Teac a-3340s cooling fan

[PAUL Camden]

I was wondering if the cooling fan on my 3340 should run constantly and at the same speed.
I noticed that I can hear the fan when I power up the unit. I never noticed that before. also getting
a slight hum through my amp when in tape monitor mode. goes away when I disconnect.

 

[jlb2]

On the 3340 the fan is just a piece of plastic at the end of the shaft of the capstan motor: you hear it as long as the capstan rotates, which is as long as the recorder is on and the tape pulls the right tension arm (the latter actuates a microswitch). There is nothing abnormal in what you describe.

As for the slight hum, it is normal with unbalanced interconnects. You may be able to reduce it by inverting the mains plug: contrary to common belief, neutral and phase are not the same for transformers: their inversion can make a difference to voltage between the equipment ground and the earth.

 

[PAUL Camden]

hear is another issue, just bought a new tape did a little recording then recorded over it. I can faintly hear the previous recording between songs.
so I recorded with no input and erased the whole tape. when I play the tape I can still hear very faint previous recording. its like it wont completely erase.

 

[jlb2]

This is probably normal, your deck was never a great eraser: only 60 dB according to the user manual. A Revox easily achieves 15 dB more than that. What you can do is to erase the reused tapes before you actually record on them. Just recording silence on them is enough. No need to do it several times.

A possible failure is that the heads have gone out of alignement: if the erase head is not in line with the others, it will not erase the whole width of the tracks. If the residual level does not decrease if you erase several times, that's the sign that you have this problem. You cannot solve this yourself, you need a skilled technician in a well-equipped workshop to realign the heads. However it is a rare problem, unless someone has tampered with the machine.

 

[PAUL Camden]

This is probably normal, your deck was never a great eraser: only 60 dB according to the user manual. A Revox easily achieves 15 dB more than that. What you can do is to erase the reused tapes before you actually record on them. Just recording silence on them is enough. No need to do it several times.

A possible failure is that the heads have gone out of alignement: if the erase head is not in line with the others, it will not erase the whole width of the tracks. If the residual level does not decrease if you erase several times, that's the sign that you have this problem. You cannot solve this yourself, you need a skilled technician in a well-equipped workshop to realign the heads. However it is a rare problem, unless someone has tampered with the machine.

Thanks, I erased again but turned up the line adjustments and that seemed to do it. not sure if that helped or just the 2nd erase did the trick

 

[jlb2]

Very unlikely that the gain adjustment has anything to do with it. The first time you erase the tape, you reduce the level of the recorded signal by 60 dB, the second time you attenuate it by a further 60dB, that's 120 dB. You shoudn't be able to hear anything at this point, the residual level is way below the tape hiss. In any case it shows that your heads are well aligned and that's good news.

 

[PAUL Camden]

Very unlikely that the gain adjustment has anything to do with it. The first time you erase the tape, you reduce the level of the recorded signal by 60 dB, the second time you attenuate it by a further 60dB, that's 120 dB. You shoudn't be able to hear anything at this point, the residual level is way below the tape hiss. In any case it shows that your heads are well aligned and that's good news.

Thanks for the help, new to the reel to reel stuff.

 

[jlb2]

Thanks for the help, new to the reel to reel stuff.

No problem, glad I could help you