Onkyo TA-2040
A two-head cassette deck that measured its wow and flutter at 0.055 percent WRMS.
Overview
The Onkyo TA-2040 is a front-loading stereo cassette deck built around a Sendust record/playback head and an FG-servo DC motor. The service documentation describes a 4-track, 2-channel stereo machine running AC bias recording and AC erase at the standard 4.8 cm/sec tape speed. It is a two-head deck - the manuals make no mention of a separate playback head or off-tape monitoring. That puts it a rung below the three-head TA-2060, which one British review described as an up-market version of this same machine.
The deck handles all three tape formulations of its day. The manufacturer's own figures list a frequency response of 20 to 15,000 Hz on normal-position tape, 20 to 17,000 Hz on high-position (CrO2) tape, and 20 to 19,000 Hz on metal-position tape. The metal figure is the one to look at. Metal formulation was still the demanding edge of the cassette format, and a deck rated to 19 kHz on it was not a toy. The Sendust head is the reason. The alloy's high saturation level and wear resistance suit the aggressive bias metal tape requires, and it holds up better than softer head materials under that workload.
Speed stability is where the TA-2040 does its best work. Wow and flutter is specified at 0.055 percent WRMS, a figure the deck's own service literature repeats in its mechanism specifications, alongside a tape speed tolerance of +3 percent, -2 percent measured against a standard 3 kHz test tape. Signal-to-noise with Dolby NR out is specified at 60 dB on metal tape. Engaging Dolby NR is documented to yield roughly 10 dB of noise reduction above 5 kHz and 5 dB at 1 kHz.
The deck is an international model. The power supply accepts AC 110, 120, 220, and 240 volts at 50 or 60 Hz, with a 240 V / 50 Hz variant also documented. The parts lists show both a universal model and a Germany-specific model with different transformers, power switches, and cords. It draws 25 watts. Inside, the component count runs to 43 transistors, 19 diodes, 8 ICs, and 5 LEDs. The chassis measures 418 mm wide, 120 mm tall, and 330 mm deep, and it weighs 6.4 kg.
Connectivity is complete. There are two microphone jacks with a minimum input level of 0.3 mV and 5 kΩ input impedance (optimum mic impedance 200 Ω to 50 kΩ), two line inputs at a minimum 50 mV into 50 kΩ, two line outputs rated at 0.480 V at 0 dB with an output impedance over 50 kΩ, and a single headphone jack rated for 8 Ω or 200 Ω loads. A DIN socket appears in the parts lists, and the transport is driven by solenoids for play, fast-forward, rewind, and record. The auto-stop circuit shuts the transport down at end of tape. The service manual notes it is essentially the same circuit used in the TA-2080. The mechanism specs claim shut-off in under five seconds and rewind of a C-60 in under 110 seconds.
Contemporary coverage placed the deck in the medium-priced tier. High Fidelity (September 1979, p.77), surveying the first wave of metal-ready decks, listed the TA-2040 at $370 and singled out its fluorescent bar-graph metering and Accu-Bias adjustment. Audio (April 1980, p.54) covered the deck as a compact cassette model and noted the 0.055 percent wow-and-flutter figure in its write-up. A separate British review of the higher-spec TA-2060, the three-head sibling with off-tape monitoring, observed that the TA-2040 cost more than the receiver it was being judged alongside.
Accu-Bias is a bias trim. It lets the user tune the record current to the specific tape in the well rather than trusting a fixed factory setting. Combined with the three-position tape selector, the deck can be dialed in for whatever brand of normal, CrO2, or metal cassette is on hand. The fluorescent display gives fast level readings, with no needle lag.
This is a working machine from the era when cassette was the format people actually used, and it should be bought as one. Belts, idlers, and the usual rubber parts are decades old now. The electrolytic capacitors and the relays in the signal path are the parts that tend to fail. A service manual exists. The documentation on file includes full alignment procedures, exploded views, printed circuit board layouts, and a complete parts list, so restoration is a realistic project. The record-playback output level adjustment, for instance, is a documented procedure: feed a 1 kHz signal into line in, set the attenuator for 480 mV at the output, switch to playback, and trim R167 and R168 to the same 480 mV reading.
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