Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak

Subject: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: OldFolkie
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 04:04 AM

I have been recording from cassette onto CD via my PC.

In all honesty, I have to admit the cassette player concerned is somewhat aged and part of a music centre tyep system.

However, the left channel has gone very weak now, to the point that I have to shift the recording balance very much to the left to get any decent end result. However, the left channel still sounds somewhat muffled, not as bright as it should.

The cassette playback head is always kept scrupulously clean with alcohol before recording.

Anyone any ideas what the problem / solution is.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 04:53 AM

What editing soft are are you using? On Sound-Forge (etc.) you can generally normalise the L & R channels independent of one another, though if the channel is seriously weak the S-N ratio might be obvious.

I had this problem on an old deck; a mate did a tweak with a screwdriver inside which fixed it for a while but it died shortly afterwards. Think seriously about a new player, if such things are still available in this digital age...

Good to see a couple of cassette threads anyway; as I might have said elsewhere, I alays back stuff up on cassette just so I'll have something to listen to in 20 years!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: OldFolkie
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 09:41 AM

Hi Sedayne

I can balance it out with the SW I'm using - signal quality is not good though - as you say, probably a S/N issue.

Ideally, I don't want to have to invest in a new cassette player - for the amount and quality of cassettes that I want to burn to CD, it's probably not worth it.

I did look into buying a half way decent one a few weeks ago, and the cost was going to be in the £200 bracket. Unfortunately, cassette (along with vinyl) seems to be a dying medium (just as CD's will probably die), so my guess is geting the hardware to play them is goiing to become increasingly difficult / expensive with the passage of time - hope you will still be able to get in 20 years time for your backups!

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: nickp
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 11:07 AM

As it's probably not worth buying a replacement ask people you know if you can borrow one. There's a good chance someone will still have one they can let you use.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: jeffp
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 11:11 AM

Can you try swapping the cables to see if the problem switches channels? Does it sound normal playing through the speakers? Through headphones? Are there VU meters? Do they move normally?

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: Effsee
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 11:29 AM

Is the pressure pad in the cassette positioned properly?

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: Bernard
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 11:57 AM

Sadly, the most likely problem is the playback head needs replacing, and the cheapest solution is probably another machine.

You may get lucky and find it's just a dry solder joint somewhere; if you're technical enough to do that, maybe replacing the head could be an option, as they aren't expensive - unlike my Teac 3440 open reel four track (currently a three track!), which will need around 600 GBP to bring back to spec - unless I can find a secondhand donor machine with a different fault.

Lining up the azimuth (angle and position of the head) is nothing like as hard as some folks would have you believe, though you will need a tape with a test tone recorded on a properly aligned machine to be certain of good results. It can be done with a commercially recorded music cassette if you're careful.

The ones I found a bit tricky were those auto-reverse units with a flip head, because the transit path usually needed tweaking as well.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: Gurney
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 02:34 AM

Garage sales, car-boot sales, second-hand shops. There are lots of ghetto-blasters about for very little money.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: pavane
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 10:39 AM

Also likely, the tape guide is worn, and the tape is no longer correctly aligned. No real way to fix this, probably.

Subject: RE: Tech: Help - Cassette Player channel weak
From: OldFolkie
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 08:32 AM

Hi folks thanks for the ideas.

Did a bit of investigation last night, and I think it must be somewhere in the circuitry:

a) it's a fairly cheapo Hitachi twin deck machine with auto-reverse, and the problem is the same on both decks in both directions;

b) it's the same on both speakers and the line out phono connection to the PC.

Rgds

OF