In reply to:
Yep, Dolby A was the pro studio version. I know lots of recording engineers didn't like it. Dolby B was the consumer version but was very sensitive to tape calibration and mostly mistracked, so, like you say, it would often roll off the highs.
Gee, you mean that little hole in the front of the cassette compartment wasn't just a place to hang a paperclip with the cassette J-card? Ohhh, a jewelers screwdriver goes in there... got it!
In reply to:
If the deck was calibrated correctly (usually not), Dolby C worked quite well. And I did have Dolby S on a Sony deck, but Dolby S never became popular. It seemed to work very well and wasn't as sensitive to calibration errors (if memory serves).
I've had two Aiwa decks (and it's amazing how much of these memories have faded away - I think they both recorded in B and C, not A & B as I thought) - one single deck and one dual deck with the dreaded Hi-Speed Dubbing - which I have never once in my life used. Even as a teen, I recognized there is no free ride. My Dolby S deck was a Sony as well, had it only briefly before someone else took an interest in it and I took an interest in this new Compact Disc technology... they're like records but they don't skip!
Though bro's deck was the first one I'd ever seen that would sense the tape composition and adjust bias from the shape of the shell (open space inboard of the record inhibit tabs was for metal, and CrO2 had an open "tab" in the middle of the top of the shell I think?)
Bren R.
