Nakamichi 1000- the deck to die for

[reubensm]

the Indian cassettes generally used low quality tape, especially the cassettes sold in the Rs.15 - Rs. 45 range. I guess the more expensive ones had better quality tape. I have a Lata live tape released by Sony, on original imported Sony tape (as claimed on the cassette cover)

I have used Meltrack back in the day. Of the Indian tapes I have come across, Meltrack was the best, but no where near Sony and TDK

When I was in school, due to pocket money limitations, I used to buy tape made by Takai of Delhi. It used to cost Rs.10/- for a 60 minute cassette and was quite good for recordings made by a school boy, but definitely, not as good as Meltrack. I found out that Indian tapes, Meltrack included easily fell prey to fungus while the Sonys and TDKs did not.

 

[greenhorn]

I'm not a big fan of sony music india's tapes. all of the sony tapes I have claim to have been made from imported tape. They sounded very good for the first play, as they were all mastered with dolby B, but the sound quality degraded rapidly, and my deck at that time had a bad pinch roller, and sony tapes were the only ones that got damaged. BMG and polygram tape survived more or less intact.


In fact, all the english tapes from that period in my collection are all fungussed up or sound crappy. but my dad's IMD/GMR and Sony C-60/CHF 60 etc tapes sound the same and play flawlessly as they did when I was a kid.

As far as locally available tapes were concerned, I had tried Sony HF/EF/ZX, found them all uniformly crappy. there is a couple of samsung blanks, along with the usual meltrack, T series etc, but I knew they were crappy anyway. I had the best results with TDK's D Series.

Anyway I Was recording from MTV onto tape, so fidelity wasnt a big deal, but still it was noticeable between these brands

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Is it possible to restore tapes that are with fungus and tight? I would like to restore some of mine

 

[jawedsoft]

There is a desi solution to doing this.


You need to open the cassette shell and reverse the tape. So that the top of the tape (which moves against the head) is on the bottom.
Then you have to play the cassette at normal speed 2-3 times. By doing this, the tape is cleaned as it moves past the pressure pad.

You don't have to do this for the entire cassette. Only the region which is close to the exposed part...like some 5 minutes on either side. If the reels are reasonably tightly wound then the rest of the tape won't have any fungus.

I tried this with a lot of my cassettes and it worked.

But I must put in a disclaimer that I had an eline mechanism and T-series type cassette...
Not sure how it will work with high-end cassettes and decks.

regards,
Jawed

 

[reubensm]

I have never had success with cleaning cassettes. Fungus would re-appear in a matter of weeks.

I have tried the reversing technique mentioned by FM Javedsoft and it has worked, but the fungus re-appeared every month.

 

[greenhorn]

open the shell, Clean the sides and the slip sheets on either side with spirit
Clean the pressure pad with spirit - not sure if this matters for you since a lot of high end nak's came with pressure pad lifters
If your tape starts squeaking,
If you have lots of time (like I did during summer vacations) you can manually wipe the entire tape with spirit. Else, Apply some talcum powder to the pressure pad and play, repeating the process so that there is enough talc always . The reason is that the backing has become dry, and lacks lubricant. My next plan is to try some sort of oil.

Of course, Do this on a cheap/disposable transport, and afterwards, play a bunch of times until the tapes stop shedding

 

[reubensm]

with all due respect, I would not do any of these things to tapes I would play on a valuable Nak.

maybe, I'd get a cheaper deck, get these tapes in running condition and transcribe them to good cassette tapes and throw the old ones off.

I actually digitized an old family cassette recording of ours by using a similar technique (cleaning using dilute medical spirit) and threw the original away.

open the shell, Clean the sides and the slip sheets on either side with spirit
Clean the pressure pad with spirit - not sure if this matters for you since a lot of high end nak's came with pressure pad lifters
If your tape starts squeaking,
If you have lots of time (like I did during summer vacations) you can manually wipe the entire tape with spirit. Else, Apply some talcum powder to the pressure pad and play, repeating the process so that there is enough talc always . The reason is that the backing has become dry, and lacks lubricant. My next plan is to try some sort of oil.

Of course, Do this on a cheap/disposable transport, and afterwards, play a bunch of times until the tapes stop shedding

 

[Selvin]

I'm not a big fan of sony music india's tapes. all of the sony tapes I have claim to have been made from imported tape. They sounded very good for the first play, as they were all mastered with dolby B, but the sound quality degraded rapidly.

+1 to this.

 

[greenhorn]

maybe, I'd get a cheaper deck, get these tapes in running condition and transcribe them to good cassette tapes and throw the old ones off.

My thoughts exactly. In fact, I'd refrained from posting this earlier because there were all homebrew experiments, and I didnt want to ruin someone's good deck.

 

[Selvin]

Is it possible to restore tapes that are with fungus and tight? I would like to restore some of mine

Following is my practice.

I have a assembled pre deck with Elin mechanism for this purpose (assembled in a open manner on a mica sheet). For tight cassettes used to do a full forward and rewind then a single side play in this assembled deck. After this open and clean the cassette shell, rollers, pads and slip sheets.

As a preventive method I try to use the cassette once in two months.

From my experience in Bangalore climate the accumulation of fungus is minimum compare to my native Kanyakumari. Humidity may be the reason.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Humidity is the major culprit. I have heard someone telling me long time ago that if you keep your tapes in an upright position and keep it boxed with a zero watt bulb lit inside the box, it keeps away the moisture. I have never tried it and I don't even remember who told me this.

 

[Selvin]

Humidity is the major culprit. I have heard someone telling me long time ago that if you keep your tapes in an upright position and keep it boxed with a zero watt bulb lit inside the box, it keeps away the moisture. I have never tried it and I don't even remember who told me this.

Alternatively storage in a wooden box with silicagel is one of the best option. Silicagel are available in variable small size pouches/pockets in such away ready to use. Periodically dry the silicagel pockets in sunlight and can be reuse.

 

[stillsearching..]

That would be nice as I don't have too many good quality tapes and it is hard to get good blank ones these days

i thought i sent u a PM. apparently did not.anyway, i found some metal and chrome tapes which i can send across.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Yes. You sent me. I will respond in a short while.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

I am getting a new belt for my Nak 1000 most probably tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have been short listing some of my old good cassettes from my collection. I have been selecting them and using my Akai deck for fast forward and rewind. I noticed one thing. None of my TDK,Sony or Thomsun tapes have any problem while fast forwarding whereas most pre-recorded tapes are getting stuck. I gather that the quality of the mechanism of most pre-recorded tapes are poor

 

[greenhorn]

I have seen mostly Sony CHF series and Maxell UD series used by thomsun, and TDK are all very good. The only TDK's Ive seen with fungus are their Super Avilyn SAC Series. Pre recorded tapes, despite costing a bomb in the late 90's were useless. You could see from the components, the slip sheets, etc

 

[kuruvilajacob]

I can vouch that the Maxell tapes used by Thomsun has never given any trouble . I have them since 1989. I remember my son putting one in the closet. It was taken out and dried. Absolutely no problem.

 

[reubensm]

From my experience, TDK, Maxell and Sony tapes never got fungus attacks.

 

[kuruvilajacob]

From my experience, TDK, Maxell and Sony tapes never got fungus attacks.

There must be some coating on it to avoid fungus growth.

 

[jls001]

Some day, I'll convert them. Some day. I've been saying this for over 10 years now

Someday, when you're gonna do this, can you convert some of mine too?