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Most power amps are "happy" running into 4 Ohms. Run relatively thick cable (as in 16 or 14 gauge) from the amp to the speakers.

Bri

Hmmmm....I order from Digikey or Mouser here in the USA....no suggestions for Canada. Digikey does stock PEI pots (made in Canada!) which are modern day dead-ringers for the original Allen Bradley pots that Ampex used. Of course, one can also argue that conductive plastic pots are better than the ol...

Most British style consoles run at 17 volts, some at 18 but once the rails get through the fusing resistors it drops about 1/2 volt. If you run at 22 volts use the LME49870 single opamp. For a dual use the LME49860 which also is rated at 22 volts power rails. No need for those NG 553x opamps anymor...

Hiya, Jim! One "gotcha" with the LME49710 is the max rail voltage ratings at +/- 17 VDC. More than a few desks, etc. using 5534's ran the chips upwards to the max of +/- 22v ratings of the 5534 spec. That somewhat spooks me if swapping-in the newer Nationals. Shrug...Trident also ran TL0's closer to...

I need to drag-out my 440 manuals to revisit all of the possible "recapping issues".... In the original question, apparently the machinery is NOT being used as a true tape recorder (did I read the orignal post correctly??), but instead as an in-line "signal processor", via the line in/line out pathw...

Yes, a stepped attenuator is a good choice, but can be quite expensive. For this unit (a controller I built for a mastering studio):

http://www.brianroth.com/custom/monitor-control.jpg

...I used a Shallco stepped attenuator:

http://www.shallco.com/attenuators.html

Bri

Ohhhhh boy, this can be a can o' worms! That is, channel-to-channel tracking on a stereo pot, be it rotary or a slidewire. Looking at page 2 of this spec sheet from Penny & Giles, one of the best slidewire manufacturers: http://www.pennyandgiles.com/docGallery/76.PDF ...you see that the spec is +/- ...

If you know the *turns* ratio, that is also the (approx) voltage step up/down ratio. IOW, a transformer with a 1:2 turns ratio will step up the voltage by 2x. (The "approx" allows a bit of wiggle room for insertion loss that a "real world" transformer has). To convert from voltage ratio to dB, you t...

What you need is a dual-section (for stereo) *audio taper* pot. I would suggest 5K Ohms (but that is an oddball value) to minimize any chances of high frequency loss between the output of the pot and the powered monitors. 10K is a much more common value, but you will need to keep the shielded cables...

Just don't "go nuts" when oiling! You can do more damage than good if not careful. Many of Ye Olde recorders do require oiling of the upper capstan bearings. In those cases, there is a screw-off cap that surrounds the capstan shaft, but I can't tell from the pic you linked if the Akai has that. *If*...

OK, it is indeed a 3 motor machine; one motor for the capstan, and individual motors for each of the reel spindles. That website didn't say if the capstan is directly driven by the motor, or if it uses a belt drive + flywheel. In that later case, the bushing/bearing for the capstan *might* require p...

I am not familar with that recorder...how many motors? Pro machines use three motors, and others (including a few of the Olde "pro portable") machines uses a bunch of belts and other mechanical contraptions, all driven from a single motor. Well..then there is the Ampex PR-10/AG-500 which used two mo...

It does sound like a bad solder joint, OR the printed circuit foil may have a crack due to years of having the jack wiggling around when a plug is inserted.

Welcome aboard!

Bri

Those switches are "F Series", originally made by Schadow, which was bought out by ITT-Cannon. Earlier this year, Cannon sold their entire switch product line to a venture capital firm (uh-oh....sounds like the beginning of the end). You can find the F series catalog here: http://www.ck-components.c...

Huh..I have no idea without dissececting the gear.

Bri