Tandberg 9041x frequency response probs.

[pecbtand]

About a month ago, I aquired a Tandberg 3341x. I was impressed with the sound so when a 9041x became available I got it and sold the 3341x. Using the same tapes ( maxwell UD and BASF LH) I'm finding that the 9041x is very sharp/bright but seems to lack the depth that the 3341x had on recordings and compared to the source. Heads are clean so I'm wondering if there is a electrical problem, or, is this a characteristic of the 9041x machine.
I remember that I once bought a stock of old unsed Ferrograph tapes about 15 years ago. Those used to sound dull on the Akai I had at the time but got round the problem by connecting the source to a graphic equaliser first, before it went to the inputs of the tape deck. Is doing that OK and would that be a method for compensating the lack of deph/fullness on my 9041x?

[tandberg]

Plug in a CD-player and try recording and press-depress Tape/Source button. Any clear difference ? I'm not sure if 9000X have any playback eq. adjustment.

Theoretically they should sound similar when you playback the same tape, as the playback eq. curve was standard.

[pecbtand]

Thank's for replying.
Yes, that's what I was doing. I have obtained a large pile of tapes but the problem is, they came in an unorganised mess. i.e. the tape boxes in many cases had no relation to the tape inside e.g. spool says ampex but the box says scotch etc and the vast majority were wound on tail out. So, again the spools are not a good indication of the make of tape. He had also spliced leaders from any brand onto any tape as well, so I can't go off the writing on the leaders. I've tried a few more since and some do record/play reasonably well. So it looks like I'll just have to go through them all (100+) to see what is acceptable.
One thing I've found, there are a lot of reels which are only 1/4 full that were used for advertising (radio?) these tapes I think are old ampex, they have a dark/coarse backing and light/mid brown recording side. They seem to cause a lot of friction in ff & rw mode on both my machines, i.e. ff & rw slowly. I'm assuming I should ditch these as they will be causing a stain on both my decks.