Advice for tape drive repair / maintenance

[Tony Duell]

> 
> > This "everything old is good, everything new is crap" is not verified by the
> > data from the industry world wide.  Some things do improve with time.
> 
> One pet theory of mine is that many people see this, simply because
> they are not seeing the whole sample. There were indeed plenty of old
> things that were crap, and are now gone for good, discarded. People
> tend to forget about those things, as they tend to remember only the
> good old stuff. Likewise, they tend to forget about the modern things
> that are good and work flawlessly, and remember the ones they have had
> bad experiences with.
> 
> Consumer electronics is no exception - look at old radios or
> (especially) old TVs. There was a lot of crap back then...

Of coruse there was, but there was good stuff as well. There were cheap 
radios that probably haven't survived and (at least in the UK) there were 
sets by the likes of Hacker and Robberts that are still going strong some 
40 years later. 

But try as I might, I can't find well made consumer-type stuff on sale 
today. As I keep on saying I'd _love_ to be able to spend \pounds 2000 on 
a VCR or DVD player and have one that (a) lasts and (b) has a proper 
serive manual and parts backup. Alas I suspect I am the only person who 
feels this way so I can't blame the manufacturers for not making one.

-tony.