Very nice and informative. It would have been interesting to use your gauss meter to measure the heads, etc before the demagnetizer was used to see before and after magnetization level.
Thanks for demystifiing this matter. Not usual nowadays. Everybody creates his own religion now. Proper tools and college physics are rare beasts. New medieval times. I am 52. When we will step down who will hold the candle?
After touching the metal parts by a strong magnet you did a residual magnetizing in the tape path. It could be impossible to eliminate this residual magnetizing with such a weak AC demagnetizer. You really got a good chance to loss a substantial part of high frequencies and destroy any record which played back on this transport later!
indeed i had such a red tipped one i bought it a decade ago i thought it was dead after these uears when i tried it today because you feel nothing no vibration dont even get warm (the short time i had it on) so you say that it is normal with those torpedo demagnitizer things only a slight vibration when actually touching the heads. good to know so i take its probably still alive then
I have one of these I suspect that the U.K. mains voltage is a bit high for them as they get hot in use. I have fitted a momentary switch in the cable of the one I have just to prevent it being left on accidentally. Great video thanks
Thank you for clearing that up. No need to creep from the other room!, lol. This was very informative, better than the USA vids I have watched. Cheers.
Hi, I just got a reel to reel machine, learning. TEAC X2000-R for the channel. Like music, check it out by the way. Best sounding on RU-vid! Very helpful to give perspective on the magnet and how to degauss the heads. Thank you! Other video, guy has his hands in the way THE WHOLE TIME lol, like wtf?! ... A Realistic bulk tape eraser can be had for $35 on Ebay. This seems very time consuming to erase a tape though. My question would be, is this unnecessary wear and tear on a machine motor to save $20, magnet vs bulk eraser? Or am I over thinking that?
Good tips and ideas, but I'd never use a permanent magnet like this to erase a tape. True, it certainly does wipe out the recording, but it also leaves the tape in a magnetized (DC) state. First of all, it may be problematic for the erase head to properly erase the DC magnetized tape during a subsequent recording, but also since the erase does not necessarily cover the whole width of the tape, there will be remaining strips of DC magnetization, so if you haven't had problems with magnetization buildup on the heads before, it's likely you will after this type of erasure. True, DC erasure has been used in low end tape recorders, but the approach is to have at least two pole pieces with opposite polarities attempting to first magnetize and then de-magnetize the tape again.
I just ordered the same degauser, i don´t think the strength should be too strong because it could affect other parts around the taperecorder =) thanks for shareing . Love cheers
correct if wrong, but could you not just hold the head degausser in place where you held that magnet and it would do the same thing? that way you would get the proper AC magnetic field required to erase the tapes and there would be no leftover magnetism on anything ? thank you
The only issue is the level of noise the permanent magnet can leave on the tape ... if the recorders erase head isn't completely blanking the tape then it could possibly be misaligned OR the signal going to it is weak do to electrical circuit(s) driving the erase head... the other issue is that using the permanent magnet is that it could magnetize the play head (3 head machine) ... I've heard that two head machines it isn't an issue because the BIAS applied during recording will act as a head demagger ... I don't have any type of testing equipment to verify that ... perhaps there is some that could test that LOL
Hi Roger. Worn out heads will normally be the loss of high frequencies or volume fluctuations. You should be able to look at the head face with a magnifying glass. Look for the vertical slit in the centre and see if it is still very narrow, with no bits missing, or wider at any places. Also the tape may have worn a groove into the head which can cause the tape to lift at the edges. Heads can be relapped, ie smoothed out, but if the microgroove has widened out, it may not get any better by cutting it lower. All the best nick
I don't think it is a good idea to degauss a tape with a permanent magnet. It will most certainly leave a hum/rumble behind. It may make the signal that currently is on the tape go away but it will leave an even worse signal in it's place that could damage your speakers.
Nick Adams Thanks ! Could you provide a link when I could purchase that little sort of motor magnet you’re using ? Finding bulk tape erasers in Europe is really difficult
@@louismarinrenaud416 I used the rotor magnet ( it has a north and a souh pole opposite on the long side). It is from a model car brushless motor (standard 1/10th scale 540 size). You can take one out of a motor or buy one. Here is an example: demonpowerproducts.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=9852 Or look on ebay.
+maak Hi I agree. Erasing the tape heads seems pointless with most later designed tape recorders. The tape heads are extremely hard to magnetise, and would need a high strength to demagnetise the tape. As I show, you need a very strong magnetic field to have any affect on the recorded tape. A gaussmeter cannot even detect a magnetic field, on a quality tape head. I suspect that early tape recorders had heads made of inferior magnetic steel that could become magnetised and may have needed demagnetising. And the practice just carried on. The quality of the original tapes has the biggest affect on the sound, especially the high frequencies, and a later manufactured high quality mastering tape has a much superior frequency response. How many times can a tape be erased and re used? I have not seen any investigation of this, but I cannot see why not many times, as long as the tape does not physically wear out. The magnetic domains in the tape have to be rearranged by erasing and then by the recording. This is not a permanent change, like baking a cake, but can be reversed continually, until something happens to the tape physically, such as the domains sticking together or rubbing off. But I would not expect that to happen with a new tape for say hundreds of uses. Hope that helps Nick
