![]() Alcohol isn't really suitable for cleaning these rubber parts, as excessive application can cause the surface of the rubber to perish. ![]() This also picks up oxide from the tape, and eventually the surface loses its traction, resulting in tape slip and speed instability. ![]() So far, I haven't mentioned the rubber pinch roller, also shown in Figure 1. ![]() Figure 1 shows a typical cassette deck head and tape guide layout. When no more brown oxide comes off, wipe away any excess alcohol with a dry cotton bud, and wait a couple of minutes for any remaining alcohol to evaporate before putting a tape into the machine. Using a cotton bud soaked in the alcohol, clean the record head, the playback head, the capstan and all the guides, then repeat using a new cotton bud. However, a lesser‑known problem is that of oxide adhering to the tape guides, which can interfere with the smooth passage of the tape, resulting in wow, flutter, and a phasey kind of sound as the tape snakes across the heads in an uneven way. It is generally known that dislodged particles of tape oxide build up on the heads, causing a loss of top end or even dropouts. If your cassette deck has a removable door, this will provide better access for cleaning purposes, but even without one, you should be able to reach the tape heads, capstan shaft and tape guides. Cotton buds with wooden stalks are recommended, but the plastic type seem to work fine too. A litre of the latter will cost you about the same as a tiny bottle of the former, and though you may have to wait a day or two while the pharmacist orders it for you, a litre will last for years. For this, you'll need a pack of ordinary cotton buds (the things that people poke - wrongly - into babies' ears), and either an exorbitantly expensive bottle of head‑cleaning fluid (which is really isopropyl alcohol with a small amount of dye added) or a bottle of isopropyl alcohol from the chemists. My advice is to forget all about head‑cleaning tapes, and use the traditional cotton buds and alcohol method. Furthermore, there's still a hard core of reactionaries out there who refuse to clean anything at all! Clean MachineĪt the risk of sounding like someone's mother‑in‑law, I'll start off on the subject of cleaning the cassette deck, because, even though most of you get around to doing it, some ways of cleaning are more effective than others. There are several factors that can cause a cassette machine to perform below par, most of which, fortunately, we can do something about. Nevertheless, when on top form, analogue cassettes can sound very good indeed. Perhaps we're expecting a lot of the humble cassette in an era when we take CD and DAT for granted. A significant number of SOS readers' telephone enquiries or Crosstalk letters relate to difficulties in either producing a cassette recording of acceptable quality, or the age‑old problem of a recording sounding OK on the machine on which it's made, but quite different when played back on someone else's machine. The compact cassette format is now over two decades old, and though there have been improvements in hardware design, noise reduction technology, and tape formulations, the cassette is still considered by many to be the carbuncle on the backside of modern‑day audio. Furthermore, if the listing is up, the deck is still available unless otherwise sold or removed.Love it or loathe it, the analogue cassette looks set to be the primary medium for the distribution of recorded music for the foreseeable future, and we have to make the best of it. I apologize in advance but there will not be much wiggle room in the price due to the high quality and time and effort bringing this deck to great working order. Video available upon request! Pictured reels and hubs are not included! A lot of time and money was put into servicing this deck so it will not go cheap! The sound when recording at 3 3/4 IPS is very clear and better and wider sounding than the Source recording from, depending on the type of tape used and even better at 7 1/2 IPS. The pots and switches were sprayed and the metal parts were lubed as well. A new drive belt and pinch roller was installed. It has been fully tested and the heads were cleaned and demagnetized for the best sound ever. It is in good condition as shown albeit with some marks and no wooden cabinet. For sale is a TEAC X-10 10.5 inch 4 track Reel to Reel tape deck recorder.
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