Handling cassette tapes
Cautions regarding handling
Do not touch the surface of the tape or pull the tape out of the cassette.
Tape spooled loosely around the hubs is likely to jam in the pinch rollers and capstans. Before loading the tape into the cassette holder, take up the slack in the tape as shown below.
Maintenance
Cleaning the tape heads
Since the tape is always touching the heads as it travels through the tape transport, in time magnetic particles and dust build up, making the heads dirty. When the heads become extremely dirty, the sound quality becomes poor, the output level is reduced, recording doesn’t work, and previously recorded sounds cannot be erased (etc.). In order to prevent important recordings from coming out as failures, we recommend cleaning the heads, pinch rollers and capstans on a regular basis (after about every 10 hours of use), before the symptoms described above begin to appear.
Tape storage
Place tapes in their cases for storage. Avoid storing tapes on top of TVs or speakers, in sunlight or places of high temperature, or in humid or dusty areas.
Cleaning method
Clean the heads, capstans and pinch rollers using a
To prevent accidental erasure
Cassette tapes have tabs to prevent accidental erasure.
If you remove the tabs after making a recording, the cassette deck cannot be set to record when that tape is loaded. Remove the tabs so that valuable recordings will not be accidentally erased.
Recording (erasure) is not possible when the tabs are removed.
Tab for side A
Tab for side B
To make another recording on a tape whose tabs have been removed, cover the tab holes with adhesive tape.
Tape type detection slot
Adhesive tape
Demagnetizing the tape heads
After the cassette deck has been used for long period of time, the metal parts which contact the tape may become magnetically charged. When this occurs, tape hiss increases, and the high pitched sounds on recorded tapes will be erased. The same type of malfunction could also be caused by bringing a charged metal object (such as a screwdriver) near the tape heads.
We recommend demagnetizing the tape heads regularly (after about every 20 to 30 hours of use) with a commercially available tape head demagnetizer.
You may also use cassette type demagnetizers with this cassette deck. When doing so, be sure to turn the volume of the amplifier all the way down, or you may harm the amplifier or speakers.
For details, read the instructions that come with the tape head demagnetizer.
Be careful not to cover the
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