[Coco] Audio Spectrum Analyzer

[gene heskett]

On 12/27/22 18:59, Dan Eicher via Coco wrote:
> 
> Is the best way to partake via a cassette recorder?
> 
That originally came on a rom cartidge. It might run from a taped copy 
but the usual $25 to $50 cassette is so noisy it will throw errors by 
the bushel basket. OTOH, I once made a copy of something using a TEAC 
TR22, recording on only one track and got a report back from the 
receiver that it played better than any other tape he had.

The TR22 found a home in many radio stations alongside the Panasonic 
RS-1500, both of them were far higher performance than the Ampex's of 
the time. They easily equaled the performance of the Ampex running at 15 
IPS, while running at 3.75 IPS.

The thinner wear surface of the heads gave them truly superior 
performance but for shorter periods of use due to wear since tape is 
rouge, and abrasive. So they needed fresh heads about every 1500 hours, 
whereas the Ampex head was much thicker, allowing it to maintain 
somewhat lessor performance for a much longer period of use.

Cheap,fast,good, pick any 2. The Ampex sold new for around 4x what the 
other two sold for.

The problem with the sub $100 recorder is the use of permanent magnets 
for bias and erasure, and its 40 db noisier than a decent bias 
oscillator.  That oscillator ate battery's faster than the motor did, so 
most good ones will have really big batteries or a line cord. They also, 
because the heads get magnetized, will gradually erase the tape being 
played. All will do it eventually but the cheap ones about 50x faster 
than the good ones.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.
-- 
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