Tom, do you think that standard double capstan deks are not adequate for the job? I have Sony and Nakamichi decks that have closed loop dual capstan drives that seem to do a fairly good job, though I haven't had severely warped tapes that are problematic - so far! <L> Lou Judson Intuitive Audio 415-883-2689 On Jun 26, 2012, at 6:55 AM, Tom Fine wrote: > An interesting machine would be a cassette mechanism up top but instead of a capstan drive, the tape would be pulled out the middle of the shell and put in a little isolated-loop drive, Technics style, with the heads inside the loop. I would think, if you had really good guidance on top of the loop, you could keep the tape very stable in the loop. Better still would be a way to adjust the two pinchrollers so you could vary the tension/wrap on the heads. Cassette tape is so thin, that should be a way to guarantee good head contact. > > Probably not worth rigging up such a beast for lowly cassettes. > > -- Tom Fine