Custom Stereo 3 Head Audio Tape Deck Player

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I gonna sound bit insane so please bear me. I tried to find a stereo tape deck but can't find it anymore so I want to build my own with most insane components like best head , pickup preamp with opa1612 , Elna Audio grade capacitor and Class A output stage with 2sk209 to make any music song. I want to make it a long time project , it may takes years but I want to have some analogue style snake oil message :cool:. All jokes aside I am serious in this project .
Anyone know how to transfer wav file to audio tape ?
 
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Buying individually the best components for your project will end up being more expensive than buying a Revox b77 from ebay and i highly doubt that you'll get better audible quality with newer components. By the way opa1612 isn't even close to your best choice for the input op-amp...and you won't get better than a transistor or hybrid based preamp for many reasons .Then you have the heads problem...best heads are the recording studio grade ones...like 4...6000 dollars for a set... but that's for the 24track systems .Yet you can use 12 tracks per channel on 2 inch tape and you won't need any noise reduction system.In a few years you won't be even able to find any tape head at all on the market as there's no manufacturer for the really high quality ones, so if you can afford to pay 6000 dollars today...then you can fly to the US buy a Studer Revox and go back to India...
Honestly it's useless even to think of such a project.The mechanics involved are the most problematic.You can hardly get the precision and noiseless bits that you need if you want to build it yourself. Better find a good job and make enough money to buy anything you want.Anything else is a waste of time .No matter how much you'll spend on this project there's little to no chance to build something like Stellavox sp8.A few years ago you could buy one with 2...3000 dollars.Now it's double the price and still counting.Of course you could buy a 1 micron Fanuc milling machine for 20 -30 000 dollars and start building your parts and that's only 1/10 of what you need to build something like this : Used stellavox sp8 for Sale | HifiShark.com
 
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PRR

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> called BRANDS

No, I know what he means, there used to be naked brand-less cassette transports. Some low-end (department store) "Hi-Fi"s were built around these; also many industrial and computer decks.

I very seriously considered buying one, from across the ocean, back in 1983. I have not seen many since, and the few I saw looked like junk.

The USA was full of set-aside cassette decks, some very good, right up past 1999. I rarely see one now.
 
music soothes the savage beast
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Still plenty of 3head decks on ebay, i got few old onkyos which needed just belt
Onkyos were overlooked, but made good stuff
I still have my top of the line nikko and jvc, still running well
Used to have top of the line tandberg, was fool to sell it...

I think building cassette deck from scratch is foolish, but what am i to criticize, i built fm tuner from scratch including front end...
 

PRR

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A few such fine-decks I saw did not ship to India. One had many dozen countries it could ship to, but India was not on the list. India may be a semi-isolated market. Dunno if this is shipping delay/losses, customs fees, money exchange, or what.
 
Bear in mind with used cassette decks that there may be more aging issues than just the belt. Rubber idler wheels, pinch rollers, take-up reel clutches, and plastic parts can crack or get hard over time and need attention. A well used deck may have have wear in the motor, capstan and other bearings, as well as head wear, especially if metal type tapes were used in them. A good cleaning and lubrication is also advisable, including front panel and internal switches.

Most cassette decks have what's called the "play-record slide switch" which is a long narrow centipede type that reconfigures the circuitry when switching between the play and record modes. In my experience of repairing many hundreds of decks over the years, this switch is responsible for about 95% of cases of electronic failures. To properly clean one of these it must be desoldered from the pcb, dissassembled, and manually cleaned, then all put back together. I would automatically do this on any deck that was more than ten years old.

All of this can make for a reasonable DIY project if a person is interested in working with cassettes. Building a "better" cassette deck from scratch, however, would require top notch machining skills and equipment, as well as some hard to find parts such as heads and rollers. If you have the resources and ability, then go ahead, and please post your progress here as I would enjoy seeing that. However, I agree with others here that it would be much easier to find a used deck in good general condition and experiment with upgrading it after addressing any needed maintenance issues.

Take care,
Doug
 
Guys I searched everywhere , I can find only mono brandless casket transport . Kind a sad .
Problem with eBay is that my family's bank account doesn't allow international transfer. It happened due to some new government policy . Now I can't get stuff from digikey and mouser . Now stuck with element14 .


PRR you are correct india became new isolated market . Custom is becoming horrendous and custom officers are thief's (thanks for stealing my manga , audio cd and novels ). Police don't do against them . They put awful amount of custom on imported goods . Current government wants to make India next China in manufacturing .
I know some Indian amplifier brand like Ahuja and stranger , still their sound quality doesn't stand near to my vintage Philips hifi amplifier thought these Indian amps are made for public address purpose .


Only good quality passive components are available from Vishay and decent caps from Keltron , since they have factory in India . Their was a time when we use to buy Panasonic and nichicon fine gold in India. This make in India movement killed all small scale manufacturers and hobbyist who used to make electronics goods and sell in local market which are far High quality than what today Chinese companies offer . Now we get sub standard Chinese products with label of made in India .
People are now only after spec sheet rather quality . ( I am talking about smartphone companies ) . I will rather take Snapdragon 430 with stock android than Chinese plastic piece with Snapdragon 710 and awful software with ads in it ( xiomi I am talking about it ) .
I hate corporate lobbyist.
 
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