Reel to Reel Help

[gartenman]

Does anyone have a reel to reel tape head demagnetizer I could borrow for a RTR I recently bought and want to demagnetize the heads? I will make it worth your while monetarily.

[djk]

Buy one, it has to be done regularly anyway.

[JL Sargent]

These things can go for goofy cheap on Ebay too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-TEAC-E-1-HEAD-DEMAGNETIZER-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ120547241978QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintage_Electronics_R2?hash=item1c112ceffa

[Boxx]

I agree,.. I have purchased two off ebay, both never used. You will need to use one on a regular basis if you plan to use your deck often.

[Mallette]

Good advice here. However, just to stir the discussion...

Early soft iron heads and using ferrous oxide acetate tape definitely needed regular demag. However, the later glass and crystal ferrites, etc, were almost immune to significant field accumulation and the later tape formulations more resistant to small fields. Some of the pro decks were self-demagnitizing.

OTOH, doesn't hurt, might help, and there's almost no way you can go wrong unless you use an uncushioned tip (at least wrap some electrical tape around it if it has lost its cushion) or collapse the field without slowly withdrawing first, which can magnitize the head worse than the problem you were trying to resolve.

Minimally, it's one of those little audiophile rituals that amaze and befuddle our friends and families.

Dave

[djk]

"Some of the pro decks were self-demagnitizing. "

Only when you used record mode frequently.

The various guides and rollers (scrape and flutter filters) in the tape path can also cause self-erasure of the highs (which is why we de-mag).

[Mallette]

The various guides and rollers (scrape and flutter filters) in the tape path can also cause self-erasure of the highs (which is why we de-mag).

In most decks, pro and non-pro alike, I have used, these were made of either non-magnetic or low susceptibility materials.

I was just pointing out that most such concerns cover rarely encountered possibilities...though an ounce of prevention..., etc.

Much is made of the losses from storing tapes tails out (print through), high humidity, high heat, etc. However, I've found tapes I've stored under less than ideal conditions for 30 years that still sound pristine.

Really a very robust technology, this R2R. I'm surprised there is no more resurgence of interest in it than there is given the extraordinary renaissance of LP freaks.

Dave

[Marvel]

Much is made of the losses from storing tapes tails out (print through)...

I thought that the storing of tapes tails out meant that you wouldn't have the pre echo on the front of the tape, since any print through would be behind the beginning of the recording.

[Mallette]

Much is made of the losses from storing tapes tails out (print through)...

I thought that the storing of tapes tails out meant that you wouldn't have the pre echo on the front of the tape, since any print through would be behind the beginning of the recording.

Hmmm...Bruce. Isn't that what I said? Anyway, it was what I was trying to say...

Dave

[garyrc]

I thought that storing tapes tails out was better for another reason: If you played the tape all the way through, then put it into storage without rewinding, that would mean that it would be stored after having been gently and evenly wound, instead of being stored in a very tight, violently rewound state.

[jcmusic]

Gary,

When you play the tape all the way through you get a much better and even packing of the tape. It is better to store away your tape in this state rather than a fast wound state. This helps to prevent print through and keeps the edges flat.

Jay

[pocket.change]

HAN-D-MAG is the one you want and shelf your tapes tail out.

Rewinding after play is a BIG negetive.

But it's your tape abuse it if you must.

p.c

[Mallette]

A lot of fanatics rewind thier tapes at playback speed, as did a lot of studios in the day. Certainly nothing wrong with be overly cautious.

As I said, I have tapes over 30 years old and I've never noted any degradation from anything other than certain forumulations becoming brittle, and others shedding. I recall one brand that if you stretched it only slightly ALL, and I mean ALL the oxide would simply fall off...and that was NEW.

I still maintain that R2R is about the most robust archival form for audio with perhaps only digital in SSD storage rivaling it.

Dave

[garyrc]

• Store your recorded tapes far away from the entire area in which you would be using the demagnitizer. Some people used to say "4 feet" but the studios we toured had their tapes at > 10 feet, or in another room.
• In about 1974, a respected company came out with a super tape that would lose a geat deal of it's oxide in 2 or three passes with rewinds. I called the company to see if it was just my lot number that was bad, and they flipped out, and called the dealer that had sold me my three tape recorders, and chewed him out for "allowing" me to complain Not good control of the customer by the dealer, they thought!

[djk]

"Store your recorded tapes far away from the entire area in which you would be using the demagnitizer. "

Ditto for the vacuum cleaner too.

[LarryC]

Ditto for the vacuum cleaner too.

What about magnetic fields from speaker magnets like the K-33's? I once stored RTR tapes on the other side of an apartment wall from a K-horn, and always wished I hadn't.

[djk]

Magnetic media is fragile, no matter what the format.

My floppies are all dead, probably because of all the speaker I have laying around.

I bought a new alarm clock, mine had stopped. The new one stopped too. Too close to a speaker magnet.

They gave us new badges at work, they have RF ID chips. Old mag stripe ones seldom worked for very long around me.

[Mallette]

Keeping magnetic media away from fields was second nature in the day, especially from speakers. However, flourescent desk lamps and even magnetic screwdrivers were also dangers. OTOH, magnetic fields decrease with the square of the distance and also are a function of time, so damage was rare. A few minutes on top of a speaker isn't likely to produce audible deterioration, but a few days might.

It's best to think of it like radiation. There is a fatal dose, but it is cumulative and simply quickly passing through even a fairly strong field may not do any harm whilst lingering in a weak field for a considerable length of time might.

Basically common sense. As you don't leave your LP's in direct sunlight for very long, don't leave your mag tape in a field for very long.

Dave

[Marvel]

So what you are saying is that I shouldn't use a magnet to hold a floppy disk on the side of my refrigerator?

And I'm sorry about the brain dysfunction earlier on the tails out comment. I reread your comment and think we were saying the same thing. []

Bruce