Hello,

I was wondering.

When I try to calibrate an old metal cassette (with no specific holes, detected as chrome) with the calibration system, isn't it supposed to re-classify it as a metal, thus lighting the metal led?

Mine stays on chrome. 

Also, I'm a bit worried as the values given are not very stable, once returning 5.2, then 6.2 for instance. 

Bias difference between R and L is high (1 to 1.5 dB).

BASF Chrome Super II      8.1     5.2      8.3     7.4      6.5

TDK AD (Type I)                6.1     4.2      8.3     12.4   11.5

TDK SA                             9.1     6.2      2.3     8.4      9.5

What do you think?

Jacques

I only had 1 gold Maxel type II which got identified as another type when inserted into the Beocord.

Even though the auto calibration does the job very well the end result sounds best when you manualy select the right tape type.

From the manual:

The 5 steps of the auto calibration.

1. Bias left channel

2. Bias right channel

3. Recording equalizing, adjusted to the tape's treble sensitivity

4. Sensitivity, medium frequency

5. PPM adjustment, 0 dB corresponding to 2% distortion

The manual give some samples how it might look like for the 4 different tape types.

A complete check might look like this:

Ferro          10.1, 10.2, 12.3, 08.4, 11.5

Ferrochrom  09.1, 09.2, 13.3, 08.4, 11.5

Chrom        11.1, 10.2, 13.3, 11.4, 10.5

Metal         08.1, 07.2, 13.2, 09.4, 11.5

The tapes used at the time was:

Ferro: BASF LH I C60

FerroChrome: Sony FeCr C90

Chrome: BASF chrom II C90

Metal: Scotch Metafine C90

Old tapes can get different readings depending on alot of factors mainly age and storage/general treatment through the years.

Thanks. So what the manual says about metals isn't necessarily true then.

Could you test old tapes in your Beocord for me please, and post your results?

Jacques

I will do later today.

The manual is right. I found the answer to the Metal tape selection in the manual too. Some Metal tapes do not have the holes that the Beocord identify as Metal type so you have to select it manualy. Then it says better still use the auto calibration.

In any case even if the tape gets a NO store red light the recording is still going through the 5 phases for optimal recording for the tape. No store means the Beocord can't give the numbers or store them in the memory.

Okay, thanks.

I took the plunge and re-adjusted everything, which is not too difficult on this deck in service mode (great stuff).

After adjustments, an old metal tape without the metal detection holes now turns to metal (the metal led glows) during calibration!

Pure magic!

Hello,

Would anyone share their Beocord 9000 experience please?

Jacques

Thanks. Can you tell us how you did your adjustments (is the service manual correct?) and what results you go for each type of tapes please?

Jacques

Ok I finally got around to do some tests on different tapes laying around.

TDK SA-X 90 II late '90s

07.1-07.2-04.3-09.4-10.5

Maxell UR 90 I mid '90s

02.1-00.2-00.3-08.4-06.5

TDK SA90 II Late '90s

09.1-06.2-05.3-04.4-03.5

Maxell XL II 60 Late '80s

06.1-03.2-05.3-01.4-01.5

Basf FEI Ferro extra 90 I late '90s

00.1-00.2-00.3-09.4-06.5

TDK MA-XG 60N IV 1990 from B&O factory 4 in Struer.

00.1-00.2-00.3-04.4-05.5

TDK CD Power 110 II Late '90s US version

01.1-00.2-00.3-08.4-06.5

Maxell UDII CD II 110 Late '90s US version

03.1-00.2-00.5-05.4-04.5

Some tapes gave a NO STORE which means that no numbers is given and you can't store them in the memory but the tape is still optimized for the best recording for tape in any case.

Audio Magnetics 60 I late '70s

Basf Ferro Extra I 90 '94

Sony HF 90 I Pure gamma '93

TDK D90 I late '90s

Maxell Ur60 I mid '90s

I hope this is good information to you. I have never seen these numbers before and I have no idea what to do with them but the CC calibration is great and I always use it when recording.

Anyway there might be some Beocord 9000 owners wondering how to see these numbers but do not have a manual.

Step 1

Find a tape and put it in the Beocord 9000

Step 2

Rewind A side and push record open

Step 3

Push Rec call shortly. Longer íncludes the timecalibration but its still ok and do not ruin the process other than take a minute longer.

Step 4

When the Rec call is done push stop and tape type. The counter flashes 0000

Step 5

Push 1-5 and you will get the 5 numbers one by one. Sometimes you have to repeat step 4 with stop and tape type to get the numbers.

Be aware that a little tone will be recorded on the tape about 40 seconds into the tape. It lasts about 10 seconds.

Very informative, Friedmett!

And thanks for posting the instructions!

Yes, very nice indeed!

So you too get up to 1.5 dB difference between channels on some tapes. I wonder whether this is down to head wear or tape wear (or both). I got stabler (more stable?) results with new Sony Fe tapes, the only ones I can get at the local supermarket.

New heads are expensive (100$). The only sign of wear I can see is on the centre piece of metal between the siamesed heads, but not on the heads themselves!

Many thanks!

Jacques

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.

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

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.

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

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

Thanks, Jacques!

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!

Hi Jacques,

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

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

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

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

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.