[L0rdGwyn]

My King Gizz boys released a new metal album a couple weeks ago, decided to rip it to my chrome cassette since I've been listening to it so much anyway. Need to go shopping for more blanks. Listening through Aegis with Atrium via the line output on the WM-D3. Sounds pretty darn good, a thick warm listen, works really well with metal, more compressed dynamics compared to going directly out of my DAC, but still a nice large soundstage and great instrument separation. I like it.



Alright, I'll stop ranting about tapes now.

 

[triod750]

Dissect the machine and show us the components used. Then upgrade it with better parts!

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Dissect the machine and show us the components used. Then upgrade it with better parts!

Hmm that sounds like a lot of work lol. I can't I have other stuff I'm working on! Recapping it would probably be beneficial though.

 

[triod750]

Hmm that sounds like a lot of work lol. I can't I have other stuff I'm working on! Recapping it would probably be beneficial though.

 

[Paladin79]

My King Gizz boys released a new metal album a couple weeks ago, decided to rip it to my chrome cassette since I've been listening to it so much anyway. Need to go shopping for more blanks. Listening through Aegis with Atrium via the line output on the WM-D3. Sounds pretty darn good, a thick warm listen, works really well with metal, more compressed dynamics compared to going directly out of my DAC, but still a nice large soundstage and great instrument separation. I like it.



Alright, I'll stop ranting about tapes now.

I ended up with a few cases of new Walkman's some years back, I can recall at least a half dozen WM-D3's in the mix. An associate did recycling for Sony and Sony would not sell B stock products so things with the slightest scratch were to be destroyed. I ended up with receivers, turntable platters, televisions, and boxes of brand new tapes from Maxell and other companies. Sometimes in handling a box might get damaged, even if one tape got damaged the rest would go to the recycler. The company is no longer in business so I can say that not all product got destroyed. The gentleman had a brand new building in another part of town where the good stuff was kept. Lots of Pioneer, Sony, NEC, et alia. I would need to make a trip South but I still have quite a few items in storage unless a nephew helped himself. I did not do much with the portable cassette recorders, I was more into Tascam gear then. I also did work for an auction company that would get damaged and stolen/recovered audio gear, as well as guns, diamonds, furniture etc. I had as many as five stereo hi fi VCR's in my house at that time as well as lots of McIntosh and Infinity gear. When lightning struck a piece of equipment some was repairable, some was not, I averaged about a 50% repair rate and bought specific pieces that originally had little damage.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Seems I decided to get into cassettes at a good time. I've made a purchase decision on a full sized deck. Revox has just recently decided to sell a fully refurbished version of one of their classic models, including a 2 year warranty. It's the Revox B215, one of the best ever made. Expensive, but given what people are charging for used high end decks on eBay with no guarantees, it's a good deal. It's a great deck for both recording and playback, used in a lot of recording studios, and well suited or use with type II and type IV cassettes, which is what I'm most interested in as I plan to record without noise reduction. More durable the a Nakamichi as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revox_B215



I spotted the listing for refurbished models on the Revox site, reached out to them, who pointed me to their US distributor. We talked, these are only just going up for sale next week! They are reserving one for me. They are built (refurbished) to order, 8 week lead time. Brand new heads, mint condition. Pretty stoked on this buy.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Taking it easy today after getting my butt kicked at work the past few days. Cleaning some vinyl, ordering some parts for Zach's 2A3 amp. Going to use these Simpson meters. Waiting for the Monolith Magnetics order before designing the chassis.

 

[Paladin79]

Taking it easy today after getting my butt kicked at work the past few days. Cleaning some vinyl, ordering some parts for Zach's 2A3 amp. Going to use these Simpson meters. Waiting for the Monolith Magnetics order before designing the chassis.

Cleaning albums myself.

Using some Triton X-100 surfactant, great for deep cleaning.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Got a big sack of Mouser parts for the 2A3 amp yesterday.



Also received the Clarity Caps I will use in the power supply. These will feed the interstage transformers. Also using some KLE Innovations Perfect Harmony RCAs. Likely going with a Goldpoint for the output impedance switch, which ideally would be situated near the output transformers. Picked up some rods so the switch can be near the transformers but switched at the front panel.



Meters and MM transformers should be here by the end of the month. Will do some layout testing once the transformers arrive, then finish the chassis design.

I officially ordered my Revox B215. I've continued my foray into cassette culture. There are a lot of similarities between the cassette hobby and tube collecting / rolling. Part of the rub of making your own recordings is capturing the unique sound of your audio chain and how the cassette used for the recording plays into that sound. Rare high end cassettes are praised for the analog quality they impart on the recording, with each having its own individual attributes, much like how tubeheads praise individual makes / models of tubes. Using a quality tape and a TOTL deck, the fidelity between the source and tape can be virtually identical, but with some analog character of the tape being imparted.

I scored some deals on two prized tapes, a 1982 TDK AD-X type I supper ferric and a 1990 TDK MA type IV metal tape. Found a couple blanks at a local thrift store too. Should be a nice line up to start playing with at the start.

 

[CJG888]

IIRC, Revox decks were supposed to work particularly well with BASF tapes. I think they were one of the few manufacturers to use true chromium dioxide tape stock, rather than cobalt based “pseudochrome”.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

IIRC, Revox decks were supposed to work particularly well with BASF tapes. I think they were one of the few manufacturers to use true chromium dioxide tape stock, rather than cobalt based “pseudochrome”.

You are absolutely right, one of the reasons the Revox appealed over Japanese decks!

 

[CJG888]

Of course BASF’s tape division was eventually spun off into Emtec Magnetics. This company failed, all tape manufacturing equipment was sold off to RMG International in the Netherlands, but they too appear to have been out of the tape business for over 10 years now…. Apparently, the equipment was moved on to Mulann, who have resumed csssette manufacturing under the RTM brand (alongside open reel tapes), but unfortunately they only offer a Type 1 ferric formulation.

 

[L0rdGwyn]

Of course BASF’s tape division was eventually spun off into Emtec Magnetics. This company failed, all tape manufacturing equipment was sold off to RMG International in the Netherlands, but they too appear to have been out of the tape business for over 10 years now…. Apparently, the equipment was moved on to Mulann, who have resumed csssette manufacturing under the RTM brand (alongside open reel tapes), but unfortunately they only offer a Type 1 ferric formulation.

My understanding is that type II tapes can no longer be produced in the EU and Japan due to environmental restrictions, remember coming across that somewhere but don't recall the details. But there are large stocks of NOS tapes still available, so no fear of running out any time soon.

 

[pravous]

I spent a lot of my summer income in the 90s on maxell xl2s. You could buy them in ten packs in the bookstore. Towards the end of my college career I had @ 100 bootlegs in a huge case. I sold all of them when it was crunch time to get a house before thing number 1 was born. Luckily archive.org and lossless legs was able to replace all the recordings once things moved into the digital/streaming age.

 

[DenverW]

I lived in Japan in the late 80's and had to take the trains to school every day, back and forth. I would listen to walkmans while traveling, and I remember getting an extremely thin sony walkman in white; barely larger than the cassette that went in it.

I felt like such a boss with that piece of tech . High school heaven. Even better with the Alternative 80's mix a girl gave me.