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Hey.Just acquired my first real deck, a lovely JVC DD-9. It sounds amazing (to my ears) when recording directly from my CD-player.
Now, regarding noise reduction & decibel:
Firstly, how much can a good quality chrome tape take? +2dB, +4dB or?
Is it correctly understood that when using NR it's easier to oversteer the tape? My JVC has Super-ANRS which I guess was their take on Dolby B.
If indeed (I'm assuming here) the recording process becomes more sensitive to oversteer when using NR, why not just do without and record louder instead? It's not the same thing I guess?
How critical is the alignment of the heads when using Dolby B/ANRS? My deck is 25 years old and I don't know if it has ever been serviced or re-aligned (just bought it). Maybe better to just go without NR?
I will mainly record from CD (I think). Maybe some FM radio now and again. I will experiment of course but it's nice with some pointers for a start.
I read that it's sometimes mentioned in the manual what tapes was used for factory calibration. Is that the service manual or user manual?
Thanks.
Follow Ups:
Just dug up this thread as I was looking into older high end JVC decks.
JVC's Super ANRS constituted of the following
ANRS ( automatic Noise Reduction System ) was JVC variant of Dolby B NR. Stories had it both laid claims to the technology and JVC refused to pay Dolby royalties thinking it was in the right. Apparently courts ruled for Dolby Labs so later ANRS was just dropped for Dolby B
Super part of ANRS was JVC's version of a Dolby HX / HX Pro, dynamic headroom extension. Again it works similar to Dolby HX Pro which many in the consumer cassette deck field have come to know.
I'll answer your questions in order.1. Depends on the tape. The better quality the tape, the better the theshold of distortion. That's the short answer. The long answer lies in two other variables, namely the bias settings and the scale of your deck in relation to others. 0dB on one deck can and will register a different (higher or lower) reading on other decks in many instances. And the lower the bias current, the lower you can push "into the red" before you have audible distortion.
2. Noise reduction has less to do with how hot you can run the tape and more to do with eliminating inherent background hiss, although they do correlate to a degree. This is just one reason why it's important to keep your heads cleaned and demagged regularly. I've never heard of "Super-ANRS", so maybe someone else familiar with that system can provide more information.
3. Tape....any tape....will only accept so much signal input before saturating. The presence or absence of Noise Reduction will only make minimal impact here. At least based on my experience. Again, NR is meant to reduce "background hiss" and other anomalies. Again, what makes the most difference in the manner you are thinking of is the BIAS. More bias means a flatter, duller sound, but you can run hotter. Reduced bias will result in more emphasis on high's but at the expense of a lower threshold of distortion.
4. Optimum head alignment is certainly desirable. But it's really only most critical when interchanging with tapes made on other machines. If every tape you record and playback on are all with the same machine, any azimuth (heads being askew) will be perpetuated and will not make much impact. You will only notice the difference if you play a tape made on another machine. Or try and play your tape on another. So unless the head are so far outr of whack that part of it physically misses the tape (where getting even recording and playback is not possible), and you plan to keep that deck for awhile, I would not immediately concern myself with it.
Thanks. Played around with my JVC a little. My initial finding is that it clearly sounds best without any NR. I've only used one kind of tape though but it was pretty obvious. Dolby B/Super-ANRS lost quite a lot of treble energy. More than I would have expected (listening while recording - tape/source).My deck has automated bias/equalizer so there's no manual tinkering available. Nice for a noob like me I guess. :-)
One peculiar thing though: The LED meter has 2 settings: Peak & VU. I chose Peak and recorded one side (max +2dB). At the end I flipped back to VU and suddenly the meter readings are entirely different. 7dB lower maybe. I have been recording way too low I guess (recording directly from CD-player). Why this huge discrepancy between the 2 settings? I can't find the logic in that.
I will only record & play on this machine and I plan to keep it. :-)
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