anyone know where the preamp heads are located on a vcr?

Answer 1

Preamp heads? Not sure what you mean, but there are several "heads" in a VCR which function to read and write to the tape. When heads pick up signals the signals are very small, so they are connected to an amplifier, the first stages of which could be called the preamplifier. These amplifiers are always located near to the heads themselves, or on one of the circuit boards. Different brands have varying physical layouts.

Some of the heads in a VCR are on a drum which spins around at 1800 rpm. As the tape moves by this spinning drum, the heads on it pick up signals on the tape, or record to it. Some of the heads are stationary and the tape moves linearly past them. These heads pickup the control signals, and the linear audio track, and also pre-erase the tape when in the record mode.

Is this info helpfull.

Is there some specific reason for your question?

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(OOPS, I hope i'm not breaking the rules, and if I am, I will edit out this comment.) Please inform!

Grogster added a response after this and I wanted to say to him, "It's good to meet someone who shares some basic understanding of VCR technology." But I could not, So he could contact me thru your site.

It is clever technology, even though obsolete, and I enjoy making things work, even if they are old.

Answer 2

Further to Brad B's comments, and assuming a VHS deck(not a Beta):

With the lid off the VCR, and looking down into the mech from the front of the VCR:

- The "Bulk erase head" is the head on the left side of the deck, and to the left of the spinning video drum, and usually matt-black in colour. This head works like a scaled-up version of an erase head in a cassette deck, in that it wipes all previous video, tracking and audio information from the tape.

- The glossy silver spinning thing is the video head(or drum), and records and plays back the video(picture) part of the signal.

- The head to the right of the spinning video head, is the A/C head - the audio/tracking head. This head has two functions: it records a series of constant pulses along the top edge of the tape, which allows the VCR to auto-track the tape. Very basically, the computer in the VCR "Knows" the frequency of these pulses, and adjusts the tape speed automatically, so that it is receiving the pulses at the right speed, which corresponds to a correct snow-free picture. The 2nd function of this head, is to record a mono sound-track on the bottom edge of the tape.

Stereo VCR's record their sound on the tape via the video-drum, often referred to as "Six-head" VCR's, 4-heads are used for video playback and recording, and the other two are for left and right sound recording and playback.

As Brad B says, there are no "Preamp" heads per-se in a VCR; the preamp circuit is part of the main circuit of the VCR, the heads simply relay information from/to the preamp circuit.