Hello community. I was lucky enough to get into this hobby not to long ago by getting myself a very nice WM-D6C, unfortunately it's a little problem child. The latest of my woes is that tapes I play through it sound like they are sent through a lowpass filter or have the "underwater" effect on them. The magnitude of the effect is cyclical i.e. it gets stronger and weaker with some regularity, though at least from what I can tell this cycle doesn't correspond to the rotation of the tape spools. However, it also doesn't seem to be a problem with the tape, because playing around with FF/REW and PLAY/PAUSE a little I can make the "peaks" of the effect appear in different parts of the song. Though to be honest it's a little hard to tell if that's really the case or I'm just losing my mind, so take this part with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure I was able to do this earlier, but trying to replicate right now doesn't seem to work. EDIT: I've just played through this tape back to back (the sample provided is from the beginning of Side B) and the pattern has clearly changed. The very beginning of the song was crystal clear and the muffled sound only came in a second or so after. So there is definitely something funky going on here, but I don't know enough about cassette players to understand what. Unfortunately this is the only tape player I own, so I can't verify how that tape would sound on another device. I've provided a sample of what it sounds like from a tape I've recorded yesterday. It's Type I, though I've also had the same happen with Type II tapes, all recorded and played without any Dolby NR. Also I could have sword this sometimes happens with tapes that are fine the day I record them and and then this issue crops up a day or two later. In addition, it feels like it only happens at the beginning of the tape and after a few minutes it becomes weaker and weaker until I can't tell if it's still there or not, but I would have to do more testing to really confirm this. The only things I did to the player so far, is clean the tapehead, capstan and pinch wheel with IPA. As well as open the player up (after it ate a tape and started making a rattling noise when playing) to replace the two rubber belts, the rubber ring around the capstan, the rubber wheel pressing against the capstan (sorry I'm not well versed in the technical terms yet, I believe it's the wheel responsible for FF/REW) as well as putting some oil/grease on some of the components and cleaning the motor. I've skipped replacing the wheel hidden under here, because it looked very hard to access and I didn't want to break anything. The most frustrating part is narrowing down the symptoms, so if anyone has suggestions what other tests I could do to figure out what the problem is, I'm open to them. EDIT: Also to check if it's just an issue with my recording, I've just briefly tried playing someone else's mixtape I got at the thrift store and it shows the same symptoms EDIT: After some more testing and digging online I might have a suspect. The tapes this happens with, have these vertical "kinks" in them. It's a bit hard to take a picture of and is better seen on video, when the light reflects off them. I would say pretty confidently that this is something my player does to the tape, so my question to anyone more knowledgeable than me is: How, why and what can I do about it? (made this thread in the wrong section by accident so reposing it here)
It sounds like a tape path problem, especially if it is mostly happening at the beginning of the tape. The tape is probably riding up or down on the pinch roller. You will see this if you check with a mirror cassette. There are a few possible causes including: A bad pinch roller; Pinch roller pressure too high or too low; Take up reel tension too high or too low; Supply reel tension too high or too low; Some tapes are more prone to this problem than others, especially very thin tape.
Thanks for the reply. I obviously don't own a mirror cassette, but using a flashlight and magnifying glass, I'm pretty sure I can see it riding up or down a little. A few follow-up questions if I may: How would I be able to narrow down which one of those causes it is? Could those kinks in the tape be an indicator, or is that something unrelated. Is it something that can be fixed? Is it dangerous (except maybe to the tapes) to continue using it as is for now? I don't think a professional repair service, nor any specialized tools I might need fit in my budget at the moment, so maybe I'll just have to live with this for now. Sorry if any of these questions are dumb, I'm quite new in this space and some of it is a little overwhelming.
The ridges on the tape may have been caused by tape bunching up between the pinch roller and capstan. This can happen when the take up spool is not turning. Low take up spool tension could cause this. Were the ridges caused by this machine or by another tape deck? The two things I would do first are replace the pinch roller with a new one and replace the larger belt, which drives the take up spool. I cannot say for certain that these will fix the problem but it is a good place to start. Both parts can be bought from www.fixyouraudio.com If the pinch roller and belt are original they will need replacing anyway.
from what you describe, it sounds more like a tape transport issue than an electronic fault. The cyclic “underwater” effect together with the vertical kinks on the tape suggests the tape may not be travelling smoothly through the capstan/pinch roller area. In situations like this I would first check the pinch roller and possibly the flywheel/capstan assembly. If the pinch roller is worn, hardened or slightly out of shape it can cause the tape to ride up or down and lose proper contact with the head, which can produce the kind of muffled sound you describe. If you end up needing parts, one place I use is webspareparts.com. They also manufacture pinch rollers on request, so it might be worth checking there.
Hard to say with certainty, since I did buy these tapes second hand. But the fact that so far I only found them on the tapes that I played on the D6C doesn't sounds like a coincidence. Sounds good, that's probably what I'll do. In fact I already did replace the belt with a spare from fixyouraudio after having problems with low take up tensions. For some reason it just didn't occur to me to order a pinch roller from the, while I'm at it. Thanks for the input.
