Ampex 440C put the brakes on

[RogerD]

I have a Ampex 440C that was built in the early 70's. At that time there was a race on to see who could rewind tape faster. I think the Ampex is too fast on rew & FF. I have a friend who has a recording studio with a 440C also and he mentioned he uses a variac to adjust the motor speed.

I got around to giving it a try and it works great. I use a 3PN1010 and leave it at 100 pct to work the relays. When it starts to rewind I cut it back to 50 pct voltage. I found that it brings the reel speed down to a very sane level.

With many old 2 track tapes,I never liked to rewind as the reel speed was much to fast. Now it's not a nail biting experience when I rewind my tapes.

 

[Steve Williams]

Great advice Roger. Is this only for users of Ampex or ???

 

[RogerD]

Great advice Roger. Is this only for users of Ampex or ???

Hi Steve,

That's a good question. Maybe some of our more technical members can chime in. It seems to work fine on my Ampex,but as far as other RTR's especially those with opamps and computer cards it might not be a good option. A Studer or Technics probably would not work,but older decks that have discrete electronics should be fine,I would think.

 

[Steve Williams]

Then that rules me out Roger

BTW, stay tuned on my search for the perfect head amp

 

[RogerD]

BTW, stay tuned on my search for the perfect head amp

Steve,

Came across this when I was visiting Walter's site. Looks like the perfect head amp and at 65lbs that's only 538.00 per lb. I would be interested to see if anybody has auditioned any of these electronics.

http://www.nbscables.com/products/univ_phono_pre_amp.html

 

[Ki Choi]

Then that rules me out

It's your lucky day, Steve!

The Studer A810 is factory set at 10 m/s for FF or REW speed. You can lower it by pressing TRANS key (yellow LED would lit) then pressing FF or REW once for lowering the winding speed to 7m/s, or twice to reduce the speed down to 4 m/s, or press three times for 1 m/s the utimate library winding speed.

Other Studers like the A820, you can program the wind speed from the control panel or hit the Library Wind button to slow it way down.

Try it and let me know if it worked for you.

Ki

 

[RogerD]

It's your lucky day, Steve!

The Studer A810 is factory set at 10 m/s for FF or REW speed. You can lower it by pressing TRANS key (yellow LED would lit) then pressing FF or REW once for lowering the winding speed to 7m/s, or twice to reduce the speed down to 4 m/s, or press three times for 1 m/s the utimate library winding speed.

Other Studers like the A820, you can program the wind speed from the control panel or hit the Library Wind button to slow it way down.

Try it and let me know if it worked for you.

Ki

Ki, That's excellant info! thanks