Harvard 990 on Ebay ? Is this quad ?

[GeezerJem]

Hi all,
Saw this on EBAY earlier

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/247-HARVA..._Consumer_VintageAudio_RL&hash=item5897b255fa

made and offer but now I'm seriously doubting it's a proper quad machine. Tried Googling and no information forthcoming. Can anyone please shed some light on it ? I may have to retract my offer ( if that's possible.... )

Cheers,

Jem.

 

[quadtrade]

The issue with these are the fact they have a power amp and are made to feed speakers and not a receiver. It has an amplified signal. Need to break it open and run line out jacks.

 

[GeezerJem]

Hiya Quadtrade,
I've no problem dabbling with the electronics side if it's a genuine Q8 player, what I'm really after is if it will understand / play Q8's or is it just a stereo player with a matrixy circuit for the rears.
Cheers,
Jem

 

[quadtrade]

Have him look at the head, if it is stereo it will have 2 pickups, quad will have 4.

 

[GeezerJem]

Have him look at the head, if it is stereo it will have 2 pickups, quad will have 4.

Excellent idea ! I've asked him. Let's see what happens....

 

[Circular Vibes]

Just out of curiosity, did anyone notice that none of the tapes is quad? I suspect it is a quad tape deck, cheap for sure, but it would really only be worthwhile if at lest a couple of tapes were Q8.

 

[GeezerJem]

I did notice that none of the tapes are quad. First thing I looked at

I've had a reply :

'Have just checked the 8-track player, and yes it is a quadrophonic player, and has a 4 stripe tape head'

Wahoo ! Bit of a surprise really !

Things should get interesting now....

I know it has no tapes, but I have had a Carpenters and Quincy Jones Q8 unlistened to for many years now. Yes.... I know there are conversions but to hear an 8 track or even a Q8 would bring a new listening experience for me... and open up new shinies for me to buy ...

Thanks for all the help so far,

Jem

 

[fredblue]

The issue with these are the fact they have a power amp and are made to feed speakers and not a receiver. It has an amplified signal. Need to break it open and run line out jacks.

a possible workaround might be to run out of the units' headphone front & rear outs and split them out as 4 phonos to a multi-Ch AVR/power amp.

inelegant with wires out of the front of the player etc but at least that way you bypass the units own amp.

after all that, i wonder how good one of these machines would be at coping with the longer Q8 tapes.

 

[GeezerJem]

a possible workaround might be to run out of the units' headphone front & rear outs and split them out as 4 phonos to a multi-Ch AVR/power amp.

inelegant with wires out of the front of the player etc but at least that way you bypass the units own amp.

after all that, i wonder how good one of these machines would be at coping with the longer Q8 tapes.

Ideally I'd aim at a rewire that didn't go through the volume controls at all. Or replaced them with fixed values once worked out. But none of this would happen unless the mechanics had been refurbed. If I ( or someone else ) got it, it would need some TLC. As for the longer tapes, I hadn't really thought about the issues. I guess the tape's thinner ( ? ) just like the old C120's that some cassette decks weren't too happy with.

Good winter project I reckon...

Jem.

 

[GeezerJem]

Got it for £49 ( + P&P). Maybe a good thing maybe a bad, we'll see....There may be more posts elsewhere when I get it and start tinkering....

Thanks for the advice so far, my four eared chums

Jem.