The RTR must have accessory: RONCO food dehydrator!

Curt Palme

Well-Known Member
Jan 25, 2012
86
1
83
Thought I'd post this here, as I don't know if it's been covered before (and I'm too lazy to search!)

I bought a dirt cheap Pioneer RT-909 machine off CL this past weekend with a box of tapes. One tape was a NOS Ampex 20/20+ back coated tape. Yes, I know, neither the machine nor the tape is worthy of a post here. :p But I digress.

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS want my tapes to be in a played condition, I never store them FF or REW, as the tape packs poorly. So of course all 9 tapes were in a poorly wound condition, so I played them all through. Several were older non back coated tapes, and they barely shed anything. Then I got to the back coated tapes. Here's what happened most of the way through the NOS Ampex tape... THe pix shows about 1/2 the oxide that flaked off the tape! I've never seen one this bad before.

The cure (and yes, save for the fact that I think there are probably chunks of tape sections that won't record anything) is a gen-yew-wine RUNCO food dehydrator. I'd type a pile about tape baking, but there's a great writeup here:

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html

Eddie Ciletti is a studio guru. Never met him, but I've emailed with him years ago. Super nice guy.

I'm going to bake that Ampex tape on the weekend along with a used sister roll that also shed the same way, and will post the results. My guess it should come back to usable condition..
 

Attachments

  • .ebay 287.jpg
    .ebay 287.jpg
    144 KB · Views: 344

c1ferrari

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 15, 2010
2,162
51
1,770
Reminiscent of shredded chocolate :cool:
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing