468 for the foreseeable future it seems a good time to set the machine to optimize the 468.
Anyway after a great deal of work I had the TEAC purring along and essentially duplicating what I was hearing in the incoming signal with the playback signal. It was great fun flipping the monitor/source switches and having an almost dead on sound between them. I felt that this was the best this machine has ever performed and wearing my Sennheiser 280 HD's I sat back listened to the music and enjoyed the aromas of electrical cleaner, warm fresh oil and RMG 468 tape tracking faithfully over the heads. But the day was to throw me an unexpected curve.
The last time I had used microphones with the TEAC (1992?) there was a bit of intermittent gain and static on the mic level pots. I knew this to be the sound of dirty pots and planned to clean them eventually. Today was the day and said pots are operating textbook fine however as I write this the TEAC is not capable of accepting microphones. When I plugged my trusty SM-58 into the left channel the jack slipped in,m held for a moment then became unlocked in the hole and mic signal was lost. I repeated this in the right channel and the same thing happened. Fearing and suspecting this was not a good omen I pulled the bottom cover again and had several pieces of black plastic come falling out. I was at first mystified until I noticed the dangling wire near one of the mic jacks. Seems the entire lower of the mic and headphone jacks are made of plastic. When a jack is inserted into the hole the entire plastic housing goes under a bit of stress from the securing tang and this caused both left and right channels to have the plastic fail. After learning what failed I hot wired the mic to test the gain and post action and all is perfect. So I'm off to Radio Shack in the AM to procure 3 jacks as I'm replacing the headphone jack too before it too lets go. The operation is simple BTW. But who would have thought that TEAC would have skimped on something like the mic jacks. I may splurge and get gold plated ones.
Anyway after a great deal of work I had the TEAC purring along and essentially duplicating what I was hearing in the incoming signal with the playback signal. It was great fun flipping the monitor/source switches and having an almost dead on sound between them. I felt that this was the best this machine has ever performed and wearing my Sennheiser 280 HD's I sat back listened to the music and enjoyed the aromas of electrical cleaner, warm fresh oil and RMG 468 tape tracking faithfully over the heads. But the day was to throw me an unexpected curve.
The last time I had used microphones with the TEAC (1992?) there was a bit of intermittent gain and static on the mic level pots. I knew this to be the sound of dirty pots and planned to clean them eventually. Today was the day and said pots are operating textbook fine however as I write this the TEAC is not capable of accepting microphones. When I plugged my trusty SM-58 into the left channel the jack slipped in,m held for a moment then became unlocked in the hole and mic signal was lost. I repeated this in the right channel and the same thing happened. Fearing and suspecting this was not a good omen I pulled the bottom cover again and had several pieces of black plastic come falling out. I was at first mystified until I noticed the dangling wire near one of the mic jacks. Seems the entire lower of the mic and headphone jacks are made of plastic. When a jack is inserted into the hole the entire plastic housing goes under a bit of stress from the securing tang and this caused both left and right channels to have the plastic fail. After learning what failed I hot wired the mic to test the gain and post action and all is perfect. So I'm off to Radio Shack in the AM to procure 3 jacks as I'm replacing the headphone jack too before it too lets go. The operation is simple BTW. But who would have thought that TEAC would have skimped on something like the mic jacks. I may splurge and get gold plated ones.
