Studer A810 whistling record head

[rockitman]

when I engage play/record and monitor through the repro head, there is a faint whistling/blowing wind like sound in the right channel only. It is recorded on tape. Is my Studer record head toast ? It is intermittent and happening more frequently. Idea's ?

 

[Steve Williams]

The two best ideas here are

where's Ki

where's Tony

 

[Mike]

The two best ideas here are

where's Ki

where's Tony

There should be a bat signal in the shape of a RTR...

 

[Ki Choi]

when I engage play/record and monitor through the repro head, there is a faint whistling/blowing wind like sound in the right channel only. It is recorded on tape. Is my Studer record head toast ? It is intermittent and happening more frequently. Idea's ?

Hi Christian:

I would stop playing any valuable tapes until we can figure out the source of your noise.

Since the deck is new to you, my first guess is that you need to demag the tape path and the heads after a good cleaning job. Do you have a tape head demagnitizer?

You mentioned the noise is recorded onto the tape. Let me know if this is the case by taking the suspect tape and playing it on another deck that you know that works properly.

If you still have the issue even after cleaning and demaging and is it is indeed being recorded, you can mark your HF (red) cards for proper channels (left is CH1) and swap it with the other channel. Try the machine and if no difference, do it again for the Record Amp cards (blue). Of course, you need to have your A810's power off when you pull or push cards in/out.

In most cases, if HF card has problems, you would have problem erasing. Judging from your description, if it's not demag issue (my bet,,) then you might have a bad Record Amp card.

Let me know.

Ki

 

[RogerD]

Sounds like a problem with the right channel record amplifier card,just a wild guess.

 

[rockitman]

Hi Christian:

I would stop playing any valuable tapes until we can figure out the source of your noise.

Since the deck is new to you, my first guess is that you need to demag the tape path and the heads after a good cleaning job. Do you have a tape head demagnitizer?

You mentioned the noise is recorded onto the tape. Let me know if this is the case by taking the suspect tape and playing it on another deck that you know that works properly.

If you still have the issue even after cleaning and demaging and is it is indeed being recorded, you can mark your HF (red) cards for proper channels (left is CH1) and swap it with the other channel. Try the machine and if no difference, do it again for the Record Amp cards (blue). Of course, you need to have your A810's power off when you pull or push cards in/out.

In most cases, if HF card has problems, you would have problem erasing. Judging from your description, if it's not demag issue (my bet,,) then you might have a bad Record Amp card.

Let me know.

Ki

I did a demag and clean. The problem seems to be happening more now. How do I get the record amp card looked at ? I take it there are two...one for each channel ?

 

[rockitman]

so currently, the problem is not occurring. I did a test recording and it sounds fine, so the head must be good. Perhaps it is that amp acting up on the record side. I will see if it continues to happen. Thanks for your help, tape guys.

 

[MylesBAstor]

There should be a bat signal in the shape of a RTR...

Now that's FUNNY!

 

[TheAudioAssociation]

Hi Christian....... Wondering if any of the cards might have gotten jostled loose during its journey to you?

Ki, is that a possibility and if so, could you walk Christian through how to pull and re-seat the cards?

 

[rockitman]

Hi Christian....... Wondering if any of the cards might have gotten jostled loose during its journey to you?

Ki, is that a possibility and if so, could you walk Christian through how to pull and re-seat the cards?

That's a good idea Ed. I will open the front, pull and reseat the appropriate cards.

 

[TheAudioAssociation]

That's a good idea Ed. I will open the front, pull and reseat the appropriate cards.

I'd go even further and pull and re-seat all of them if you can....... My tech suggested that when you pull the cards you might as well clean the contacts before putting them back in. Just takes a few more minutes but well worth it.......

My A80 was acting a bit weird. The left channel would all of a sudden drop in output. Thought some of the electronics were starting to fail. Called my tech..... he suggested pulling the output cards, cleaning both the card end and the socket end with alcohol and re-install...... All good ever since!

Hope this works for you!

 

[rockitman]

Hi Christian:

I would stop playing any valuable tapes until we can figure out the source of your noise.

Since the deck is new to you, my first guess is that you need to demag the tape path and the heads after a good cleaning job. Do you have a tape head demagnitizer?

You mentioned the noise is recorded onto the tape. Let me know if this is the case by taking the suspect tape and playing it on another deck that you know that works properly.

If you still have the issue even after cleaning and demaging and is it is indeed being recorded, you can mark your HF (red) cards for proper channels (left is CH1) and swap it with the other channel. Try the machine and if no difference, do it again for the Record Amp cards (blue). Of course, you need to have your A810's power off when you pull or push cards in/out.

In most cases, if HF card has problems, you would have problem erasing. Judging from your description, if it's not demag issue (my bet,,) then you might have a bad Record Amp card.

Let me know.

Ki

Hi Ki,

I swapped out the record amp cards so that card 2 was on channel 1 and card one on channel two. No difference. The sound was still coming out the right channel. I switched them back to the original positions. I then did the same with the HF red cards. Sure enough, when I swapped the cards, the sound moved to the left channel. Sounds like a bad HF card ? Can they be fixed or can they be bought ? What do you think ? Thanks.

Chris

 

[Ki Choi]

Ki, is that a possibility and if so, could you walk Christian through how to pull and re-seat the cards?

Unlikely, since the VU meter panel physically put pressure onto all the cards to be in their position firmly as long as the panel was screwed in during shipment. However, the Record Amp cards (and other cards as well) have all the TTL chips and the opamps in sockets that could have worked themselves out due to shipment vibrations (small chance...).

I would suggest - first to identify the problem card by swapping between channels and see if the problem moves to the other channel, the next time it starts to record noise again.

Then, I would remove the suspect Record Amp card from the machine and push in all the chip with your finger.

If it still doesn't solve the problem, please send me an email offline.