Quote:
Originally Posted by cmjones01
...Examining the tape in question, which has had a long and chequered history of being used in all sorts of unknown cassette machines, I found that the tape itself was damaged, with noticeable ridges folded in to the tape and sometimes scoring along its length - also pictured. It was clearly not a good example to optimise for!
What was particularly interesting was that, on this damaged tape, it was possible to find a position of the head which played it well. That position was just different from the correct one. Presumably it's possible for the head to be reading undamaged material avoiding the folds and scratches.
I'll remember this next time I want to recover a recording from a worn or damaged cassette - sometimes adjusting the head height, not just the azimuth, might get more off the tape, and a deck like this which makes the adjustment easy is useful to have around.
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I suspect most tape damage is caused by playing the tapes in a poorly maintained/adjusted deck. Adjusting any of the head angles requires care as getting it wrong can damage tapes. Apart from azimuth it's generally best to adjust head angles using the proper head alignment jig tool, with no tape in sight.
I'd be interested to see the "head height" adjustment on your Denon's head. Usually no single screw adjusts head height, but two screws which must be adjusted in tandem. If not, head tilt (zenith) is affected. It can be difficult to get tilt back to standard. Also azimuth is changed regardless. After each height change we have to correct the azimuth error which was created. It's rare to find a deck which allows head height adjustment independently of zenith and azimuth.
Another problem with adjusting head height is it's common for a tape guide to be welded to the side of the head. So with head height, guide height also changes, forcing the tape to travel a sometimes tortured path and possibly creasing the tape.
Changing head height to find a better signal off the tape is best done on a deck which allows us to change
only the head height, not disturbing head tilt or tape travel height.