Im playing back some very old HiFi VHS audio tapes and Im getting a static noise in the background like the reception was weak when I recorded them but I cant remember what the quality was when I originally recorded them as it was over 30 years ago. Its really audible when the DJ is talking, not so much on the music tracks, almost like he had his gain set too high on his mic. The recording VCR had auto level control so no manual control for levels as opposed to my 3 current ones that do have audio level controls. Could dirty heads cause HiFI background noise like this? I dont have any tracking issues (hifi indicator is locked in), wondering if the FM encoding/decoding circuitry is drifting or outright failing from bad caps or something. My current VCR is a low hour (only 130 hours in the service menu) and I cleaned the heads probably 10 hours prior to these tapes being played.
