Playing tapes on different decks

[NAD613]

I have an older Teac A-103. Today, I made a cassette on my NAD 613, using Dolby B with bias set @ -1.5, on a type I Fuji DR-I. Due to my current stereo set-up, my Teac is a ways away from my amp, so I only have the line out hooked up. I made a tape in Dolby B so I can listen to it on my Teac. I gotta tell you, it sounds pretty good. No issues at all with head alignment, Dolby calibration, or anything else. It sounds how it should.

[Des-Lab]

My Denon and Yamaha decks do NOT like each other at all. The Yamaha has the 'play trim' feature (very genius and handy IMO. Too bad no one else incorporated it). But even then, it's usually not enough to compensate for the mistracking.

[NAD613]

My Denon and Yamaha decks do NOT like each other at all. The Yamaha has the 'play trim' feature (very genius and handy IMO. Too bad no one else incorporated it). But even then, it's usually not enough to compensate for the mistracking.

Actually, NAD decks has play trim as well. In fact, I believe it was invented by NAD & Dolby Laboratories.

[Scorpion8]

Was gonna jump in and say the same thing. My NAD 6155 has play trim and it's a very handy feature.

ETA. Most of my tape decks all get along pretty well. I was going to state "I've never had that problem" just to fire Mr.Lin up again, but decided it's a new week, we'll try a new phrase ..... *devil*

[braxus]

Is play trim the same thing as an adjustable azimuth like the Naks have? Tandberg also had that feature.

[Scorpion8]

No, it's more like an adjustable after-the-fact bias. If the tape is dull, you can sparkle it up a bit after it's been recorded. You can almost make a Type I sound like a Type II tape. Or alternatively, you can dull down something that's poorly recorded and has unbearable highs.

[Mr. Lin]

Was gonna jump in and say the same thing. My NAD 6155 has play trim and it's a very handy feature.

ETA. Most of my tape decks all get along pretty well. I was going to state "I've never had that problem" just to fire Mr.Lin up again, but decided it's a new week, we'll try a new phrase ..... *devil*

Lol!

Isn't incompatibility between tape decks mostly a problem when playing a Nak-made tape on a non-Nak deck?

[Rat44]

That feature is one of the reasons I like Yamaha decks. They don't seem to be popular or highly regarded but they have served me well. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.Yes!

[Scorpion8]

No, there's some issues in that because Nak used a different equalization curve than the industry standard, but it's more of an issue of slightly out-of-alignment heads on the recording deck and then played back on another deck that has out-of-alignment heads in an even different way. If you play a tape on a deck that recorded it, and the heads are slightly out of alignment, you won't notice. It's when you go from deck to deck to deck ....

[Acoustic]

Isn't incompatibility between tape decks mostly a problem when playing a Nak-made tape on a non-Nak deck?

I hear that all the time since the Nak's use a smaller width portion of the tape. In the past I've read tape traders FAQ's (like Dead Heads) to avoid Nakamichi's because of that fact. I have two Yamaha decks and a 1995 car with a tape player in it and they play my Nak made tapes just fine.

[braxus]

I hear that all the time since the Nak's use a smaller width portion of the tape.

That's what I understand. The head gap is smaller which causes problems on other decks. I've also hear the EQ story. Frankly I don't know if they are both the case or one or the other.

[niklasthedolphin]

Play Trim is a Dolby related compatibility issue only.

Tapes recorded with Dolby NR on one deck are prone to suffer from loss of sound quality and high frequency content when played on a different deck.
Play Trim lets you compensate for the differences to maintain full Dolby quality.

"dolph"