Options / Installation

Options

– As our preamplifiers are all assembled by hand, we anticipate advance ordering will likely be the norm. We would like to be as versatile as possible, offering a decent variety of options, which are as follows…

– Silver/Black Faceplate
– Balanced Line
– 100, 115 or 230v
– Custom Head Connector cables

Installation

This depends on the tape recorder and your preferred method. If you have done similar work with turntables, this should be adequate skill for this job. Alternately, most capable service shops can do this quite quickly.

Here are the options…

1. Tape head to preamp direct

For those with experience mounting phono cartridges on turntables, this should be familiar territory.  Tape heads have similar 4 pin outputs with minor variances in pin diameter.  We offer custom  made shielded wire that is particularly suited to the application with cartridge pins on one end and your choice of  how to terminate the other end of the wire.  Like cartridges , head polarity + –  for each channel  is to be considered and best you look this up as it’s not  routinely marked.

Disconnect the four wires from your playback head  (unless your deck uses a head plug)  and  attach the 4 wires of the new interconnect to the heads. A very good idea to harness this wire in some fashion close to the headblock so there will be no movement on the new connections.

2. Internal routing through the Deck 

Same as #1  but the wiring goes through the tape deck and is hooked up to an installed set of female RCAs on the rear panel of the deck. Alternately, you can avoid the RCA’s for better sound and just have the interconnect coming out the back of the deck, ready to connect to the Preamp.

While this may sound fairly straightforward , on some tape recorders it will be more challenging to access the connections on the head,  which may be somewhat hidden under a headblock assembly.