From page 4 of the Cassette Gazette:
Another cause of wow is a defective motor. You can often detect this with a little rough stuff. While listening to a tape, tap the motor smartly with a screwdriver handle… if you get a bug increase in wow you may have a bad motor. Replace or repair the motor? Unless you can do the repair yourself, or have access to the correct new motor, you probably should just do yourself a favor and go buy a new CTR.
From page 3 of the Cassette Gazette:
Although you may not know exactly what it means, you have probably heard of a “head adjustment” or “azimuth” setting. There is a very narrow gap (vertical slit) in the record head that records the signal on the magnetic (oxide) coating on the tape. Essentially, ‘azimuth' is the angle that this gap makes to the direction of the tape movement. (See Fig 1.) The ideal is for the gap to be aligned at exactly a right angle (90 degrees) in reference to the direction of tape movement.
From page 2 of the Cassette Gazette:
Many mysteries and surprises lay in wait for the computer cassette-user. Early on we were surprised to find that high-quality (and high priced) music tapes in general, and even some of the expensive “certified” computer tapes in particular, are inferior to some 25-cent ‘cheapies'. The fact is that the loading performance of a tape cannot be predicted from its cost. Also, good and bad tapes are like bananas… they come in bunches.
