u/schill

A personal fan moment: I got to see this piece of steam engineering history (engine #374) in Vancouver, BC, for the anniversary of its arrival in 1856. While not "the same" as the BTTF 3 locomotive, it has some similar elements and it was pretty special to get to see in person.

I happen to own a replica "Time Machine", and I lucked out in finding parking right out front (IG) - a bit of extra fun for fans who might make the connection.

I was told the locomotive engine doesn't actually "work" these days, but the steam portion is active and I got to pull the cord and set off the whistle. Sounded great!

A solidly-built deck with a very nice champagne faceplate. 100VAC model from Japan, ~1980. I'm no expert, but I had fun taking apart and cleaning the tape assembly - removing old belt gunk, all new belts, oil and grease, polishing the capstan flywheel, disassembling, cleaning and recapping the motor and more.

It's not perfect, but I got the wow & flutter decently close to the 0.08% WRMS spec, maybe 0.1%. I adjusted the default bias levels for type I, II and IV tapes to sound pretty good, but I still get the best results by adjusting the bias using the calibration controls on the front panel.

A number of NOS, unopened crowd favourites - and a few commodity and random finds. Descriptions are based on research online.

1. TDK MA-XG 90, 1986. Famous metal tape, alloy shell gives it a notable weight in the hand. Removeable recording tabs.

2. TDK MA-R 46. Japan, 1979. One of the first of this design style, which IIRC introduced the famously heavy and cool metal alloy shell and removable tabs you can take out and rotate to allow or prevent recording.

3. TDK MA60. 1983? I got this one from Japan, not too sure of its history.

4. TDK MA-XG Fermo 46 (1990, Japan-specific to start?) Possibly one of the last MA-series models. Allegedly has removable tabs, too.

5. TDK SA-XS60. ~1990? Designed "for CD." Triple-layer type II, fancy-pants "Super Avilyn" technology (TDK's response to Chrome-based type II) and high-end shell mechanisms. Some versions around this time have red reels.

6. TDK SA-90. 1990. The workhorse and a crowd fave. Type II, Super Avilyn. Considered the most successful TDK cassette ever, great performance for a price.

7. Sony Metal Master 60. Japan, late 1980s. White ceramic composite shell for improved rigidity and low noise. Heavy in the hand.

8. Maxell UDXLII 90. 1982. Famously-loved type II. Premium shell, looks and performance.

9. Tascam "Master 424" High Bias Cobalt Type II C-60 tape (2022), with "gold collector reels." +4dB high output over standard type II tapes. These are a throwback to the original multi-channel Tascam Portastudio tape deck mixer / recorders of the early 1980s, which featured earlier "studio" type II tapes with metal reels styled similarly to larger tape decks in their marketing at the time.

10. Memorex dB C90, Type I. ~1993. Allegedly good quality for the time, a "bonafide hi-fi super-ferric" tape that might be highly cobalt-doped per some comments. $7.99 for a 10-pack at K-Mart.

11. AKAI "Ferrum Chrome" C60, Type III. This is a unique one which may have been provided to studios, a mix of ferric (type I) and chrome (type II) combined before type IV (metal) became a thing. These can allegedly shed or something, I have yet to see.

12. Maxell UD90. Type 1. (1982?) The perfect tape to put "Edward Van Halen" on. IYKYK.

13. Maxell XLII 90. 2002, US. Allegedly one of the last great-sounding type II tapes.

tl;dr: if your deck has a bias adjustment feature, try it out. You may get better sound than the deck's default settings.

I've serviced the motor, replaced belts, greased and oiled the tape assembly in this machine. This is a demo of adjusting recording bias on a used "Studio 52" Type IV ("metal") tape, mostly for the looks, from 1984.

By tweaking the recording bias, I can get sound that's very close to the source and better than the somewhat distorted sound I get at higher levels on type II and IV tapes with the deck's default settings. At least, that's my findings thus far.

Disclaimers / excuses: Machine partially reassembled here, not all bits back on front panel. Recording volume (to tape) vs. source not always matched, I did that more toward the end.

"Art car" is fitting, because I was advised to consider this less of a car and more of a sculpture on wheels. It's a privilege to have and share. Very effective at surprising people at red lights, etc. Never gets old.

(Disclaimer / quoting sub rules here: "Shitty does not mean bad - Feel free to post shitty mods that are awesome!")