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From: prophet@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dennis Gibbs)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Cassette Head Alignment
Message-ID: <4395@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Mar-85 12:04:58 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.4395
Posted: Thu Mar 28 12:04:58 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Mar-85 02:09:57 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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<>


>A while back there was a discussion about cassette decks and head alignment.
>Someone mentioned that Nakamichi was the only manufacturer to align them
>right.  A friend of mine has an older Nak deck that I have used on occasion
>to record albums.  I also have an auto-reverse car cassette deck, which
>works by reversing the direction of the tape and switching its input
>to the other pair of gaps in the head.
>
>What I have noticed, only with the tapes recorded on the Nak, is that
>one play direction always sounds much better than the other.  I have tried
>to align the angle of the car deck's head to sound better (it was definitely
>out of alignment from day 1).  It is easy to do this while the tape is running,
>as there is a cutout that exposes the adjustment screw.  The result
>is that I can never get both directions to sound good.
>
>This implies to me that the Nak deck's head angle is not perfectly perpendicular
>to the tape.  If it were, I would be able to align the car deck's head
>perpendicular to the tape and both directions would sound fine.  This is
>because while recording on the Nak you must physically flip the tape over,
>so any leaning of the record head is reversed on the other side.  The
>                         .
>                         .
>                         .
>
>After all this, what is the problem?  Is the Nak correctly aligned
>and does that mean that auto-reverse decks are no good?  Or does
>it mean that this particular Nak deck is very poorly aligned?
>Or something else?
>-- 
>
>		-Mike Klein
>		...!ucbvax!ucbmerlin:klein	(UUCP)
>		klein%ucbmerlin@berkeley	(ARPA)

I am replying to your question mainly because I am under the impression that
you believe that once a tape deck is aligned, then it remains  in  alignment
forever.  This is NOT the case!  You didn't mention in your posting what kind
of maintenance your friends Nakamichi has had, but you did say it was an older
machine.  Has your friend ever had his tape heads re-aligned?  This should be
done on a regular basis (I have mine done once a year).  Just because the
alignment was done correctly at the factory doesn't mean it will stay in
alignment for the life of the deck.  Periodic maintenance/touch ups are a
MUST for optimum results!

Also, I tend to say that most inexpensive auto-reverse decks have the
problem you mention....I would normally suspect that at first, but you say
that it only happens with tapes recorded on your friend's Nak.  Have you
tried taking a tape recorded on the Nak and tried it on another deck other
than the one in your car?  Try that and see what happens...If the other deck
behaves like the one in your car, then better take your friend's Nak in and
have it realigned.  And while you're at it, have it optimized for the brand
of tape you and your friend use....

                        Dennis
-- 
Call-Me:   Dennis Gibbs, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Center.
UUCP:	   {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!prophet
CSNet:	   prophet@umcp-cs
BITNET:    GIBBS@UMDB
ARPA:	   prophet@Maryland