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Gareth Magennis

"hr(bob) " wrote in message
...
On Nov 24, 5:05 pm, "Gareth Magennis"
wrote:
"hr(bob) " wrote in message

...

My car (built-in) tape player seems to be getting strange in its
volume. Associated radio is fine, tape volume is down. I thought
that I should demag the tale head. But, the opening is only barely
big enough to insert a tape, and my 120V 60Hz demagger has a 1/2" long
tip at 1/3" diameter, affixed on the end of a tube that is at least 1"
diameter so there is no way to get the demagger tip anywhere near the
tape head. I could maybe tape a large nail to the end of the existing
tip, and reach the vicinity of the head, but I don't think that will
so anything. I don't know what the magnetic structure is under/inside
the head, but assume it is shaped to deliberately have flux going
outside the head. It's not worth it to make a coil small enough to
fit into the opening. I understand there are demagnetizing tapes
available, but I am cheap and don't want to spring for the $$ unless I
am reasonably (66+%) sure it will work.

Thoughts, ideas, polite suggestions.

My initial thoughts are that tape heads that need demagnetising do not
generally exhibit the kind of extreme symptoms you are experiencing.

I would forget demagnetising as a solution right now, and try and
establish
the real cause of the dramatic loss of level.

Gareth.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks Bill and Gareth,

OK - that's two votes against demagnetizing, plus I was skeptical
myself. So, now I have to decide whether to move my tapes to CD's, or
tear into a 10 year old car radio/tape player /cd player. I think it
will be easier to move a few tapes to CDs than tear up the car radio.

You could of course convert your tapes to high quality mp3, and fit them all
on a single CD or SDcard, which could then be played on just about any cheap
slot-in replacement for your original car player with far better results
than you have now.

Gareth.