Why Are Some Brands Of Reels Flush And Others Offset?

[Des-Lab]

This is something even I never understood; though I suspect that the whole "pro" versus "consumer" schism may have been a factor.

Why is/was it that most brands of reels in the former camp (such as Ampex/Quantegy, and 3M) had windage holes on each of the flanges that were flush with each other? That is, you could "see" the deck through the reel. Whereas most "consumer" brand reels had them offset-so that when viewing an empty reel, all you saw was the back side of the other flange?

Please see the two attached pictures to see what I'm talking about. First is a pair of Quantegy reels. Note the empty takeup reel and the deck visible. It's only upon close inspection that you can tell it's NOT loaed with tape.

Then look at the second picture. It's a pair of generic "consumer" syle. There is no mistaking the empty takeup reel there.

Why was this done? I always thought that the offset versions not only looked better, but also lend to better tape visibility. It can be hard gauging the amount of tape elapsed or remaining when you are seeing the front side of the deck through the spinning reels.

See also http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?p=1469#post1469

[Web Police]

You got me on that one. I don't even have a good guess. I would think that the offset reels are stronger, but probably just my imagination.

[vinyldavid]

I use a silver deck, so this is not a problem :D

[Nak_novice]

Perhaps with the pro reels sat on reel table console type machines not having the ability to look through alighned holes to see fresh air led to that style? Smaller consumer units probably let to the see through style, although I too prefer the offset type. Just a guess?

[Scorpion8]

That's a unique and obscure observation. A definite sign of someone with too much time on their hands. :D But possibly it was manufacturer to manufacturer, meaning maybe there's no correlation, just a random assortment of which company assembled them. Could you just rotate one 1/3 if you wanted to line up or misalign the pass-thru's?

[TheReeler]

But possibly it was manufacturer to manufacturer, meaning maybe there's no correlation, just a random assortment of which company assembled them.
No. Maxell MR-10 has off-line holes and Maxell MR-7 (the same design, but in 7" size) has in-line holes *wave*

For me, there can be at least one logical explanation in the case of Maxell:

Off-line reels prevent the tape to go thru the reel while you're threading the tape when you don't have an attach hole. Maxell MR-10 doesn't have attach hole and MR-7 has it.