vinyldavid
08-25-2011, 09:53 PM
So I've been talking about this one for a while now.
A friend of mine picked this up for $65 a couple years ago, and never really used it for anything other than a bit of playback, and he found that it recorded low on one channel. So a couple months ago I asked him for it before it was buried by stuff in his basement (he has since gotten a Sony APR-5003V), and he said sure. I stuck it in my closet and was going to get around to it sooner or later...
I drug it out of the closet because I needed to get a tape I recorded on my RS-1500 of prelim mixes of a project I am working on to digital for portability, and the Technics is at my friend's place (along with my good multitrack gear, but that's another thread for the future). I was initially worried that the calibration would be way off, because playback from it had sounded strange before, but the tones on the tape came up almost exactly where they should (within about half a db), but a bit unstable on the right channel. Usable for what I needed it for, I'll delve into it for proper calibration later.
I didn't even clean the heads before threading up the tape, so that's probably it.
Playback sounded good, I fed it into the XLR inputs of my PreSonus inspire 1394 and then on into my iMac. Can't post sound samples yet, they're pretty rough.
Anyway, I was bored and there was a lot of space left on the tape, so I decided to try recording some tone from the internal oscillator. Left channel was WAY down and the Right channel was fine. It's console mount and very early, and I remembered seeing a bunch of trim pots on the back of the electronics unit. Sure enough the left channel trimpot was down. I tweaked it using the internal meters and then recorded some. Playback was dead on the same level.
Gotta love it when it's that easy.
Next time my friend has his Sony APR-5003V hooked up, I'll have him roll some alignment tones onto Maxell XLI for me (the 5003 is aligned really well) so I can properly align the record levels, etc. Also I'll probably give it balanced and unbal I/O (by splitting the signal before the xformers to RCA jacks), because most everything I use is RCA. The balanced I/O was an option, anyway, so the circuit shouldn't be affected.
My friend also modified the tension to be MUCH gentler on tape as well as replaced the meter lamps. The tension mods were necessary because we believe that the reel motors were from a bigger machine and shoehorned into the 5050....much bigger than the ones in my BII HD were.
Anyway, what you've all been waiting for, PICS! These were taken by the previous owner close to when he got it (he's a better photographer than I). Also between the time those pics were taken and the time I got it, the stop button disappeared (it liked to fly off) and I might find it sometime buried in my closet.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/Otari1.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/Otari2.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari3.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari4.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari5.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari6.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari7.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari8.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari9.jpg
A friend of mine picked this up for $65 a couple years ago, and never really used it for anything other than a bit of playback, and he found that it recorded low on one channel. So a couple months ago I asked him for it before it was buried by stuff in his basement (he has since gotten a Sony APR-5003V), and he said sure. I stuck it in my closet and was going to get around to it sooner or later...
I drug it out of the closet because I needed to get a tape I recorded on my RS-1500 of prelim mixes of a project I am working on to digital for portability, and the Technics is at my friend's place (along with my good multitrack gear, but that's another thread for the future). I was initially worried that the calibration would be way off, because playback from it had sounded strange before, but the tones on the tape came up almost exactly where they should (within about half a db), but a bit unstable on the right channel. Usable for what I needed it for, I'll delve into it for proper calibration later.
I didn't even clean the heads before threading up the tape, so that's probably it.
Playback sounded good, I fed it into the XLR inputs of my PreSonus inspire 1394 and then on into my iMac. Can't post sound samples yet, they're pretty rough.
Anyway, I was bored and there was a lot of space left on the tape, so I decided to try recording some tone from the internal oscillator. Left channel was WAY down and the Right channel was fine. It's console mount and very early, and I remembered seeing a bunch of trim pots on the back of the electronics unit. Sure enough the left channel trimpot was down. I tweaked it using the internal meters and then recorded some. Playback was dead on the same level.
Gotta love it when it's that easy.
Next time my friend has his Sony APR-5003V hooked up, I'll have him roll some alignment tones onto Maxell XLI for me (the 5003 is aligned really well) so I can properly align the record levels, etc. Also I'll probably give it balanced and unbal I/O (by splitting the signal before the xformers to RCA jacks), because most everything I use is RCA. The balanced I/O was an option, anyway, so the circuit shouldn't be affected.
My friend also modified the tension to be MUCH gentler on tape as well as replaced the meter lamps. The tension mods were necessary because we believe that the reel motors were from a bigger machine and shoehorned into the 5050....much bigger than the ones in my BII HD were.
Anyway, what you've all been waiting for, PICS! These were taken by the previous owner close to when he got it (he's a better photographer than I). Also between the time those pics were taken and the time I got it, the stop button disappeared (it liked to fly off) and I might find it sometime buried in my closet.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/Otari1.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/Otari2.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari3.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari4.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari5.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari6.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari7.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari8.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii317/kshefan/otari9.jpg