| Home | Audio mag. | Stereo Review mag. | High Fidelity mag. | AE/AA mag. |
|
by Larry Klein Buyer's Guides After checking every newsstand in the city, I still can't find your Stereo Buyers Guide for 1985. How can I get a copy? Also, does STEREO REVIEW publish other buyers' guides? HOLLY EMMA; New York, N.Y. There will be four STEREO REVIEW buying guides for 1985. The Stereo Buyers Guide went on sale in September and the Video Buyers Guide in November. The Car Stereo Buyers Guide will be out in March 1985, the Tape Recording Buyers Guide in June. If you can't find a newsstand copy, you can order one directly. Send a check or money order for $4.95 for each guide ($4.50 for the tape edition) to Stereo Review Guides, Box CN 1914, Morristown, N.J. 07960. Do not order the 1985 car stereo or tape guides more than a month in advance of the publication dates given above. Amorphous Tape Heads Several manufacturers have been advertising that they use "amorphous" heads in their tape machines. According to my dictionary, the meaning of "amorphous" is "shapeless." Perhaps they meant "amorous"-signifying that the tape tends to hug the heads for best response? CARL ARMSTRONG; Parsippany, N.J. Good guess, but wrong. Oddly enough, the manufacturers mean just what they said. In the early Sixties, researchers stumbled on a way to produce metal alloys that, like glass, have a jumbled-that is, amorphous-atomic structure (most metals have orderly crystalline structures). These glassy, amorphous alloys are harder, more corrosion-resistant, and easier to magnetize than conventional metals, all of which makes them ideal for a variety of electromagnetic components, particularly tape heads. Amorphous alloys are still expensive--three to five times as expensive as the standard metals found in transformers and electromagnetic transducers-so components using them won't be taking over the marketplace in the immediate future. In time, however, the word "amorphous" will become an ordinary part of any audiophile's electronic vocabulary. Leadout-groove play I have a fully manual turntable in my system. It's not always convenient for me to pick up the tone arm at the end of the record and the stylus continues to ride the leadout groove for a time. Will this create problems with my re cords or stylus? BILL LAFFOND; Worcester, Mass. No problem-leadout-groove play is likely to cause far more wear and tear on your ears than on your stylus or five brands of semiautomatic end-of-record tone-arm lifts available that could be fitted to any manual turntable, but most of these seem to have gone off the market. Perhaps those audiophiles who want total control over the record-playing process prefer to keep their manual players as manual as possible. If you are interested in a lifter, however, it's worth checking around. Voltage conversion I bought two components overseas that are designed for 220-volt a.c. lines. I now want to operate the equipment on U.S. line voltage and don't know whether I should get a step-down transformer or send the equipment back to the company for conversion. Which would be more feasible? KEVIN D. FRANK; FPO, New York, N.Y. Some of the 220-volt audio equipment manufactured in the U.S. and overseas has dual-winding power transformers. In such cases, conversion from 220- to 120-volt operation (or back again) involves nothing more than resoldering four wires and replacing a fuse with one of a different value. Any technician with the proper instructions should be able to do the job for you in 30 minutes or less. In any case, your best bet is to check with the manufacturer's local authorized service center for further instructions. ------------------- Classical Music Reviews (Jan. 1985) =============== |
Prev. | Next |