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Otari MX-5050 B2HD Low record level in one channel

J

jacob45632

New Member
I just picked up this Otari, my dream reel to reel, from facebook marketplace. The deck can play a tape just fine, with both the two and four track heads, but when I go to record, channel 1 barely registers on the meter. Monitoring the source sounds fine, and adjusting the record level has some effect but cannot bring up the level to equal the other channel when monitoring the tape. I’ve went through and cleaned all of the switches, pots, and relays with deoxit, but this had no effect. This is the first time I’ve really been stumped by something this bad. What should I try next?
 
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Rap on the record and bias relays (solder side of board) and see if that changes anything while recording music or a tone.

When recording, the head switch has to be set to 2-track. Is it? I am assuming your deck version is 2 track record.
 
tapetech said:
Rap on the record and bias relays (solder side of board) and see if that changes anything while recording music or a tone.

When recording, the head switch has to be set to 2-track. Is it? I am assuming your deck version is 2 track record.
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I tried tapping on the relays and sanding the contacts. I traced the bias signal from the heads back through the bias pot and the relays and I’m getting a clean 9v sine wave at about 150khz. And yes, this deck is the two track version and I have the selector switch set to the 2 track play head.
 
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