Test tape and tape path alignment

I bought a test tape from ebay from seller ss72post: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125443310728

It contains multiple useful tunes. It was made from a recently serviced zx-7.

People on the forum said this is still no good for head alignment because any tape made from a normal commercial deck will have narrow track widths which can affect reading based on the head height. Supposedly, only test tapes with full track width can solve this problem.

Nevertheless, this should work for now. I used it to collibrate my cr-5. Dolby level was corrected (just slightly). Head alignment was adjusted. Somehow, tapes made back when I was in the US still sounds fine on it (probably the alignment was close) (metallica the black album). Tapes made in the past months are no good though (either due to the travel or my misadjustment at some point).

I will put time on the tapes i made from now on (and deck name too since I got an aiwa xk-009 recently). The first one will be 11/27/2022.

Important update: what was done previously was actually not enough. The two channels were not in phase. Readjustment was done on 12/22/2022. This time, for nakamichi cr-5, playback azimuth, playback head height, record azimuth, and record height are all adjusted (the zx7 test tape seems fine for this). After that, the two channels are in phase. I tested with 10kHz playback/recording. Zooming in with audacity recording shows nice in phase. I can also tell by using the mono mode on my amp.

As for the aiwa xk-009, alignment procedures: 1, play test tape (10kHz). Lower the left pinch roller and adjust the head azimuth; 2, record 10kHz. Adjust left pinch roller height until high frequency signal are high up and in phase; 3, adjust head azimuth with left pinch roller on; 4, double check step 2. Repeat if necessary.

5/28/2023: realign aiwa xk-009. Perform step 2 with TDK SA as different tapes gives different results. After the realignment, older tapes sounds worse than the source (depending on the tapes; Toxicity does not work very well).

My old test tape with only 3000hz tune.

Before phase adjustment

After phase adjustment

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