A system, and a method of operation thereof, for analyzing the performance of a tape recorder having a playback head is disclosed. The system allows for the recorded data of the tape recorder to be routed to a analog-to-digital converter whose output is delivered to a digital signal processor preferably having a routine to convert the digital data to an FFT data stream which, in turn, is routed to a microprocessor. The computer analyzes the FFT data and provides digital signals to external display devices that indicate the proper recording of the tape recorder, the need for the recorder's heads to be cleaned, the occurrence of excessive dropout data recording rate, or the need to manually or automatically adjust the bias and equalization levels of the tape recorder.