Sounds great, I'll have to align it again to get the most out of the ME head. Spooling one of my master dubs with the Std head then replaying with the ME head clearly shows that there is more information on the tape than the standard head can reproduce.
I had a quarter-track ME head installed on my Studer A80VU for playing back consumer tapes and the results followed suit...it just reveals much more than the standard heads, even on many quarter track tapes.
Sounds great, I'll have to align it again to get the most out of the ME head. Spooling one of my master dubs with the Std head then replaying with the ME head clearly shows that there is more information on the tape than the standard head can reproduce.
I had a quarter-track ME head installed on my Studer A80VU for playing back consumer tapes and the results followed suit...it just reveals much more than the standard heads, even on many quarter track tapes.
Frequency response, yes. Have not done enough listening with the 300 to make a comparison to the noise floor, but I suspect both will improve after the electronics are aligned and I've hand-picked a few tubes for the electronics. What I did notice on the Studer was less cross-talk on consumer 1/4-tk tapes with the Flux head, compared to other machines I often use. Can't explain that one but I've demoed it a few times for other listeners.
Are you running a ME head on one of your machines?
Frequency response, yes. Have not done enough listening with the 300 to make a comparison to the noise floor, but I suspect both will improve after the electronics are aligned and I've hand-picked a few tubes for the electronics. What I did notice on the Studer was less cross-talk on consumer 1/4-tk tapes with the Flux head, compared to other machines I often use. Can't explain that one but I've demoed it a few times for other listeners.
Are you running a ME head on one of your machines?
This is going to be my 'multi-format' machine, with the ability to play various tape configurations just by swapping headblocks and repro cards. The starting point was a B-series transport that had no discernible wear on any of the mechanics....the motors ran factory-smooth and only flaky brake assemblies hampered immediate use.
Still, it's a worthy effort to give the machine a complete tear down and clean the solenoids, relays, new brake shoes, and go through the mechanical setup and adjustments. All brake and tension settings are going to be on the mid-scale of 1/4" to 1/2" range, to accommodate both tape widths with the trend more biased towards 1/4" use.
440s are easy to rebuild, parts are plentiful, and they sound great once set up properly. The biggest drawback I've seen is that people run the heck out of them, and whatever appears on the used market is typically in a state of disrepair and useless to the average fellow that might have an interest. That's too bad, because with a little work they can be decent machines.
Finished up the 440B rebuild late last week and dragged it all up to the listening room, along with the previously completed 354. Installing the two machines, running cables and final adjustments was a marathon twenty hour session. I couldn't even see straight after that let alone thread a tape properly.....
The only thing missing to complete the setup is a custom XLR patch panel that will mount in the lower section of the rack, and have male/female feed-throughs to allow easy connection to any of the machines on that side of the room. For the moment I am stuck dragging around a set of interconnects to whatever machine I want to listen to.
Both machines handle tape quite well, but I don't care for the speeds in FF/RW, particularly in the case of the 440 which fast winds at a rate that just can't be good for the tape, or the machine either. I'm working on a mod that will add shuttle capability to the fast modes without requiring extensive transport mods, but for now most tape-winding is done on the A80.
I have kind of the opposite project.
I have an Ampex 300 transport and would like to use it with my Ampex AG-440 electronics as I do not have the tube preamps for the model 300.
Can this be done? What would be involved? I have read that there might be an impedence mismatch between the heads and the electronics but would like the opinion of the experts out there.
Yesterday was a long day. I picked up my latest MR70 and it is without a doubt the most interesting MR70 I have yet. I contacted the prior owner and he sent me a very nice message. I hope to have the deck mated with the electronics today if time allows.
Dear Roger, I am happy to respond to a fellow admirer of the Duesenberg of audio, the Ampex MR 70!
I have owned three MR 70s. A 1/4 inch, a 1/2 and the most rare of them all, a one inch three trac!. From what I have found there were maybe THREE TOTAL of the one inch decks.
I used the 1/4 stock This came from Arnie Nudel of Infinity fame. The manual had "Electra" stamped on the inside in red. I once asked Bruce Botnic if he had used an MR 70 to record the Doors? He said that he was not sure...
The half inch was a four track unit and came from Neil Sinclair of Theta fame. It had two track heads that Tim had made for me in the UK.
The half inch deck was also stock, except for the UK made heads. There is NOTHING anyone can do to IMPROVE the Nuvistor based MR 70 electronics!
I moved away from them, in spite of their FORMIDABLE SOUND, because they are heavy maintenance decks and I was unable to do the maintenance work myself.
I did however change the input transformer from the stock Beyer units to US made Triad transformers on the half inch deck.
I had christened my MR 70 decks "The Jack Mullin Special" in honor of the audio legend and magnetic tape pioneer, who had worked on my 1/4 inch once and got it running for a session! "Jack Mullin Special" sounds like a very rare rye whiskey, but as you well know, an MR 70s is better than any booze, no matter the vintage!!!
Below I list the Water Lily recordings done on MR 70s.
1) "Mountains and the Sea". 1/4 inch.
2) "Electric Modes" LP Vol. 1. . Later a 2 CD set with Vol. 2 added. 1/4 inch.
3) Liszt solo piano. 1/4 inch.
4) Ricci/Brook Smith. 1/2 inch.
5) Organ/Trumpet. 1/2 inch.
6) Saudades. 1/2 inch.
7) Bach flute sonatas. 1/2 inch.
8) Lily of the Nile. 1/2 inch.
9) Maihar. Ali Akbar Khan. 1/2 inch.
10) Mysterio. 1/2 inch.
11) Ajmer. 1/2 inch.
And the two recordings I did for Stereophile. Solo piano and flute/piano.
I can't wait to play my 30ips master on "The Jack Mullin Special". I just love these decks....and one more to go,although a one inch 2 or 3 track would be.....now stop it Roger!
Just a note....Kavi called me yesterday and was really excited about the "Jack Mullin Special" finding a new home. He is a big fan of the MR70 and talked about the Ampex team that developed it. He knows a lot of people and is very knowledgeable about different recorders and is a very critical listener. His present interest as a side is 35mm film in it's recording format and he thinks I should find a recorder and try it out. Kavi is so easy to talk to and a great listener. I thoroughly enjoyed it,truly a gentleman. He thinks the triad transformers for the deck are still around,so I'm excited about that.
Hey...hey Bob,it's nice to say hello. The pause that refreshes the mind and soul, but the music keeps on spinning, tape wise. I hope everything is well with you up in the Great North my friend.
