Tascam DA-38 Questions for Skywavebe or others with experience

[Bob Boyer]

I'm looking at a DA-38 as an 8 track alternative to a 38 R2R. Aside from the issue of no replacement heads (what is the life of one of these heads?), can anyone comment on the sound of one of these units?

Just thinking out loud here...

Thanks in advance,

Bob

[vinyldavid]

Eagerly watching this thread, because I have one and am getting 5 more...

[Skywavebe]

These units are or were a great idea back when they were supported but had also the tendency to be too complicated for the general public. The heads have the same life of any 8mm format. I think they are suppose to be about 3000 hours before the errors start to come but there are machines in the field that have gone to 6000 hours. There are ways through menus or by pressing certain buttons to get a readout of the number of hours on these heads.
The bad part is that they are very complicated unit to fix. There is a battery inside that needs replacing and it is soldered in plus when you go to change it, the machine comes apart pretty much taking all the cards out. There is a way and I have them, to replace the battery with a socket type and a battery that will fit that socket. I have done DA88's that way.
David, there is a reason that these sell cheap on E bay and that you are getting them- their cost to repair probably exceeds it value. That does not mean the units are just junk but that with today's way of thinking if something can not be fixed for $15 then they buy a new one. I can assure you that they can not be fixed for $15. Like it's smaller brother the DAT, the 8mm system to a lesser extent has it's tape path problems that require precision parts to keep the tape path straight. Since these require special alignment tapes which I do not have the only place of a reasonable price that I know that can even work on them is New Jersey Factory Service. The higher end models, are said to be able to digitally link up to 8 of them together- these take spacial cable and option cards that the lower models do not have or accept. The good part is that they use 8mm which is a metal tape format. I do not know if they are still available new. That is what I know about these types of machines- I do NOT own one.

[vinyldavid]

Sam, these came from a local live sound company, Logic Sound here in StL.
I am getting the 48 channel remote and the cables that go with them, as all 6 were originally a set of 48 channels. I'll be happy if I get 3 of them working for 24 channels, and I am paying about $190 for all 6 plus the remote, so even if half of them are not usable, it's still a good deal. The one I have formatted a tape just fine, but I have not tried sending audio thru it

[Bob Boyer]

Thanks, Sam. I may just keep looking for a good 38 1/2" machine. I know where to get one of those worked on...

[vinyldavid]

Well I just picked up the rest of them, bringing the total to $250 for 6 Tascam DA-38's, the 48 channel remote, and a Panasonic SV-3800 DAT deck. I'll post results of tests when I get home.


Bob, the 38 can be improved upon massively, if the diffedrence between 44OB and 34B is any indicator...the 48 is an awesome deck. My friend Tom has one along with the 44OB. I have the 34B.