Beocord 1900 - playing cassettes recorded elsewhere sound great but recorded on it sound awful

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dbussone Posted: Mon, Sep 3 2018 12:00 AM

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I recently bought an old Beocord 1900 cassette recorder/player.  I have it set up with my Beomaster 3300.  It looks fantastic... and sounds fantastic when I play commercial tapes as well as tapes I've recorded on my Beocord 5500 on another system.  But when I record anything on the Beocord 1900, they sound absolutely terrible.  I've cleaned the heads and inside very thoroughly, played around with the recording level, Dolby NR, etc.  No change.  Very disappointing - as I said, it looks great and sounds great playing all tapes, but I can't record on it.  Is this fixable?  Any suggestions?  Or should I just give up and get a newer model like my 5500 (as I said, tapes recorded on it sound fantastic).  I suppose the "tested and works perfectly" description on eBay did not apply to the recording aspect :-/  

Any advice would be very much appreciated.  Thank you!!!  

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Dillen replied on Mon, Sep 3 2018 9:18 AM

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Replace capacitors.
Check the record/playback switch contacts and the BIAS circuitry.

Martin

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ekjdm14 replied on Tue, Sep 4 2018 2:58 PM

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I suppose it largely depends on how it sounds, As well as the above I'd check if there's a difference when recording onto blank tapes or re-recording on used ones. If there is then the magnet that wipes the tape prior to recording could be a problem. Have the heads perhaps been subject to a knock in the past and gone far enough out of alignment to affect recording quality?

Also how do the heads look wear-wise? (Bear in mind these are just suggestions based on what I'd look at first, and I don't have a huge amount of experience with tape recorders).

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Dillen replied on Tue, Sep 4 2018 5:52 PM

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ekjdm14:

I suppose it largely depends on how it sounds, As well as the above I'd check if there's a difference when recording onto blank tapes or re-recording on used ones. If there is then the magnet that wipes the tape prior to recording could be a problem. Have the heads perhaps been subject to a knock in the past and gone far enough out of alignment to affect recording quality?

 

Also how do the heads look wear-wise? (Bear in mind these are just suggestions based on what I'd look at first, and I don't have a huge amount of experience with tape recorders).

It's a combi-head for record/playback.
If the head was out of alignment it would playback its own recordings better than tapes recorded on other decks.

I don't recall ever seeing a worn-down tapehead in a Beocord 1900 - they are surprisingly long-lived and wear-proof, but of course
it could happen.  It would affect recording the most - but you would also be able to hear degradation to the playback quality.

The "magnet that wipes the tape" would be the erase head. If faulty, recordings already on the tape would not be
erased properly (or not at all) and you would be able to hear both them (or faint remains of them) and any new recordings made on the same tape.

Martin

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solderon29 replied on Tue, Sep 4 2018 6:27 PM

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See if there is a wire broken off the erase head,thats the one to the left of the central record/play head.

That would stop the bias oscillator working properly and could explain your problem?

Nick

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dbussone replied on Tue, Sep 4 2018 9:06 PM

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Hi Martin - 

Thanks for your reply.  I found a service manual on eBay for $12, so just ordered it (as I'm not really experienced in taking these things apart, replacing - or even identifying - parts, etc.)  Once I get that I will see what I can figure out.  I've actually tried recording a few more things - turned off the "loudness" setting on the Beomaster.... the recordings still aren't sounding as good as from the Beocord 5500 - but seems like they are improving for some reason.  Maybe it just hasn't been used to record for so long???  Anyway - thank you again.  I will likely come back to you with more questions once I get the service manual.  

Cheers,

Doug

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dbussone replied on Tue, Sep 4 2018 9:16 PM

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I've tried both new and recording over tapes - no difference.  Although they seem to be getting better the more i try for some reason.  I found a service manual on eBay and ordered that, so I will check that out along with the suggestions on here (as I basically have no idea what/where the parts mentioned are and/or how to replace them.  It's also weird the "mic" input doesn't seem to work same as my 5500... I guess it's ONLY for microphones, and not to be used as an aux input - my 5500 I can plug my computer right into that and stream concerts to record while listening through my system.  On the 1900 I have to connect through the CD input (there is no aux input anywhere on the beomaster 3300).  Anyways.  Thanks again for the response.  Just a bit frustrating because every used B&O component I've purchased in the past has worked absolutely perfectly... receivers, turntable, speakers, even my other tape deck.  This is the first thing I've had a problem with - especially annoying after being described as "works perfectly".... so I feel like I have it hooked up wrong or something :-/