Teac X1000R Vs X2000R models

[sunan03]

I would recomend Sam (Skywave) anyday! He does exellent quality work. He Fixed a X 2000R for me which was in very bad shape. He was able to cure all the problems and even with Lapped heads it sounds very good. He even fixed an Akai GX 747dbx that no one else would touch due to not being service friendly He did excellent work there also.
Same goes to Russ at NJ factory service and Tinman. Those are all good service techs.

 

[Skywavebe]

We now have some feedback of a detailed nature that would suggest that Music Technology should not be used as a service choice. Maybe the owner of the Technics deck would like to enlighten us but to change the caps in a deck and send it back the way it was sent to them for $4000 is just way over the top. Of course Adrian Audio had to straighten it out which is further evidence that it was messed up. If MT did a good job for that $4000 then why didn't Adrian say it does not need any adjustment? It has been my experience now in two occasions, that the higher the price a repair job it like that, it is a sign that something is wrong. I never heard of a $4000 capacitor change even J-corder does not do that.
People check out your service choices well. I am not suggesting I am the only one to work on decks, there are many good people out there but they need to be searched out and a lot of them are NOT in commercial shops where they are rushed to send units out.
So be warned. I wish I did not hear these things but they do happen.

 

[stuwee]

We now have some feedback of a detailed nature that would suggest that Music Technology should not be used as a service choice. Maybe the owner of the Technics deck would like to enlighten us but to change the caps in a deck and send it back the way it was sent to them for $4000 is just way over the top. Of course Adrian Audio had to straighten it out which is further evidence that it was messed up. If MT did a good job for that $4000 then why didn't Adrian say it does not need any adjustment? It has been my experience now in two occasions, that the higher the price a repair job it like that, it is a sign that something is wrong. I never heard of a $4000 capacitor change even J-corder does not do that.
People check out your service choices well. I am not suggesting I am the only one to work on decks, there are many good people out there but they need to be searched out and a lot of them are NOT in commercial shops where they are rushed to send units out.
So be warned. I wish I did not hear these things but they do happen.

Hello Sam, hope all is well up your way! Could you please be more specific...IE "MT", the Op only mentions "Same goes to Russ at NJ factory service and Tinman". Some of us and lurkers might be confused.

And while Sam 'Skywavebe' is correct and quite modest in saying he's not the only high quality tech out there, I wouldn't let anyone other than him touch one of my babies! Well Jer 'jbeckva' did a great job on my Denon DN-790-R cassette deck, so he's another!!

 

[sunan03]

That Technics Rs 1700 was mine. Music technology undertook to do a complete refurb and rebuild the deck back to factory specs and new condition with all possible modifications. The deck was working when it went to them but it was out of specs with loose joints etc. They said it needs a recap so we agreed to that. Estimate went up from $2600 to $3825 to $4000. Deck came back with the recap alright along with the bottle head modification kit installed but the record levels and calibration messed up and the deck was not even auto reversing like it should. They were supposed to rebuild the capstan motor since it was loud. This was in the list of thing I wanted done. They just put some oil in it and send it back with the motor still being loud. Also capstan motor board had loose joints that made the deck go into higher speeds when there is a small viabration. We complained about all these to MT and the service tech told us to send back the unit to them and MT would pay for shipping it back to them. He even admitted he might have used the wrong calibration tape while he was calibrating. Anyway we packed the unit and called to get the shipping label and the customer service woman who answered told me that we had to send it at our own cost and that if MT determines these are new defects they would charge me again. Tried to explain to her what Tim promissed but she hung up on me saying the owner will contact me. The owner never did contact us instead we get a email from Tim talking about shop policies and these are new defects etc. The whole tune changed and he he even said that if these are not easy fixes he will charge me. He gave a quote to rebuild the motor $450. Now they are trying to charge me again to do he same things they should have done in the initial estimate. Contacted my credit card and they told me to get another opinion in what was going on.
Thats where Adrian from Adrians Pro Audio in Canoga Park California came in to this. I took the deck to him and in front of me he hooked up everything to his scope and meters and ran it. He confirmed that the unit was not calibrated properly to the RMGI SM 900 tape that we requested MT to calibrate it to. He confirmed all the other issues I had and also pointed out that the Tension is twice (128g) what it should be. I didn't have a tentelometer so I never noticed this but he check it in front of me and showed me. Tension sould be 65g according to manual. Also showed me that the heads were rubbing against tape while in FF and Rew. Again something I didn't notice. CC told me to do a chargeback with this report and a long story short CC said they don't have jurisdiction over the matter when MT started saying untrue and contridicting statements. The owner told the CC that tension was high because the bottlehead modification was used and that kit has it's own manual that says to adjust it differnetly. I don't know what they are talking about exactly since I don't have the manual. Even Adrian could not check this since he did not have the manual. Anyway what they promissed was factory specs. The owner even said that their tech who claims to have 43 years experience feels that tape rubbing against the heads in FF and Rew is normal for this model. Adrian said it was not normal and adjusted it properly. Mt has not properly aligned the heads and the tape lifters to avoid tape touching. Adrians cost to do everything was $550
Had to go to court in fairfax county VA and sue this company for non performance. Unfortunately they have severly overcharged me and other honest service people charges are $550 so only that is awarded. Adrian even rebuilt the motor and he charged me $45 to replace the bearing whereas MT tried to charge me $450 again to do the same job they didn't do initially. More than the money it's the judgment that I was after, and which we got.
Since this issue I have used Sam, Tinman and Russ to do recaps and full rebuilds and their prices came nothing close to what MT charged and did not do the work for it. Most importatly they get it right the 1st time and we don't have to go back to them with the item.
After this MT business I really got to appreciate people like Sam and the quality of the work they do.

 

[sunan03]

Also reel pro sound guys told me sometime back that they don't do calibrations to a specific tape etc. They called that audiophile thing. They just cleans boards and oil, lube everything for $499 I think with a 3 year warranty or something. They are not proper techs

 

[El Magnifico]

In my many years as a tape decks collector, I have used many techs, locally and internationally. I have used Sam, Russ, Marc (Tinman), Perry, Jack, etc. All are very good. Unfortunately, all of them are also very busy because they work alone. Have no other techs to help them, unfortunately. You have to be very patient and wait for over a year to get a deck fixed, except for Russ. What I can say is that the long wait is worth it. Machines come back working like new for a reasonable price. It's up to you if you want to wait that long or not. In my case, I have no other option but to wait and wait and...

There are other people who also do a fantastic job and faster, but at what price? Usually ridiculous expensive and in the worse case scenario, a bad job as the one we just read here about. So, the good techs are scarce and the new breed coming up are not interested in old tape technology. The remaining ones I have in PR are over 65 years old and when they passed away I'm afraid that nobody else would take up their places.

Chuck Ziska from Oacala, FL is the definitive guru on all Crown equipment, specifically open reel decks. I just got one SX 822 from him and the deck looks, feels and sounds like new. We are talking about a 40 years old deck that took my Revox, Otari & Technics RR and rip them apart!

Good luck guys!

 

[laatsch55]

Amen Bud, well put..

 

[fitz43]

Chuck Ziska from Oacala, FL is the definitive guru on all Crown equipment, specifically open reel decks. I just got one SX 822 from him and the deck looks, feels and sounds like new. We are talking about a 40 years old deck that took my Revox, Otari & Technics RR and rip them apart!

Good luck guys! View attachment 19628

Your deck sure is a beauty....

 

[sunan03]

Chuck Ziska from Oacala, FL is the definitive guru on all Crown equipment, specifically open reel decks. I just got one SX 822 from him and the deck looks, feels and sounds like new. We are talking about a 40 years old deck that took my Revox, Otari & Technics RR and rip them apart!

Good luck guys! View attachment 19628

That is a very nice deck!

 

[sunan03]

Here is a pic of the Technics Rs1700. It looks like a J corder. I didn't get it done by J corder. I got a bodyshop to paint it locally. Also the letters were put by a local silk screening company. Way cheaper than getting the same done by J corder. It is performing very well to this date thanks to Adrians repair job.
Total cost for all this 4235.30(scam by music technology including shipping) +$550 (adrian to repair the deck back to specs) +$100 to paint another $175 to set up and print the letters back on.

Only down side with the Technics decks is their record section. Marc (Tinman) also confirmed that, there is not much adjustments to get the deck to record in all 3 speeds perfectly.

 

[stuwee]

Sorry to hear you had to learn a hard lesson the expensive way, it's a beautiful deck!! What speeds are it working properly at? Recording ie...

 

[El Magnifico]

That's right Sunan. Speaking about this with my friend Marc, he told me that the Technics is an excellent playback deck but for recording you could adjust it properly for just one speed only. Actually, he has 2 of those but I finally choose my Crown with 7.5 & 15 ips speed options.

Anyway, still a beautiful best indeed. I adjusted mine to 7.5 ips:

 

[sunan03]

That's right Sunan. Speaking about this with my friend Marc, he told me that the Technics is an excellent playback deck but for recording you could adjust it properly for just one speed only. Actually, he has 2 of those but I finally choose my Crown with 7.5 & 15 ips speed options.

Anyway, still a beautiful best indeed. I adjusted mine to 7.5 ips:


View attachment 19653

Thats right. MT claimed to have modified EQ circuits for all 3 speeds. I don't know exactly what they did. But they had changed and added couple of resistors. Anyway that made the slower speeds 7.5 and 3.75IPS sound horrible.
Adrian added some capacitors on to tht ebottom of the board and he was able to get them to spec.
Nice deck, did Marc service yours?

 

[sunan03]

Sorry to hear you had to learn a hard lesson the expensive way, it's a beautiful deck!! What speeds are it working properly at? Recording ie...

From Factory it's lacking adjustments to get it pefected on all 3 speeds. Even for for bi directional recordings it's lacking level adjustments for the reverse direction. MY headblock was modified by JRF to do recordings in the forward direction only with auto reverse play.
Adrian did some mods and the deck is getting spec for all 3 speeds now. When he showed me the FR with the deck hooked up to his system 15IPS at -10db went to 30K (26K at 0db). Vey good.
7.5 IPS went to 26K at -20db (but at 0db it dropped down to 15.5K)
3.75 IPS went to 15K at -20db I didn't go to check how it was at odb

Other decks like the X2000 does better at 0db than the technics. 1700 records well but the X 2000R makes better recordings to me anyway.

 

[El Magnifico]

Marc could service almost everything. He specialized in Studer Revox but he also does Tandberg, B&O, Technics,etc. He tried to stay away from Naks,though. Problem is that he's always extremely busy...

 

[El Magnifico]

The Otari MX 5050: another excellent beast with mixed results.

..

 

[sunan03]

Nice MX5050. Marc told me the record section of that is way better than the Technics RS series decks.

Why did you say you get mixed results? You can't set it up perfectly for all 3 speeds?
I guess then the Studer A810 converted to 4 track is the only deck that can be set up perfectly to run 30IPS,15 IPS, 7.5 IPS AND 3.75IPS.
Marc did one, still has some bugs to be sorted out but seems like the ultimate deck

 

[El Magnifico]

Well, this Otari is a Pro machine while the Technics is domestic, but I have never been a Otari's lover! I have always preferred Studer. Yes, Marc Studer deck is excellent, but those decks on pristine conditions cost a fortune today.

 

[Skywavebe]

Well there is a reason some deck have limited frequency response. It is the head design. The Technics, Otari and Pioneer used like heads and they wear a lot longer then the Teac heads. But they also have trouble getting over 20KHz at 7.5 IPS and I suspect it has to do with the extended wear characteristic such that the gaps are much deeper. I guess mods could be done with record EQ but that usually has another side effect that has to be checked on. In my record EQ changes in Teac A series decks I make the record EQ less so that is moving in a more positive direction given I have had some units go out to 26KHz at 7.5 IPS at 0 Vu. This is not an everyday thing though. The M826 test set used at Teac only went to 20KHz so when I give values above that it then means on Bench 1 I am using the Audio Precision One that can sweep up to 150KHz but so far only one deck has swept to 50KHz and it was the Tascam 42 with SM900 tape. Going to 50KHz is just a figure of merit it has nothing to do with recording music unless you record a chorus of dog whistles.
On the X2000R at a later time an error was found in the service manual that they have you desensitize the play level by 6dB and this then results as confirmed on other decks of it recording at +6dB. The correction is to adjust the cal position for -5dBu and not -11dBu and then you need to adjust the meters for 0 VU in tape mode. Then on the source mode the meters are designed wrong and so resistors need to be put on the deck so that the source meters read 0 Vu with a -12 dBu 1 KHz sine wave input. Then under these conditions the X2000R can work like the X1000R or other X or A series decks level wise. Having a deck even with CA heads on it record at 560nWb/M when it is a 1/4 track and has 3.75 IPS on it is just so ridiculous and indicates they did not do a lot of thinking or checking their design. That is why I say that this thing was designed in China as this is the kind of work you commonly see come from there. Kind of how well they contained the Covid virus!