MCI JH-32
Little is documented about the MCI JH-32, but its arrival got real attention in the professional audio press of the late 1970s. The JH-32 was a 32-track professional recorder with 32 input tracks, built around 3-inch tape. That was the story in itself. Modern Recording (February 1979, p.32) described the format as the first change in recording tape since 2-inch tape had been introduced in 1969.
Studio Sound (February 1979, p.42) reported MCI's claim that the JH-32 was the value leader among 32-track machines, priced at $47,000 versus the Telefunken MISA 32-track. The magazine returned to the deck the following month for "JH-32 developments" (Studio Sound, March 1979, p.34). The recorder also turned up at the 61st AES convention at the Waldorf in New York. Bert Whyte, writing in Audio (March 1979, p.28), counted it among the significant analog demonstrations at a show otherwise dominated by digital talk. He noted that MCI had evidently conquered the tape-supply question for the new 3-inch format.
The surviving technical record is short. A Studio Sound multitrack survey (January 1980, p.62) cites a removable remote control panel with auto locate, timecode tracks readable in all tape transport modes, and crosstalk of 90 dB. Recording Engineer (December 1978, p.95) described the automation approach - RAM in a mainframe, memory distribution under microprocessor control, covering all inputs and all return level controls - and cited excellent bandwidth from 3 Hz up. Beyond these trade reports the documentation is thin. No full service manual or comprehensive spec sheet seems to have survived in the usual collector channels.
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