Re: Apple II cassettes by Brutal Deluxe Software

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Dave Rawson wrote:
> Don't know if this is of any help, but back in the day, when struggling 
> to get consistent loads of tape data (games) loaded into my diskless 
> Apple, I found my Nakamichi portable never had a problem, unlike some of 
> the players at work.
>
> I believe the difference was that the Nakamichi consistently produced 
> 1-volt peak-to-peak output.
>
> The inconsistencies with other tape loaders had more to do with low 
> output matching into the Apple than any tape-to-head contact (which 
> certainly does occur, I know). The symptoms of lost bits due to poor 
> shell construction and too-low voltage can appear identical.  It's only 
> when a crappy cassette is played in a highly reliable machine that the 
> one masking as the other becomes obvious.
>
> In other words, sometimes it's not an unreadable tape, it's that the 
> low-voltage tape information coupled with low output voltage _combine_ 
> to fall below a readable threshold.

And, of course, the Apple II cassette input is designed to be driven
by a *speaker* output--so turning up the volume allows you to adjust
the levels the Apple II sees.

-michael

NadaNet and AppleCrate II: parallel computing for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

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