[sdiy] anybody know about DAT machines?

[Richard Wentk]

At 04:34 26/09/2005, Samppa Tolvanen wrote:
>On 9/26/05, mark verbos <mverbos at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Hi everybody,
> >
> > I have had this SOny DTC-A7 consumer DAT machine since 1994 and it
>
>So, you have a consumer grade dat that has worked for an eleven years
>- and you assume "It's a cap"? Even without knowing if it has some
>readback from tape in recording mode, I'd say: The mechanics have gone
>baad.

That would be my first guess.

Dirty heads followed by alignment problems would be specifics to check for.

You can sort of clean the heads with a cleaner tape, but alignment is 
impossible without a test tape, a good scope, a service manual and more 
patience and time than you can probably spare.

Richard