Reel to Reel Head Wire out and associated topics
- Thread starter tony ky ma
- Start date
Interesting photo Mike.
It's a shame it's not in a thread titled head direct out on Studer A810, A812 and A820.
Anyway, here are my questions.
Is your head out cable shielded twisted pair or coax?
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?
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.
Fred, been very busy today and do intend on answering your questions (to the limits of my ability) when I get a chance. just did not want you to think I'm ignoring you. 
Mine is wired internally with a separate internal board. Personally IMO it is more aesthetically pleasing
If Nick did that for you, maybe he would do the same for me. Yes, it would look more pleasing.
Tang
these subjects seem to come up randomly in threads. trying to keep them sorted out is like herding cats.
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.
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.
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.
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I dim the lights for my most involved listening. and.....well....er.....actually......typically meter bridges on my Studer's (and many other decks ) happen to be at ear height sitting down. and they are directly to the side of my listening position. which for me that turns out to be reflective and harmful to the sound. so I place a towel over both meter bridges which improves the system performance. OTOH where I have my King Cello, adding meters would not be a problem, since it's well below ear height (although I have found you never know what is a reflective problem unless you test it).
for years those Studer (and others previously) meter bridges never were an obvious problem sonically. but as I tamed my room a few years ago, and little by little eliminated all the harmful reflections one by one, eventually the meter bridges were revealed as a problem.
so while I agree that meters are 'way cool', you only see mine now when I take pictures.......since people like to 'see' them. hearing them is a different story
.
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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.
It seems like the cleanest signal is achieved by your setup...having the wires run directly from the head block to the pre amp. There are no junctions and the wire's opportunity to pick up stray noise is limited.
soldered straight to head terminals and no joints or solder splices imo
hot and fast iron and it´s no problem
Hi Tang
That switch is for you when in fast winding for tape will not touch heads, you no need pair of UV meter fix to amp unless you want to watch when playing. to buy a HP AC volt meter in old analogue type (from Ebay) for adjusting out put level , also you can buy two of them for both channel because they are very cheap now
tony ma
Hello Tang,
The button you are pressing on your A820 quarter-inch headblock is called the applause fader.
It mechanically lifts the tape away from the record head, introducing (obviously) a severe record spacing loss. Experts could learn to manipulate this mechanical fader to reliably fade the recorded signal about about 20 or 30 dB or more. This was intended for making the often objectionably loud applause suddenly occurring in a live concert recording, much less objectionable.
It's an old, primitive, even crude technology that a few very important Studer customers wished to see on the flagship Studer machine, even of the 1980s.
I see you are using a Studer type 105 headblock, a time code headblock.
Frankly, that's a big no-no for optimum audiophile playback of tapes.
Returning to your issue with the output level on playback of certain tapes, if you will remove the top cover of this block (loosen the two, prominently visible counter-sunk screws with a 3mm hex driver tool) and snap a picture of the wiring on the insides of this headblock, I can probably tell you how your direct out modification is configured. As already mentioned, I'm made very interested by that curious switch on your machine, down in the transport control section, that you earlier showed us.
You may send the pic to me privately if you wish.
Thanks.
Frankly, this is the kind of startling misinformation far too often seen on the audiophile tape renaissance forums over the past ten or fifteen years. Tape professionals who occasionally look in here, find the uninformed dialog simply astonishing.
VU meters (or preferably, their more modern equivalents) are in fact essential in any professional tape playback setting.
Imagine a professional mastering engineer, with a master tape, going out to someone's studio or home to play that tape.
Step one: go to the master tape's alignment tones section and make the repro head azimuth adjustment.
VU meters make this adjustment easy, quick, supremely accurate and repeatable.
Step two: align the repro electronics to the tones on the master tape, aligning to get ruler flat response.
How can you do that without VU meters or their equivalent?
On a real master tape, the audio program has been professionally mastered with the end result approved by the artists.
You're not supposed to now go and arbitrarily make changes to the response on playback.
To continue the discussion from the hijacked Ed Pong Thread...
Fred's last comment
Frankly, this is the kind of startling misinformation far too often seen on the audiophile tape renaissance forums over the past ten or fifteen years. Tape professionals who occasionally look in here, find the uninformed dialog simply astonishing.
VU meters (or preferably, their more modern equivalents) are in fact essential in any professional tape playback setting.
Imagine a professional mastering engineer, with a master tape, going out to someone's studio or home to play that tape.
Step one: go to the master tape's alignment tones section and make the repro head azimuth adjustment.
VU meters make this adjustment easy, quick, supremely accurate and repeatable.
Step two: align the repro electronics to the tones on the master tape, aligning to get ruler flat response.
How can you do that without VU meters or their equivalent?
On a real master tape, the audio program has been professionally mastered with the end result approved by the artists.
You're not supposed to now go and arbitrarily make changes to the response on playback.
Fred's last comment
Frankly, this is the kind of startling misinformation far too often seen on the audiophile tape renaissance forums over the past ten or fifteen years. Tape professionals who occasionally look in here, find the uninformed dialog simply astonishing.
VU meters (or preferably, their more modern equivalents) are in fact essential in any professional tape playback setting.
Imagine a professional mastering engineer, with a master tape, going out to someone's studio or home to play that tape.
Step one: go to the master tape's alignment tones section and make the repro head azimuth adjustment.
VU meters make this adjustment easy, quick, supremely accurate and repeatable.
Step two: align the repro electronics to the tones on the master tape, aligning to get ruler flat response.
How can you do that without VU meters or their equivalent?
On a real master tape, the audio program has been professionally mastered with the end result approved by the artists.
You're not supposed to now go and arbitrarily make changes to the response on playback.
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