Dave,
That seems like a great idea! Good out of the box thinking.
It's worth a try, right? Worst case: you mangle a $.25 belt. Best case: you discover that the greater contact surface provides more traction (a thought that's occured to me, though we haven't tried it). Give it a try, you can always machine to convex later, right?
The problem with your non-stretch fish line isn't that it's non-stretch. The problem is that it's too fine in cross section to have enough grip on the motor pulley. Introducing elasticity might ameliorate that, but you'd be substituting one vice for another.
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Comment to Galibier users:
Several of you noted that, unlike our setup, you don't need to tension the belt to the motor pod's near-tipping point. Makes perfect sense. A Galibier motor pod is notably heavier than ours and also more squat in shape, so the feet are more spread out. It would take a lot more force to tip your motor than ours, probably too much and possibly risking the life of your motor bearings.
That seems like a great idea! Good out of the box thinking.
Do you feel a convex surface is really necessary, assuming that guide lips have been added at the outer edges to keep the tape from wandering?I've never tried, maybe Thom or Chris Brady would know from the early days of the Teres development group.
It's worth a try, right? Worst case: you mangle a $.25 belt. Best case: you discover that the greater contact surface provides more traction (a thought that's occured to me, though we haven't tried it). Give it a try, you can always machine to convex later, right?
Also, one thing I've noticed with my thread drive arrangement, is that frequent retensioning is necessary as the thread stretches. You can really hear liveliness & bass improve after minor retensioning.No doubt about it, fully agree.
Does tape drive stretch constantly and require similar maintenance?Never. Motor positioning and levelling are critical and may need an occasional reset, but that's all. Mylar won't stretch under the loads we're applying. I've gone months without adjusting anything in the drive system, though last week the cat nudged the motor in the middle of the night. Grrr!
The problem with your non-stretch fish line isn't that it's non-stretch. The problem is that it's too fine in cross section to have enough grip on the motor pulley. Introducing elasticity might ameliorate that, but you'd be substituting one vice for another.
So I suppose the optimal drive belt material should have some inherent friction, a bit of elasticity, and enough physical integrity not to break down and stretch to the point that it looses its elasticity.Yes, no and yes, at least IME. And that's the whole point of this tweak. The texture on the back of the holographic mylar is exposed by removing the silver layer. There's your friction. No elasticity, so no damage to musical transients. No break down either, mylar is a very stable material.
I've noticed quite of bit of improvement with very low-impedance batteriesThat's been our experience too. Paul chose the battery we're using for precisely that characteristic. Yours might be even better of course. :-)
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Comment to Galibier users:
Several of you noted that, unlike our setup, you don't need to tension the belt to the motor pod's near-tipping point. Makes perfect sense. A Galibier motor pod is notably heavier than ours and also more squat in shape, so the feet are more spread out. It would take a lot more force to tip your motor than ours, probably too much and possibly risking the life of your motor bearings.