[dodecatheon]

Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.

[Don Pearce]

On 29 Jul 2006 09:44:56 -0700, "dodecatheon"
wrote:

Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.

You can rock the replay head gently from side to side while it is
playing. If the sound improves one way or another, then get out your
screwdriver. If you hear an improvement it is still 50/50 whether the
new NAD or the old machine was out of adjustment.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

[Laurence Payne]

On 29 Jul 2006 09:44:56 -0700, "dodecatheon"
wrote:

Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.


Yes, adjusting the playback head azimuth could well make a difference.
Clean it first, though.

Yes, cassette tape sounded pretty bad :-)

[Eeyore]

Laurence Payne wrote:

On 29 Jul 2006 09:44:56 -0700, "dodecatheon"
wrote:

Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.

Yes, adjusting the playback head azimuth could well make a difference.
Clean it first, though.

Yes, cassette tape sounded pretty bad :-)

Not on a Nakamichi it didn't !

Graham

[James Lehman]

"Eeyore" wrote in
message ...


Laurence Payne wrote:

On 29 Jul 2006 09:44:56 -0700, "dodecatheon"
wrote:

Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.

Yes, adjusting the playback head azimuth could well make a difference.
Clean it first, though.

Yes, cassette tape sounded pretty bad :-)

Not on a Nakamichi it didn't !

Graham



Actually just about any tape deck that was made in the latter days of
cassette that had metal tape capability and Dolby HX Pro could make tapes
that sounded pretty good. But commercially made tapes still sounded pretty
bad.

James. )

[Jerry G.]

The most common causes of your description, is that the head is clogged
or dirty, or magnetized, or is out of alignment. It is also possible
that the head is warn. If the deck is very old, it is possible that
there are capacitors that have become out of spec, thus effecting the
frequency response.

The best solution is to take the deck to a service centre that has
people who know about servicing tape decks, and have them do the proper
checks to tell you what the fault is, and give you an estimate to
service it.


--

Jerry G.


"dodecatheon" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi folks.

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled. Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes? The system sounds fine with other sources - CD,
tuner and phono.

[Laurence Payne]

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:50:15 GMT, "James Lehman"
wrote:

Actually just about any tape deck that was made in the latter days of
cassette that had metal tape capability and Dolby HX Pro could make tapes
that sounded pretty good. But commercially made tapes still sounded pretty
bad.

Did you like metal? Sure, it would take the level. But I never
thought it sounded very nice. I don't know if there's any technical
justification for that. And I can't really be bothered to Google up
an opinion :-)

[James Lehman]

"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:50:15 GMT, "James Lehman"
wrote:

Actually just about any tape deck that was made in the latter days of
cassette that had metal tape capability and Dolby HX Pro could make tapes
that sounded pretty good. But commercially made tapes still sounded
pretty
bad.

Did you like metal? Sure, it would take the level. But I never
thought it sounded very nice. I don't know if there's any technical
justification for that. And I can't really be bothered to Google up
an opinion :-)

I was never a real cassette head. I was way into vinyl. It is my
understanding that the very best you could do with a cassette deck was with
good-old normal bias tape. A brand new normal tape, recorded once and played
back for the first time had the best fidelity, but they wore out the
fastest. Other formulae were more about improving the longevity of the
medium. Metal was played back with normal bias, but it required more energy
to make the recording and it was WAY more abrasive to the tape head. Back in
the day, if you wanted to make a really good audio tape recording, one of
the better ways was to use a video tape machine with stereo hifi sound; or
just pay the big bucks for an open reel deck.

James. )

[[email protected]]

James Lehman wrote:
Metal was played back with normal bias,

Bias is NEVER used for playback. It is applied at recording
as a means of assuring that the recorded levels are confined
to the reasonable linear portion of the tape's B-H curve

Perhaps you meant "playback equalization."

[Mr.T]

"James Lehman" wrote in message
. ..
Actually just about any tape deck that was made in the latter days of
cassette that had metal tape capability and Dolby HX Pro could make tapes
that sounded pretty good.

You mean less bad.

But commercially made tapes still sounded pretty bad.

But for some reason people still bought them. A bit like some paying as much
for MP3 downloads these days, as buying a CD.
PT Barnum's saying didn't allow for the population explosion.

MrT.

[Mr.T]

wrote in message
oups.com...

James Lehman wrote:
Metal was played back with normal bias,

Bias is NEVER used for playback. It is applied at recording
as a means of assuring that the recorded levels are confined
to the reasonable linear portion of the tape's B-H curve

Perhaps you meant "playback equalization."

In which case he would still be wrong though.

MrT.

[Phil Allison]

"dodecatheon" wrote in message
oups.com...


** Groper alert !

I bought an old NAD 6240 tape deck of ebay to play some of my wife's
old tapes from the 80s, just for fun. The sound quality is rather poor
- bass is muddy and treble is kind of muffled.


** Try switching the " Dobly " off .......


( Or go watch the Spinal Tap DVD. )



Is my tape deck in need
of serious adjustment, or is this the best that can be expected from
old prerecorded tapes?


** It is all that can be expected from old CRAP bought off Ebay.




......... Phil