Teac 3340 r to r Help.

[Scottsmrnyc]

I have two Teac 3340s. One is working fine though a headsphone system. It records and plays back at a very decent level. My other 3340 is giving me some problems.

To begin with, I had not used them in at least a year but I wanted to use one of my 3340s in my McIntosh system. I call this system my external system as the sound comes from speakers and not headphones. I have set it up properly in the back on my Mx 135 as I can see the vu meters of the 3340 moving quite substantially. When I go to play back what I have recorded it where my problem lies. THE PLAYBACK FROM THE 3340S IS VERY LOW OR ALMOST INAUDIBLE. I can just barely hear it.

Before I fired them both up again after all that time I took a q tip and the special cleaning fluid Mr G Chemicals Isopropyl Alcohol to clean the main parts of both units. I also followed the instructions on the Hand D Mag in demagnitizing to heads on both units. I don't think it was possible that I over demagnitized the heads on one of them; but it might be the cause of this problem.

A year or so ago, I used both units and I do remember them working perfectly although they are over 30 years old.

I just want to get them working again as they are a bit of audiophile history and I think it would be cool to intergrate them into my system.

Any advice????Thanks

[Scottsmrnyc]

I think I found the solution after reading an online help blog. It seems as though my tape might have been moving through the tape heads on the wrong side. I was informed that the tape had to be on the SHINNY side facing the outside. In looking I discovered that the tape was the shinny side on the inside. This would account for the low volume. I am going to reinstall the tape properly today. I think this will correct my problem. I will report back soon.

[miner]

What brand of tape are you using Scott?

[Scottsmrnyc]

Yes Mr Miner- I think that could be the problem as when I switched the tape to the shinny side facing outward; and re recorded a couple of samples; it did not have any sound at all; although the VU meters were indicating sound coming in.

The tape that I have is extremely old and was bought at least ten years ago. It was bought as used tape; so it is even older.

I am going to try and get some better tape that is new to see if it will make a difference? Can you reccommend some good tape to start off with?

On my Teac 3340s that is working through me headphone system, I am using the same old quality tape. It plays and records but it lacks the brightness. It is slightly a muffled sound. I am sure this is due to the age and quality of the tape.

Any advice is good.

[miner]

RMGI tape is a new tape manufactured in Holland. A bit expensive. For 'old' tape I would stick with Maxwell UD. Less SSS problems with this brand.

Dealer Locator

Pro Blank Media and Recording Supplies

[miner]

Have you cleaned and demaged your deck?

[Myles B. Astor]

Originally Posted by miner

RMGI tape is a new tape manufactured in Holland. A bit expensive. For 'old' tape I would stick with Maxwell UD. Less SSS problems with this brand.

Dealer Locator

Pro Blank Media and Recording Supplies

Actually RMGI is not a new tape They basically took over BASF.

RMGI Studio 468 tape is considered among the best tapes available nowadays; quite a few of the companies reissuing on 15 ips, such as Yarlung Records and The Tape Project, use RMGI. (And there's probably no better expert on this than Paul Stubblebine). Some others are now also using the RMGI SM900.

[fmrnykr]

Scott,

Have you tried another input on your Mac and made sure you're not going output to output instead of tape output to tape monitor input? Not that familiar with the rear of your pre-amp, but you might want to check to make sure.

Bob

[Scottsmrnyc]

Okay, I have had some success now. I changed to using a smaller size reel and it seems to be working fine. I also bought some prerecorded music off of ebay. It was recorded on Maxell UD 35-90B. It also says on the boxes of Maxell tape Hi Output/Extended Range/Low Distortion. These tapes seem to work fine on both of my Teac 3340s reel to reel.

I can not figure out why when I was using the larger reels that I could not get it to record or play back. The recorded sound with the larger reels was very very very low in volume. This also occurred on playback?
I am very happy to have both machines working but wonder if anyone out there in AA land has any ideas why I have this problem with the larger size reels.

[miner]

Originally Posted by Myles B. Astor

Actually RMGI is not a new tape They basically took over BASF.

RMGI Studio 468 tape is considered among the best tapes available nowadays; quite a few of the companies reissuing on 15 ips, such as Yarlung Records and The Tape Project, use RMGI. (And there's probably no better expert on this than Paul Stubblebine). Some others are now also using the RMGI SM900.

New,as in can be bought 'new'.