Vintage Products

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Søren Hammer — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:09:55 GMT

I just had the time to do a couple more, the rest wil be done on sunday.

1978 Maxell UDXLII: 05.1, 04.2, 04.3, 07.4, 06.5

2007 Fuji DRII: 15.1, 12.2, 02.3, 08.4, 07.5

1995 Fuji DRII: 13.1, 10.2, 07.3, 08.4, 06.5

2005 Fuji DRI: 12.1, 12.2, 01.3, 10.4, 09.5

2008 Maxell UR: 13.1, 12.2, 01.3, 11.4, 09.5

1983 TDK SF: 11.1, 12.2, 02.3, 10.4, 08.5

1979 Maxell MX (one of the very first metal tapes): 08.1, 05.2, 05.3, 11.4, 07.5

2006 Maxell Metal-CD: 15.1, 12.2, 03.3, 10.4, 09.5

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

PaoloCipollone — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:57:50 GMT

Hi Søren (I correctly spelled your name, this time ),

any contribution would be veeery well accepted! As for your second 'not fast-forwarding' 9000, try to start the autocal not exactly at the beginning. The deck will not need to fast-forward to pass over the non magnetic leader. If the rewind works, then the autocal will complete successfully. Also, if you can, on the tapes you judge the more stable, try excercising autocal repeatedly (two or three times), on different locations and flipping the tape over and see what happens. Anyway small differences should be normal, according to the SM.

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Søren Hammer — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:45:12 GMT

Thanks, Paolo!

I have two BC9000's, but one of them recently developed the fault that it can not Fast forward (idler wheel, again), therefore it can't complete the calibration process.

The Beocord 8004 really is a great machine; it works just like a 9000, but without the CCC, the two-head construction makes it more resistant to wear and it plays back tapes just as good as the 9000. The BC5000 is also a very fine machine to me, it is like the 8004 in terms of quality. The big playback/record heads on these machines are difficult to wear out, but the 6000/8000-series of machine has the problem that the idlerwheels can go bad.

The 5500/6500 are also good machines, the auto-reverse is practical and makes them suitable as playback-only decks if you don't want to wear the heads on your recording deck too much.

I can easily list these cassettes if you need the data:

1978 Maxell UDXLII

2007 Fuji DRII

2002 Fuji DRII + DRI

1995 Fuji DRII + DRI

2008 Maxell UR

2009 Sony HF (a crappy tape, though)

1983 TDK SF

1979 Maxell MX (one of the very first metal tapes)

2006 Maxell Metal-CD

1981 Maxell UDXLI

1991 Fuji FR-Metal

1988 TDK D

1994 Philips MCX II master tape

1988+1993 Maxell UR

1981 Maxell UL

1989 Memorex DB1

1992 Fuji FR-II

1988 Philips MCXII

1990 Philips FSXI

1977 Agfa Sterochrom

1977 EMI X1000

1992 BASF Crome-Extra

1983 Philips Ultra Chrome

Fuji FX-I

1985 Philips UCXII

1985 Philips UCII

1977 Agfa Super Ferro

1996 Maxell XLII-S

1996 TDK CDingII

Raks'N'roll type I tape

1992 TDK SA

1992 Sony HF

193 TDK SA

1985 Maxell Epitaxial XLII-S

1983 Maxell XLII-S

1993 Denon HD8

1978 BASF Chromdioxid SM

Many vintages noted are estimates, I can provide pictures of every cassette and note all readings.

Almost all cassettes are 90 minutes, some are 60 minutes

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

PaoloCipollone — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:32:55 GMT

Great post, Soren! I see you have 2 BC 9000's. Are they consistent in their results?

Edit: I tried another nos 1979 SA C-90 and repeatedly trying autocal I often found the bias values are perfectly balanced...

I'm not that certain I'll refine calibration, after all...

I have other quality stuff, but this is my first Beocord. How would you rate the 8004 and the 5000?

Ciao,

Paolo

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Søren Hammer — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:48:20 GMT

TDK:

D, ca. 1992: 13.1, 11.2, 03.3, 11.4, 08.5

D, 1996: 10.1, 11.2, 07.3, 09.4, 12.5

D, 2010: 14.1, 11.2, 05.3, 11.4, 08.5

SA, 2007: 11.1, 13.2, 00.3, 11.4, 10.5

TDK MA, 1996: 15.1, 13.2, 01.3, 11.4, 11.5

Emtec/BASF:

FE-1: 13.1, 10.2, 03.3, 13.4, 10.5

Chrome super II: 03.1, 00.2, 07.03, 08.04, 05.5

LH-1: 11.1, 10.2, 02.3, 12.4, 09.5

Maxell:

XLII, 1991: 08.1, 11.2, 06.3, 09.4, 08.5

UDCDII (100 min), 2006: 05.1, 04.2, 04.3, 07.4, 06.5

I can do about 10-15 more if requested

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Søren Hammer — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:10:25 GMT

You still need some figures for calibration? I have about 20 different models of tape to try if yes!

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

PaoloCipollone — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:43:43 GMT

Hi Jacques,

thanks for the reply. Did you carry on the complete calibration, as per service manual, or did you start directly at page 3-6 , with record calibration?

I have tried a nos 1979 TDK SA C-90 (which I strongly believe is the stock tape used for calibration) and the Beocord gives a constant 0,5 dB higher value for the left channel.

I tried at the beginning, center, end of tape, flipped the tape over, same values throughout.

As soon as I have some time I think I'll go on with the calibration and refine everything, but the fact that the deck is so consistent after almost 30 years is quite amazing. I wonder what is other members' experience.

Paolo

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

chartz — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:55:54 GMT

Paolo,

I adjusted calibration following the procedure in the service manual. Basically, you have to put it in service position: 1S1, 13P31 (page 3-5).

Then the settings are done using the glow of the NO STORE LED.

The heads should be perfect of course, and the pinch roller must be in perfect condition for the tape not to skew, which could affect your left channel settings significantly I hear (thanks Martin)!

These steps reduced the differences, but there still is not a perfect balance between the channels. The tapes recorded on the Beocord 9000 sound very bright when played on a Japanese machine, especially Naks!

Anyway, I now have a Beocord 5000 which is an equally good deck!

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

PaoloCipollone — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:19:51 GMT

Thanks, Jacques!

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

chartz — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:27:37 GMT

Hi Paolo,

I'll get back to you when I have some free time, but message received!

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

PaoloCipollone — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:52:29 GMT

Hi Jacques,

I recently got a Beocord 9000. It seemed like someone tried some adjustment inside, but after azimuth calibration, playback level calibration (I set 200 nWb/meter as -1dB on the meters) and line out level (all heavily misadjusted) the deck is fine. I haven't had the chance to measure its frequency response yet, but according to a Audio magazine review I have and its frequency reponse plots, it is performing as it should. It is very slightly on the warm side with type I, perfect and virtually indistinguishable from the source with type II (say a late generation Sony UCX-S), about the same with type IV. All testing has been done so far with Dolby C.

With several tapes of different vintage I have observed the phenomenon you mention (up to 1.5 dB bias difference between channels, after autocal. Usually, but not always, the left channel exhibits a higher value). Did the calibration you did solve this problem? How did you proceed?

I have read that at least another member has observed a similar behavior. May it be normal, since the right channel is closer to the edge of the tape and requires a different amount of energy? Any other member with similar experience?

Thanks in advance,

Paolo

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

chartz — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:47:50 GMT

Oh no, I have loads of cassettes of different vintages, from 1971 to 2010, but the majority of my stock dates from the 80's and 90's.

The Sony HF are new though!

Jacques

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Friedmett — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:37:54 GMT

Well it looks like you are using what's new in stores right?

Cassete tapes today are not what they used to be.

The golden age were 1980 to 1993 somewhere along those years.

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

chartz — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:26:01 GMT

Hello,

Does anybody know why I get end-of-tape wow?

This is a shame because I really do get great, subtle recordings (although bass seems a little overblown on some tapes).

Rewind and FF pose no problem and the belts are new.

On a different subject, I also noticed the deck doesn't like BASF CRII tapes which have such an irregular response (+3 dB at 20 KHz, with a big dip of -2 dB at 10-12 KHz); by raising bias a lot, the deck softens the sound , so these tapes are best recorded without any calibration but they do come out very bright!

Sony UX are very flat after calibration, and so are Sony HF (very cheap cassettes currently available).

Jacques

Re: Beocord 9000 auto-calibration

Friedmett — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:06:59 GMT

In my case I think its more misuse of tapes.

I was not really into tapes as much but only had cassete players for the reason of being able to play tapes and they were always in my different form of stereos from 1989 and up to this day. A cheap medium to have music on.

With Beosystem 6000 and 8000 I got Beocords with them. The Beocord 9000 came first and I had to have it.

My Beosystem 6500 has both 6500 and 5500 in both perfect condition. The 5500 was in a thrift store for cheap. How do you say no?

Anyway my "tape love" made the collection to be type I and II. I never recorded with the Beocord 9000 just playback. Then I realized that I never had or saw a type IV tape anywhere. I got 1 TDK MA-XG90 from ebay and wow the Becord 9000 sounds great. Next I managed to locate 50 TDK MA-XG60N tapes NOS for cheap due to seller not knowing Ebay prices and since then I been more carefull with my tapes. All TDK MA-XG tapes are kept in boxes when not in use.

My other type I and II have been left all ower my different living places and dust,dirt and mistreated. Broken boxes and sometimes badly recorded(cheap stereos) so they are not in prime condition. I got 44 left of the Metal TDK tapes still sealed so its not recording those that has ruined the heads. In fact I seldom record with Beocord 9000. Dillen has done a service tjeck on it and if the heads were bad he would had noticed it.

I got some more tapes today.

BASF LH-EI 60 type I '85-'87

BASF LH extra I 90 type I '82-'84

Maxell UD II 90 '85-'86

They sound good and looks to be recorded only once. All 6 (2 of each) tapes are in very good condition.

I will post some Recording numbers on these as well soon.