Interesting photo Mike.
It's a shame it's not in a thread titled head direct out on Studer A810, A812 and A820.
these subjects seem to come up randomly in threads. trying to keep them sorted out is like herding cats.
Anyway, here are my questions.
Is your head out cable shielded twisted pair or coax?
Ki provided the cables, so I cannot speak to the spec of this cable. it's cable used by Ki in his nuclear power plant testing as I understand it. his engineers tested and selected it. he was very satisfied with the audio performance, as have I been.
this was 8-9 years ago when he did this direct head switch install. I've been very happy with the performance, and i easily prefer it (this wire and the King Cello output electronics) to the stock output circuit performance. that is just personal preference, I've not measured either this or the stock outputs.
How much did the head resonance change when you connected it?
Are there VU meters on the front of the outboard tape stage?
Can we see a picture of that?
no idea on the resonance change (whatever that might be), and no on the VU meters for the King Cello (almost every tape I have is similar EQ and type---the Tape Project spec).......so the single settings seem to work consistently. you can see
a picture of the King Cello output electronics in post #56 of this thread. it is the 2 rectangular aluminum boxes on the table between my 2 Studers.
added note; Charles King does now offer VU meters and adjustments for the King Cello to be retrofitted. who knows, I might get that done at some point if I get more educated as to what i'm missing.
Lastly, if the reason you leave the top cover off of the headblock is for easier azimuth adjustments, the factory mod for that is quite simple.
If you send me the cover, I'll do it for you at no charge.
I don't do azimuth adjustments, the top is off on the one Studer since the head switch is not yet mounted into the rear wall. but I really appreciate that offer to install that modification and I will seriously consider doing that once I understand more the benefit it provides.
I am personally very satisfied with the look of the wires running on the outside of my Studers, but completely respect and understand other's preferring it tucked inside.
maybe if it's just tucked inside and there are no junctions (including no plugs and still continuous cable into the outboard electronics) or added bit's in the signal path there would be no effect on performance. OTOH if that wire is connected to plugs on the rear panel there likely is some loss of that minimal signal with that added connection as there is with a phono cable.