INVESTIGATIONS OF DISTORTION ON AUDIO MAGNETIC HEADS.

Improvement of magnetic head performances on which sound quality largely depends is essential to the production of high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) cassette tape decks for stereo. Among those head performances, frequency response, signal-to-noise ratio, distortion and sensitivity are basically important factors for Hi-Fi. As it has been necessary to record short wavelength less than 4. 75 microns in order to realize frequency response up to 10 kHz at a tape speed as low as 4. 75 cm/sec, magnetic tapes such as chromium dioxide tapes with higher coercive force have become widely used. As a result, distortion in recording due to the supposed nonlinear magnetic saturation at the head gap has become a problem, together with the trend toward shorter gap length. This paper reports some considerations based on experiments to make the cause of distortion clear. Diagrams and graphs include English captions.