Hello forum members,
I found Mr. Benny Amina who is an engineer/electronics tech by accident. This was one of the best things that happened for me once I arrived here to Georgia. I needed to have my Tascam 42B changed over to IEC and wanted cables connected directly to the playback head. Mr. Amina also installed an IEC receptacle as well as additional outputs on the rear of my deck. He also installed a switch incase I experience hum. I was aware I needed a higher output playback head on the Tascam. The original heads are very low in output. I contacted Mr. John French who spent some time educating me on various playback heads. He suggested that Nortronics has a (400mHy) pro premium lamination head that would work with the Tascam, However, he would have to build a shoe for the head so that it would fit the Tascam headblock. Mr. French quickly constructed the shoe and fitted it to the Nortronics head. He then mailed this out to my tech for installation into my tape deck. Mr. French is excellent at what he does and is one of the nicest person's anyone can find. By the way, the Nortronics head works perfectly and sounds great.
I mentioned to Mr. Amina that I was still looking for a tube head amp in the $1000 to 1500 dollar range. He said he had been thinking about building a tube head amp and If I could give him some time, he and staff would start work as soon as possible. He figured the overall cost would be close to the $1600 dollar price point. He noted it would take a while because of his repair and audio systems installation work which had to come first. He and staff also builds tube power amps, pre amps, and speaker systems which is sold on the Modular Electronics Inc. website. I was OK with that and noted I will have the money when the head amp is completed.
Mr. Amina was kind enough to remain in regular contact with me and after some months he informed me the all tube HD4 tape head preamp was ready. My joy was overwhelming because the price was only $1200 dollars fully assembled. A friend, Pablo went with me and my dear wife drove me there. I don't know how to get around Georgia that well yet. Once at the shop my Tascam was already set up and one of Jonathan Horwich's tapes, "Clare Fischer's Big Band" swinging hard. The sound was awesome. Every instrument could be heard clearly. Mr. Amina has several listening rooms available to display the audio they build as well as permitting anyone with a repaired item to hear it working correctly. My wife, friend and I was pleased with what we heard. I just wanted to get my tape deck and new preamp home to my music room.
While I'm at it, I've got to mention the music used for our listening session. I am sure many of you are familiar with Miles Davis and Gil Evans (Sketches Of Spain). The oboes and flutes came through very well and with great fidelity. This tape consisted of mostly practice takes, but one complete take near the end of the tape. We also listened to Sonny Rollins (The Bridge). Even back during the 1960's Sonny had a big bold tenor sound which I and many other sax players tried to emulate. We also included a tape from Jonathan Horwich featuring Eric Schneider on tenor sax and Jeremy Kahn on piano. They played all stadards. My favorites were "Round Midnight and Lover Man". I never thought I could enjoy a piano and sax duo this much. The piano and sax had a real powerful sound (WOW)!
I am more than pleased with the purchase of the Amina HD4 tube tape head preamp. I am even more elated that this is a great sounding preamp and one I could afford. At the asking price I could not have asked for anything better. For me this is a win-win situation. To all my friends here on the forum, thank you so much for your patience and kindness. Please forgive me for being so long winded. That's due to a lack of forum writing experience. I am going to try to post some photos of my music system and HD4 preamp and hope they come through. If not, I'll have to seek some instructions regarding how to get photos from a CD uploaded to the forum.
Photo Link go here ............ https://www.dropbox.com/sc/e89sy7as4gb82lt/J8Q4GfekBM
Jazzbo Bob
I found Mr. Benny Amina who is an engineer/electronics tech by accident. This was one of the best things that happened for me once I arrived here to Georgia. I needed to have my Tascam 42B changed over to IEC and wanted cables connected directly to the playback head. Mr. Amina also installed an IEC receptacle as well as additional outputs on the rear of my deck. He also installed a switch incase I experience hum. I was aware I needed a higher output playback head on the Tascam. The original heads are very low in output. I contacted Mr. John French who spent some time educating me on various playback heads. He suggested that Nortronics has a (400mHy) pro premium lamination head that would work with the Tascam, However, he would have to build a shoe for the head so that it would fit the Tascam headblock. Mr. French quickly constructed the shoe and fitted it to the Nortronics head. He then mailed this out to my tech for installation into my tape deck. Mr. French is excellent at what he does and is one of the nicest person's anyone can find. By the way, the Nortronics head works perfectly and sounds great.
I mentioned to Mr. Amina that I was still looking for a tube head amp in the $1000 to 1500 dollar range. He said he had been thinking about building a tube head amp and If I could give him some time, he and staff would start work as soon as possible. He figured the overall cost would be close to the $1600 dollar price point. He noted it would take a while because of his repair and audio systems installation work which had to come first. He and staff also builds tube power amps, pre amps, and speaker systems which is sold on the Modular Electronics Inc. website. I was OK with that and noted I will have the money when the head amp is completed.
Mr. Amina was kind enough to remain in regular contact with me and after some months he informed me the all tube HD4 tape head preamp was ready. My joy was overwhelming because the price was only $1200 dollars fully assembled. A friend, Pablo went with me and my dear wife drove me there. I don't know how to get around Georgia that well yet. Once at the shop my Tascam was already set up and one of Jonathan Horwich's tapes, "Clare Fischer's Big Band" swinging hard. The sound was awesome. Every instrument could be heard clearly. Mr. Amina has several listening rooms available to display the audio they build as well as permitting anyone with a repaired item to hear it working correctly. My wife, friend and I was pleased with what we heard. I just wanted to get my tape deck and new preamp home to my music room.
While I'm at it, I've got to mention the music used for our listening session. I am sure many of you are familiar with Miles Davis and Gil Evans (Sketches Of Spain). The oboes and flutes came through very well and with great fidelity. This tape consisted of mostly practice takes, but one complete take near the end of the tape. We also listened to Sonny Rollins (The Bridge). Even back during the 1960's Sonny had a big bold tenor sound which I and many other sax players tried to emulate. We also included a tape from Jonathan Horwich featuring Eric Schneider on tenor sax and Jeremy Kahn on piano. They played all stadards. My favorites were "Round Midnight and Lover Man". I never thought I could enjoy a piano and sax duo this much. The piano and sax had a real powerful sound (WOW)!
I am more than pleased with the purchase of the Amina HD4 tube tape head preamp. I am even more elated that this is a great sounding preamp and one I could afford. At the asking price I could not have asked for anything better. For me this is a win-win situation. To all my friends here on the forum, thank you so much for your patience and kindness. Please forgive me for being so long winded. That's due to a lack of forum writing experience. I am going to try to post some photos of my music system and HD4 preamp and hope they come through. If not, I'll have to seek some instructions regarding how to get photos from a CD uploaded to the forum.
Photo Link go here ............ https://www.dropbox.com/sc/e89sy7as4gb82lt/J8Q4GfekBM
Jazzbo Bob
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