Tascam DA-60
A four-head DAT deck with a built-in chase synchronizer, priced so a working studio could actually justify one.
Overview
The DA-60 is a rotary-head digital audio tape recorder with a four-head transport. The manual gives 16-bit linear quantization at 48 kHz for recording, with 44.1 kHz available for digital or analog record and playback. Record/play frequency response is specified at 10 Hz to 20 kHz ±0.5 dB, and stretches to 22 kHz ±0.8 dB. Signal-to-noise is better than 94 dB, dynamic range is better than 94 dB, and total harmonic distortion is less than 0.004 percent. Those numbers explain why these decks ended up in mastering rooms rather than home racks.
What separates the DA-60 from a consumer DAT deck is synchronization. Tascam built a chase synchronizer into the machine. The company's own advertising in Mix (1994, p.19) billed it as a "SMPTE/EBU synch, four-head DAT recorder at a price studio can afford," and noted that a comparable timecode DAT could run $10,000 or more. A timecode-capable DAT for less than five figures was the whole argument. The same ad copy lists ±115% pitch control and adjustable automatic punch-in and punch-out.
The connectors are professional. Analog I/O runs through XLR-3-31 and XLR-3-32 pairs plus RCA jacks and a 1/4-inch jack, with line input at 20 kohms balanced and line output at 10 ohms balanced, +4 dBm nominal. Nominal input impedance for the line stage is 20 kohms balanced, and the line output impedance is 10 ohms balanced. Digital I/O is XLR as well, with AES/EBU TYPE I (auto-switched with TYPE II) on the input side and TYPE I on the output side. The word sync input is BNC, TTL-equivalent, 75 ohms unbalanced. The word sync output and thru connector are also BNC, TTL-equivalent, 75 ohms unbalanced. The monitor output is -10 dBV nominal, 1 kohm unbalanced, and the headphone jack is rated at 100 mW or more into an 8-ohm load.
The transport is a four-head rotary design running at 8.15 mm/sec in standard play. The manual's spec sheet also lists an alternate 12,225 mm/sec figure. Wow and flutter is listed as unmeasurable, less than 0.001 percent. Channel separation is better than 90 dB at 1 kHz. The deck weighs 11.5 kg and draws 58 W. Power requirements were region-specific: 120 V AC 60 Hz for USA/Canada, 240 V AC 50 Hz for UK/Australia, 230 V AC 50 Hz for Europe, and a general export model switchable across 120/230/240 V AC at 50/80 Hz.
Service documentation for the DA-60 is unusually thorough. The manual walks through PLL free-running frequency adjustment (7.33 ± 0.01 MHz at the test point, with a spec of 7.23 ± 0.2 MHz), D/A converter MSB adjustment, playback distortion factor, and headphone output level checks. That much alignment detail says Tascam expected these decks to be maintained in the field, not swapped out. The playback channel separation spec is 90 dB or more at both 1 kHz and 10 kHz. The record/play channel separation check calls for 85 dB or more at 1 kHz and 80 dB or more at 10 kHz.
The DA-60 also supported timecode input and output when the SY-D6 option was installed. Both use XLR connectors, 2 Vp-p nominal, with 10 kohms balanced input impedance and 75 ohms balanced output impedance. A parallel control I/O port was fitted, and with the SY-D6 installed a 9-pin D-sub serial port running RS-422 protocol became available. That serial control is what let the deck slot into edit suites and post-production rigs.
Tascam kept working on the formula. A Mk II version followed, and Tascam's UK advertising in Sound on Sound (July 1998, p.145) described the DA-60 Mk II as an "advanced timecode DAT," positioned alongside the DA-30 Mk II as a professional studio DAT. Earlier, Studio Sound (August 1996, p.47) ran a piece on the DA-60 Midi variant with its built-in chase synchronizer and advanced RS-422 protocol. It claimed improved servo hardware and control software for faster lock-up times, plus new PID and D/A converter circuits for extended dynamic range and improved signal-to-noise. Whether those improvements carried back to the base DA-60 is not documented here.
DAT is a format with a finite service life, and that applies to anyone considering one today. The DA-60 has its build quality and a real service manual going for it, but the transport is mechanical and the heads are the heads.
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