MRL - TEAC History

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Here is a interestng little bit of MRL history that I cam across on another board....

(original link Richard Hess -- http://www.richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/equalization/ )

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Jay McKnight of Magnetic Reference Lab provided the following insight:

MRL has, to the best of my knowledge, made ALL of the Calibration Tapes for these Tascam 1/2 inch 8 T machines. At first we OEMed them for Tascam,and used their part numbers YTT1144 for half-inch, and YTT1244 for onen inch. Later they sold the identical MRL part 31J229, which is 1/2 in, 15 in/s, IEC, 250 nWb/m, and yet later they just referred people to us directly.

On the “with NAB lo-end” question: The we were approached by Yoshiharu Abe of Teac/Tascam, who originally asked us for IEC HF eq + NAB LF eq. We replied with the arguments against the NAB LF eq — see “The CaseAgainst Low-frequency Pre-emphasis in Magnetic Recording“, and he agreed to use the standard IEC eq. I know that we never made the “special eq” Cal Tape for Tascam, and I’m not aware of their actually making any of the 1/2 in 8T machines with that eq, but it could havehappened.

We also spoke to Otari and advised to use IEC eq. But their management said “If Tascam is using IEC, we certainly won’t do the same thing.” So, yes, they used NAB.

But, of course, you can set any tape recorder to NAB or IEC eq with a switch, a jumper, or a component change, depending on the design.

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I always remember the same voice being on the MRL and TEAC YTT-1144 calibration tapes. I knew MRL made the that one, but wasn't sure if they made all the others.

Not sure what McKnight is talking about with Otari though. The MX5050/8 uses IEC just like Tascam. :confused:

Anyway, good stuff. :)
 
Here is a interestng little bit of MRL history that I cam across on another board....

(original link Richard Hess -- http://www.richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/equalization/ )

-------------------------
Jay McKnight of Magnetic Reference Lab provided the following insight:

MRL has, to the best of my knowledge, made ALL of the Calibration Tapes for these Tascam 1/2 inch 8 T machines. At first we OEMed them for Tascam,and used their part numbers YTT1144 for half-inch, and YTT1244 for onen inch. Later they sold the identical MRL part 31J229, which is 1/2 in, 15 in/s, IEC, 250 nWb/m, and yet later they just referred people to us directly.

On the “with NAB lo-end” question: The we were approached by Yoshiharu Abe of Teac/Tascam, who originally asked us for IEC HF eq + NAB LF eq. We replied with the arguments against the NAB LF eq — see “The CaseAgainst Low-frequency Pre-emphasis in Magnetic Recording“, and he agreed to use the standard IEC eq. I know that we never made the “special eq” Cal Tape for Tascam, and I’m not aware of their actually making any of the 1/2 in 8T machines with that eq, but it could havehappened.

We also spoke to Otari and advised to use IEC eq. But their management said “If Tascam is using IEC, we certainly won’t do the same thing.” So, yes, they used NAB.

But, of course, you can set any tape recorder to NAB or IEC eq with a switch, a jumper, or a component change, depending on the design.

-----------------------

Thanks for the link.
 
We also spoke to Otari and advised to use IEC eq. But their management said “If Tascam is using IEC, we certainly won’t do the same thing.”

What ATTITUDE! Good GRIEF!
 
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