changing heads to cobalt amorphous

[stripedcat99]

Last time I checked, Teac still had heads available for the old machines, as well as the later ones (in fact, many use the same heads). Which got me thinking about the possibility of using the cobalt/amorphous type heads from the X-2000 on an A-3300SX. Has anybody tried this or considered it? Aside from the general pain of doing a proper alignment of the new heads, I wonder if there are significant differences in the output (level, or any other characteristic) of these heads as opposed to the originals. In other words, things that would make this unworkable or more trouble than it would be worth to gain a longer lasting head. Any thoughts?

[braxus]

It may be technically done, but whether you'd want to is another matter. I've heard tape deck manufacturers design the decks components around the type of heads they use and the sound those type of heads produce. You may be severally altering the performance of the deck using a different make of head that it wasn't designed for.

[kevinkr]

You would need to know things like the inductance and resistance of all heads, as well as typical stray capacitances. (Heads also have HF resonances you should know about.) Finally heads designed for higher speed operation may have slightly wider gaps than those intended for good performance at low speeds. Mountings would have to be compatible as well.

I just replaced the quarter track heads on my ReVox G36 with Nortronics (Magnetic Head Company) half track record and play heads and also procured a new ReVox half track erase head. The original quarter track playback head was bad - my other recorder, an Otari, is half track so the conversion made sense. Mounting and alignment is an involved process and you also need an alignment tape.

Aligning quarter track heads is much touchier than half track and you definitely need a trustworthy alignment tape. (Unless you have an alignment or two under your belt, quarter track alignments might better be left to guys like JRF.)

Using an alignment tape you first align the playback head, then use a blank tape and align the record head to the aligned PB head. I set all of the zeniths optically.

Aligning the erase head turned out to be one of the more difficult parts of the job and I ended up doing this optically. I checked erase functionality which on the bench seemed adequate and a little less so in actual use. (G36 is noted for not being particularly good at erasing previously recorded tapes.)

Sound involved? It is. The end result was worth it, and I did not rush, doing the work over the course of several weeks. I touched some things up as I went along as well.

Despite the above positive comments I really would not recommend changing the heads unless they are worn out or you urgently need to change formats.