TEAC X-3R panning phantom center to the left

At first I thought the input levels were imbalanced, but after a full attention listen through my headphones tonight it would appear the machine is panning phantom center material (e.g., vocals on classic stereo records) to the left.

Why would it be designed to do this? Or if it was calibrated this way, what would the purpose be?

Output levels are equal and balanced. It is input through the record head that is off.

 

Does the machine have a phase or alignment issue? I suspect one or the other. Try different interconnect cables first. I used to own a X 300 at one time, it didn't do that.

 

Silly of me, but I never considered the cables might be the issue. I'll give this a try tomorrow and report back.

Could it also be that the machine might be adjusted to correct the right channel offset from vinyl sources? I assume most folks that bought a R2R in 1982 were duping records. What is that phenomenon anyway, and why does it exist?

My source for this reel was digital, therefore levels were equal.

 

It should have been aligned at the factory to the same specification as my X 300 was. Wonder too, if there is a dirty relay for switching sides in the audio chain, I remember there being one on the auto-reverse models in the family related to yours. I liked my X 300 fine. It served me well for a while.

 

I wonder, too. Because the reverse play does not work. For a while it would play in the left channel with a loud hum in the right, but now when I try to play in reverse there is no output signal at all. I tried to have a technician fix the problem, but he was unsuccessful. Not sure I want to put money into fixing it when it's a feature I probably wouldn't use all that often anyway.

But if it's possible that the reverse play output issue is related to the input balance, then it might be a worthwhile fix.

I assume there would be no loss of fidelity during reverse play on this machine because the heads are stationary?

 

There won't be a loss of fidelity here. Other open reels have reverse play heads switched in. I think the track switching is related to your issue here.

 

I think so, too. I swapped the input cable for another known good cable. The issue remains. It must have to do with the track switching.

 

I think that is where you focus on chasing it down. Hope you are able to do so.

 

Thanks McLover. I hope so too! Any word from your radio friends about the Patsy transcription discs?

 

No luck yet, some other discs in the series are said to have been found by my contacts. Hope they find Patsy!