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real world cassette deck maintenance

satkinsn

satkinsn

low end audio
Subscriber
When I look at the tape based playlist over in music forums, I'm amazed by the number of cassettes still being used.

And I've read the recommendations for cleaning and demagnetizing cassette decks, but what I want to know is - out in the real world, how often do people *really* do it? On a schedule? When the deck starts to sound lousy?

s.
 
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Well I got my Technics RS-BR465 new back in 1990 and really did'nt get to use it much . I just got it hooked up and playing again after maybe...six years . So yesterday I did the standard cleaning and deoxing , demagnetizing . So....I just started .
 
My real world

Not cassette, but reel2reel, same concept applies though...
Before recording, obviously, I clean all heads and guides. Then, usually, I clean heads again between sides. What the heck, it takes 20 seconds. Make note of any brown oxide removed. This helps in knowing which tapes are shedders. I've whittled my collection down to tapes that shed very little, if at all.

Doing playback only? I clean guides and heads perhaps every 4 or 5 tapes. Again, I've gotten to the point that I know potential shedding tapes; the vast majority of my tapes shed very little.

One observation of mine--the earlier tape contact points take the most shed -- this often is the initial guide and erase head. Do not neglect to clean the erase head!
 
Aside from cleaning the heads/guides, I will also demagnetize everything every once in a while. The major issue with magnetization is that, your recordings will supposedly start losing their high-end due to being partially erased by the minute magnetic charges that build up over time. My reality is that I have yet to actually hear any degradation on any tapes that I have recorded, some recorded close to 25 years ago! So, taking the time to demagnetize once every blue moon does make a difference.
 
mayidunk said:
Aside from cleaning the heads/guides, I will also demagnetize everything every once in a while. The major issue with magnetization is that, your recordings will supposedly start losing their high-end due to being partially erased by the minute magnetic charges that build up over time. My reality is that I have yet to actually hear any degradation on any tapes that I have recorded, some recorded close to 25 years ago! So, taking the time to demagnetize once every blue moon does make a difference.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, how do you do your demagnetizing?

s.

btw - I bow in the direction of your sig.
 
I usually do head/path maintenance for every 8-12 hours of play time. I demagnetize with a Gemini demag cassette every other cleaning.
 
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