Re: Tandberg 3041x
I had a 3341X and found it to be hopeless in terms of accuracy of tape guidance and interference from the bias oscillator. The cross field system needs such a high amplitude of bias, it gets everywhere and wrecks FM reception. The signal to noise ratio was always variable and usually poor - I sold it fairly promptly and have no regrets about this.
The electronics are quite good with a few bad details and one really destructive design fault. The bad details are Rifa capacitors and a regulator transistor which runs much too hot - just move it to the aluminium socket panel for a far better heatsink, the leads are long enough.
The destructive fault is the powering of the 220V Papst motor from the split primaries of the mains transformer. The motors develop shorted turns which, because of the insane way Tandberg have wired the primaries, destroys the two 10V portions of the transformer. I've seen this happen a few times.
The fix is to put a 500mA fuse in the motor circuit.
Not a good product in my view - no wonder they went broke. The Japanese detailed their products far more carefully.
Leon.
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