Question My cassette deck (TEAC V-340) has a very loud hum when playing back recorded audio

[DeathNight77]

I bought a (used) cassette deck yesterday, worked fine in store but I didn't test out the recording cause I didn't have blank tapes with me, or recording gear. I tested out the recording this morning, and there is a very loud hum noise, almost like electrical hum, but it sounds similar to when you're plugging a subwoofer in - in fact it's exactly that noise. It drowns out the rest of the music. Also, it only records onto the left channel.

I was recording by plugging in an audio cable to the headphone jack of my computer, and sending that audio directly into the input of the cassette deck using 3.5mm to RCA converter. Neither the wires nor converter have any problem, I know that for sure. The deck works fine when playing back other audio, it's only the recording that has the problem.

Thanks for reading this far, any help is very very much appreciated

 

[hang-the-9]

Try running a tape cleaner though it, although with the fact it only records on one channel is likely the issue is not with just simple dirt. Could be an issue with the input jack or the output level on the PC is way too strong for the recording.

 

[pdally]

You could try also running one of those magnetic tapes through it. Not sure exactly how it works technically, but seems to do something to the static, and I found it helped before.