AVOID Technics' disintegrating 1990s cassette decks
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Technics is widely regarded as a premium brand of audio components, but that definitely does not apply to their entry-level cassette decks from the mid-1990s. With a lack of important features, cheap plastic parts, disintegrating pinch rollers, and service-unfriendly design, the time and money spent repairing them is likely to exceed their value.
#technics #cassette #repair
I repaired few of these exact decks cca 15 years when i worked in panasonic repair shop, the pinch rollers are considered as consumable for replacement. Usually it is enough to replace the smaller belts, but that was 15 years ago, so now the larger belts should be replaced. And i can confirm, you have to unsolder the motor for the belt service, there is no way around. It was not easy to replace the belts, because the plastic for the labyrinth is in the way, you have to pry it carefully enough so you can take the belt out and be careful not to change the possition of the plastic in the labyrith wheel. It is not easy repair, but it doable. Actually i prefered Sony tape decks for service, much easier to replace the belts.
DONT PIN
@@_lun4r_ Why not... ?
How crazy to see that something with such fame has such poor quality and that it does not last over time like many others, I remember that the father of a high school classmate had one in the living room at home, he not only had this one, the others that were they assembled one on top of the other like radio, vinyl and cd, the speakers were 2 bars of almost 1.20 meters
Technics dropped the quality after 1992/93 and continued witch cheap crap. The others followed ...
@@pristbaiser9443 Technics have alot of awful crap at least from 90s and onwards.
I am currently sitting less than 10 feet away from a currently disassembled Technics dual tape deck that I found used. The recording side failed and I believe it was one of your own videos that showed me how to take it apart. I've been a fan of yours ever since, so ironically I am glad I got mine.
Ha, ha I'm not gonna say what I'm sitting 10 feet away from - Nobody would believe it!
Ghostfred guessed correctly but I think his comment was removed by TH-cam 🥒🍆🥕🌽🌭
PS Ghostfred 😁😁😁
@@martinda7446 An as-yet unbaked Rhubarb & Cane Toad pie...?
@@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG 😄
Great video! Tell enthusiasts what equipment to avoid. I used to be a Panasonic repairman in China for about 6 years in 2006. The model of this deck in China is: RS-TR272, made in Guangdong, China. At that time, the price was the cheapest among the recorders (the customers who bought it were not enthusiasts, but for teaching projects). Its quality is so bad that the production cost is only less than ￥ 200 RMB. In addition to material reduction, the design of the circuit is also unsatisfactory: for example, the double triode bias oscillator, MPX filter, DOLBY HX PRO, headphone amplifier, etc. are canceled. What is more incredible is that for the device sent by the user for repair, we directly replace the complete set of components according to Panasonic's requirements, without repairing and adjusting individual parts. For example, if the pinch roller/belt is damaged, we will replace it with the whole movement including the magnetic head; If the parts of the circuit board are damaged, the PCB assembly will be replaced directly. At that time, we nicknamed this model "disposable deck", that is, the user directly threw it away and bought a new one without maintenance, which is enough to show that it is cheap. Your video also explains the defects of this machine in great detail. We really don't need to waste time and money on it. Cheers!
ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ
многие аппараты инженеры раз рабы по указанию сделать шедевр экономии да и в погоне !!! 1 за прибылью но и 2 временем
создали не мало недоработок и заводских браков
и это до сих пор происходит ПРИБЫЛЬ ДИКТУЕТ СВОИ ЗАКОНЫ
компании гиганты сони и пионер а также панасоник диктуют свои законы в основу ставиться прибыль хотя было время ставилось качество
все типы неисправностей можно разделить на несколько типов
1 недоработки 2 проблемы с системами охлаждения 3 эти же проблемы только в жарких регионах 4 эти же проблемы при неправильной эксплуатации 5 заводские браки 6 недоделки 7 плохая ремонтопригодность
8 так же дешевые детали китайские вместо дорогих аналогов нарушения гостов стандартов эталонов качества
9 нарушение комфорта нет выхода на наушники
представим план идеальный это качество а как ПОСЛЕДСТВИЕ ! редкие ремонты попадосы !!!! 1 нет недоделок и 2 нет переделок
на 3д принтере можно довести до ума любой компонент схемы - слабые компоненты сделать сильными или вставить кварцевую стабилизацию и возможно работу без пасиков только на шестерёнках
вопрос для кого такая работа возможна ????
кому такая работа по силам ?
это же не простая реставрация а умная реставрация
надо проверить и температуру работы компонентов если есть перегрев то либо добавить радиатор а может и кулер на горячие компоненты либо заменить на дорогой и качественный аналог ХОЛОДНЫЙ
так же можно установить кулер внизу как в подставках для ноута на 50 оборотов даже 25 либо с датчиков тепла и контролем оборотов В ТОМ СЛУЧАЕ ЕСЛИ СНИЗУ СТОИТ УСИЛИТЕЛЬ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
А ТАКЖЕ ДЛЯ ЖАРКИХ КЛИМАТИЧЕСКИХ ЗОН
С УЧЁТОМ ТОГО ЧТО У МНОГИХ НЕТ КОНДИЦИОНЕРОВ
И ОН ДОЛЖЕН СПРАВЛЯТЬСЯ------СО ТЕПЛОВЫМИ СТРЕССАМИ
И ЧТО БЫ ЭТОТ КУЛЕР МОЖНО БЫЛО ОТКЛЮЧАТЬ НАЖАЛ НА КНОПОЧКУ И ПОЛЧАСА ТИШИНА
А ТАК ЛИШЬ БЫ СДЕЛАТЬ ДА ПОБЫСТРЕЕ ДА АБЫ КАК ДА ШОБ ПРОДАТЬ ПОБЫСТРЕЕ
КАК ГОВОРЯТ
НА СКОРУЮ РУКУ ДА НА ДОЛГУЮ МУКУ
ЧТО БЫ ДОЛГО НЕ МУЧАТСЯ ПОТОМ !!!!!! ЛУЧШЕ СРАЗУ ДЕЛАТЬ НОРМАЛЬНО !!!
@Stay Hungry Stay Foolish
Здравствуйте
Любой апарат может оказаться потребует стандартных вложений пасик и ролик или ролики и писики .
Это лотерея , СОСТОЯНИЕ АПАРАТА тоесть остаток ресурса.
Так что если двух кассетник то не пишущий на два кармана , те что писали на два кармана стояли в студиях как правило и работали пахали на износ .
Так что например техникс 474 , верхняя модель что не пишет на два кормана , либо техникс 474 либо его аналоги .
Это если вам нужен двух касетник .
Если нужно качество и одно касетник то главное что бы детонации не было , звук не дрожал .
Если любите высоких побольше СЛУШАТЬ , то лучше одно кассетник с ручным подмагничиванием .
ЕСЛИ ЛЮБИТЕ РОДНОЙ ЗВУК БЕЗ ЭКВАЛАЙЗЕРА , И ВМЕШАТЕЛЬСТВ , ТОЕСТЬ ПРАВИЛЬНЫЙ ЗВУК , МОНИТОРНЫЙ ТО БЕЗ РАЗНИЦЫ КАКОЙ АПАРАТ .
ЕСЛИ ЛЮБИТЕ СУБЬЕКТИВНОЕ КАЧЕСТВО , ВЫСОКИХ ПОБОЛЬШЕ ТО МОЖЕТЕ ДАТЬ ПРИ ПОМОЩИ РУЧНОГО ПОДМАГНИЧИВАНИЯ ЧУТЬ БОЛЬШЕ ВЫСОКИХ , СОЗДАВАЯ КОПИЮ ОРИГИНАЛА НА КАССЕТЕ .
НУ ЭТО ТОНКОСТИ , ОНИ НА ЛЮБИТЕЛЯ .
ВСЁ ЗАВИСИТ ОТ ВАШИХ ПРЕДПОЧТЕНИЙ .
ОТ ТОГО КАКОЙ ЗВУК ВЫ ЛЮБИТЕ , КТО ВЫ МЕЛОМАН ИЛИ АУДИОФИЛ , И ЧТО ГЛАВНОЕ ДЛЯ ВАС , МУЗЫКА ИЛИ КАЧЕСТВО .
@Stay Hungry Stay Foolish Hello! If you want to purchase a cost-effective deck for recording, I personally recommend JVC's TD-W718/TD-W7SD. In China, the price of this second-hand is ¥ 400-500 RMB. They can achieve dual cassette recording at the same time, have high reliability with three motors, and have automatic calibration function, saving many tedious adjustment processes. For beginner enthusiasts, it is absolutely sufficient. Of course, I think its only drawback is that the rubber of the pitch roller is prone to aging, but you can buy a replacement from eBay, and replacement is also very simple. Good luck!!
The woman holding the soldering iron by the business end, made my day!!
lol came into the comments section looking for this. I can’t believe I was only the 6th person to like your comment and the first one to reply; maybe nobody else besides us 7 really noticed? Hahahaha 😂
I noticed that too!
HR managers during interviews are looking exactly for such people - they know nothing, but they can sell their nothing better. 😀
That's one of the first things I noticed!
I've seen the photo before, but I still love the way the young lady holds the soldering pen ! So much for stock photographs..
I used to sell these exact decks for a living (among many others) - "Technics" (really Matsushita in general) was in full cost-cutting mode at the time and along with everyone else was drastically cheapening their cassette decks, but also many of their other components. Matsushita seemed to see an opportunity to broaden the Technics brand, since Panasonic was no longer a home audio brand in the US. So Technics lost its "premium" status and became just another mainstream home audio brand - this deck was a cost-cutting move as cassette decks fell out of favor from a bar that had already been lowered. Anyway, it all really hurt the brand for a while and I was not recommending their products when I sold electronics in the 90's.
I have a RS-TR355 from 1989 that's also a dual cassette deck but it has mostly metal construction (I had to run and check the pinch roller posts just now out of curiosity!), two sets of controls, manual level control, a headphone jack, and it's all original including the belts, and everything works as new. So they really just dropped the quality over the next decade.
technics and pioneer are the same exact thing.... we used to have a repair center just down the street here.
there's a difference between 3xx and 1xx models....simply put, 1 is lower number than 3, 5 or whatever.....
technics had decent decks in mid 90s....
A repair video would be cool, I hope this one makes enough revenue.
I have a portable cassette recorder from the mid to late 70s and a cheap home stereo from the late '80s or early '90s, both by Philips, with completely disintegrated originally soft (now brittle) material gears.
My dad once had a Technics stack complete with speakers. Had the receiver, tape deck, equalizer, AM/FM tuner and 5 cd changer. Too bad the receiver died out one day so a newer Pioneer took place but we kept the components until like 2016 or so. Along the way, my dad was given one of these decks and it barely worked, as opposed to the stack from 1989 as well as a sony CD changer.
I bet that Pioneer is still going! They are built to last!
pioneer, technics, and panasonic all use the same internals. good choice. i still use a pioneer elite from 1998.
Still using my Pioneer CTF950 for 43 years
That looks like it was probably sold more as part of a cheap rack system than as a standalone deck.
Technics quality could run a wide range, from cheap junk like this to ultra high end.
The very first cassette deck I ever owned was a Technics M260, which was a lower cost 3 head deck. It was defective as delivered, because while it used a so called siamese head with separate record and play heads in the same package , the azimuth of the play head didn’t match the record head perfectly. Eventually I gave up and sold it, then bought a Nakamichi
Another good video! My friend has one of these Technics dual decks sitting in his closet and it hasn't been used in over 20 years, I told him it's going to need new rubber parts and he said it can sit in the closet for now... drives me crazy because I like to restore these old decks to working condition.
I've seen similar issues with the pinchrollers in VCRs from the 90s. The "brown and crusty" looking pinchroller st 7:40 is actually moldy. They can turn hygroscopic (absorbing moisture from the air) which allows mold to grow and because they hold moisture like a sponge in this degraded state, nearby bare metal parts will start to rust, sometimes quite severely. My ITT-Nokia SVHS VCR (Sanyo OEM) was so badly rusted around the moldy pinchroller that I had to partially disassemble the mechanism to remove the rust, because the rusted and thus expanded surfaces prevented levers in the mechanism from moving properly, upsetting the whole deck logic
Oh what a joy. I've got a JVC VCR from the 90s, probably with a similar issue. Haven't ever opened it as I own too many and that particular one isn't fancy nor special in any way.
I love cassette decks too and went a little nuts about 20 years ago buying various cool models on eBay (when they were much cheaper than today depending on the models) or scooping them up at thrift stores for $5 to $15 each. Some brands I have include:
- Nakamichi (very temperamental and my RX-303 needs to be repaired)
- Pioneer (some of the high-end models with silver brushed face and blue luminous LED displays, but they are temperamental too)
- Tascam
- Sansui (One deck was given to me for free, but needs belts replaced at the very least)
- Akai
- Aiwa
- Sony
- Hitachi (New Old Stock, but had rotted belts)
- Bang & Olufsen (rotted belts and temperamental drawer mechanism)
- Toshiba
- Nikko
They are gorgeous as pieces of technology, but there are risks when buying them NOS or used since they may have various repair issues and as VWestlife's video discusses, sometimes repair costs or effort far outweigh their actual value.
I have a Technics cassette deck from 1981 that was still working when I got it. The '90s era of black plastic audio (& video) equipment seems to be hit or miss in terms of quality and longevity. Some have stood the test of time, and others, like this model, need some TLC. Obviously, these decks aren't getting any younger, but the bargain decks from the '90s onward just don't seem to be aging too well.
The rubber rollers in my dad's nearly century old 16mm projectors were in better shape than the ones of that Technics lol!
Technics decks are also renowned for having gear wheels made of cheese, as opposed to plastic. Philips tended to follow the same wisdom.
In some models of DCC recorders Philips had Matsushita drives in them.
contrary to popular belief, plastic is not forever. esp. not plastic gears in consumer electronics, or plastic parts of cars etc.
My hifi set up consists of mostly technics and Sony, but as things age I've slowly been swapping more and more Technics equipment with Sony equipment because it's easier to repair and seems to last longer.
PS, my main receiver is still technics and works fantastic! Good built-in preamp as well for my record player!
I've had a sony double deck and it had almost all the same problems as this Techincs. Dead rollers, Loose belts, etc. Didn't have rust tho. The repairs were big. It seems like a common thing with mid to late 90s decks. I own a Pioneer 3-head now, from 1992 and it's really good. Auto BLE system, Dolby B,C, some Eq's and it works absolutely fine with no repairs whatsoever. So I think you should stick with late 80 and early 90s decks from the middle range and they'll be fine. Just have to check that everything's working before you buy the thing.
@@theycallmejames7649 12Voltvids made exactly the same experiences with bad pinch rollers on late Sonys and Technics low end decks...
I have Sony rollers in my cheaper Walkmans dying.
@@DaXande135 Pinchrollers are a consumable item just like belts, regardless of who made the deck. The issue is that hardly anyone ever replaces them (unlike the belts), and then people wonder why the deck sounds bad with rock-hard, deformed or sometimes even moldy pinchrollers. facepalm moment
@@Knaeckebrotsaege In many decks they are still fine. If the azimuth is constant over the entire tape and the tape isn't scewing and getting damaged (especially thin C120 tape), the rollers are fine.
Why should I change them then? I don't know what you want to say me with your response.
@@Knaeckebrotsaege i wouldn't say rollers are as consumable as belts, rollers usually last longer. much longer.
My wife's RS-TR170 is sitting on a shelf behind me, she was so proud to tell what a quality sound system she had! Eventually I will give it a good look, but it can sit in storage for a while!
My technics RS-TR165 was manufactured in 1990. I bought it at a thrift store about 15 yrs ago for about 20.00. All I've had to do since is change belts and one broken drive gear. Lubricated all moving parts and it's been running like a top ever since. I have no complaints about Technics.
In the 1990s, I took "Broadcasting" at our Vo-Tech! These cassette decks were used EXCLUSIVELY in the "on-air" booths! They DID work WELL then! I still have cassettes I recorded!
The double cassette decks were usually about the same price as single ones in the same sort of range, so I assumed there had to be some cost-cutting to achieve this. I went for a single deck, 3-head and apart from the leaf switches for tape type detection needing attention the deck seems to work fine. It is quartz direct drive, though.
For 90s cassette decks, I like Pioneer. Some models have one flaw, the displays can get weak and difficult to see, but they do keep on working. Plus, the belts are easy to change.
if its a vacuum fluorescent display, they do go dim with use, its 'normal' ageing unfortunately, but some seem to last better than others
Onkyo and Denon also had good decks in the '90s. And if you are in Europe, I would recommend Grundig as well. I have a 1996 FineArts CF4 3-head tray-loading deck from them, and it sounds absolutely amazing. I don't like the tray loading feature of it, because it makes proper cleaning of the tape path a nightmare, even with removed lid. It has an extremely wide record bias tuning range. Does not have level calibration, unfortunately. But it has a true-time tape counter, which calculates the elapsed and remaining time of the tape, no matter where the tape is when you insert it, and you don't even have to tell it the full tape length, it recognizes it automatically. And I can't emphasize enough that it sounds fabulous, the noise floor is low, the headphone amp sounds good in it, too, and the headphone volume is adjustable (IIRC, I decreased the value of the output resistors to increase the max volume).
technics and pioneer are the same exact hardware repackaged.
A little while ago, I went to a thrift store specifically looking for old hifi equipment. I ended up bringing home a Pioneer CT6R from the early 1980s, paid around 20 bucks for it. It's nice because it has dolby C, despite being from the early 80s. It was clearly a very high end deck from back in the day.
So I got the Pioneer home, and plugged it in to test it. Sure enough, it had problems. It's well documented in fact... these particular decks like to play in warp speed. You hit the play button (soft touch controls by the way), and it will play as if it were fast forwarding. Going onto the forums was useless, because all the forums claim it's a design defect that is too expensive to repair, and not worth the trouble. They even went so far as to claim that Pioneer was replacing cassette mechanisms on warranty.
Wow, that sounds just like the whole point of your video. Suffice to say, I was pretty bummed out.
Well I kept digging. I'm an electronics tech, and I'm pretty handy, so I held out hope that someone somewhere would detail exactly what the malfunction was and why it was happening. No joy.
Then I pulled the deck apart and looked for myself. That's when I discovered the drive belt had snapped, and turned into goo. So I thought... hmm... could that be it? The new belt was 5 dollars, and I installed it. Yayayayaya, it works!
So that's my little adventure in the world of vintage cassette decks.
Granted it's a plasticky and bottom of the line unit, but if all it needs are new belts and pinch rollers, it's not so bad, is it?
That time, when Technics started with such kind of cheap consumer stuff, as amplifires with fans, it was the beginning of the end of that brand of Matsushita. Technics have had been quite famous with their R2R and cassette decks machines as well with amplifires. Good & excellent HiFi without snake oil voodo b.s. advertising. Thats the reason I honor Technics, and I am happy that this brand has come back after all
technics was never cheap, same exact internals as pioneer as they are the same brand.
@@jessepetty8636Technics was best known for their iconic SL-1700 series turntables, and it’s also the sister of Panasonic. I have my Panasonic RS-765US that I got last week and it still works after I did some minor fixes and installed a new belt for the rewind mechanism.
i have technics amp, with fan (su-v300), since 1995. it's constantly on.
since 1995.
so to me, your first sentence means nothing.
I think pinch rollers and belts are not the main 90s Technics cassette decks problem, it's the idler wheel gear. I could not see if your model has it but you should consider change it too. I have serviced several brands and the reason it does that is because of the idler gear, not the belts.
Around 1996 is where some hifi components/equipments started going downhill because they started making in China rather than Japan although the higher end ones were still from Japan. Another reason why this cassette deck was poor is because this was released at that time when people were already on CDs. However there are also some good cassette decks from 1996 such as the Pioneer CT W606DR dual cassette deck and some Sony Direct Drive Dolby S Dual Capstan Decks too.
I’d guess it was a cynical decision by Technics; make it sound OK, and spend just enough money on it that it’ll last maybe a handful of years - people are moving from tapes to CDs, so we’ll probably get away with cheaping out on a cassette deck, without harming our brand. In years to come our customers will only be listening to their Technics CD players anyway, which we do actually build properly …
HiFi equipment started going downhill more like around 1980. the '70s rocked!
@@lenimbery7038 at least they were still made in Japan with longer lasting components.
I watched on Odysee but I came here to do my part and help generate some ad revenue and help fund the repair costs.
My thrift stores must suck. I NEVER see cool components like these. All we get is broken dvd players 😒
I am a consumer electronics repair technician with almost 50 years of experience. The idea of picking up an old cassette deck, an electromechanical device, from a thrift store, and expecting it to work is ludicrous. Within 5 years of the date of manufacture the belts , at least, would have needed to be addressed. To replace the belts, for me, takes less than 45 minutes. Yeah, it's worth the money.
Is it possible to start one deck doing something (perhaps fast winding) and have that continue when you switch the controls to the second deck? Or will it stop the first deck before the controls are switched to the second?
I might have parted ways with the somewhat higher end 1990s Technics cassette decks I had. If I still have one, I'll look and see if they cheaped out so badly on it as well. Some of them had developed problems with the mechanism going into gear, and it seemed like the driving signal for or the shifting solenoid itself was not working correctly.
I have a Technics deck from 1988 and its got very similar problems, so this is not reserved to their 90s decks. Although I'm quite happy with the playback quality, its also full of plastic and very hard to disassemble. While none of the rubber has noticeably degraded (pretty remarkable, considering it's over 30 years old), I still tried to replace the belt and found out that I needed to unsolder a bunch of parts to get to it.
I would generally agree with this. I've worked on at least one of pretty much every model of hi-fi component Technics released in the UK and they did have some that just aren't worth fixing, this included. I don't know what happened in the '90s, but decks like the TR373 / 474 / 575 / 979 / AZ6 and AZ7, (a similar mechanism to the deck you show here) which all use the same mechanism, all suffer a few faults. The pinchrollers always go hard, the gears crack, and the heads fail (though generally the Amorphous heads are OK). They can actually be repaired quite easily. The pinch rollers are available, there are 3D printed gear replacements which work, and the belt can be changed. But changing the belt is a nightmare as the motors have to be de-soldered, and the PCBs are delicate and the pads will lift even with very little heat. The quality of the decks, and the cost of the replacement parts, generally make them uneconomical to repair unless you have an AZ7 or maybe an AZ6 that is otherwise mint. If you want a great 90s cassette deck, look at Kenwood or JVC. The Kenwood KX-W6050 and KX-W8050, and the many similar decks they did, are extremely well built.
Like your video. I had an Akai cassette player from the 80's, mostly silver and metal parts inside, with Dolby B that was very easy to repair. Compare this with a Sony cassette player from the 90's, mostly plastic inside. I gave up when the metal heads kept jumping up and down up to non-play / rewind position or play position, and then wouldn't play at all. I think all those stamped metal parts in the previous decade were better than 90's plastic and IC's.
Sir Your videos are straight up therapy after a long difficult day. Thank You for what you do.
Technics CD players are some of my favorite consumer-grade decks, they always seem to be in perfect working order and are viciously fast at reading TOCs and responding to commands. Those MASH DACs sound great to me as well, although I've never heard a "bad" sounding CD player (outside of cheap nasty portable equipment with disgusting analog circuitry).
Those were made like TANKS !!!!!. SLPG300 all night long. But the rest of the lineup (speacilly the entry level modules) ..... a different story.
I have two SL-PD5's that I picked up for $10 and plan on keeping them forever. Great, reliable players with optical out. Not that it matters though because the Technics DAC actually sounds better than a couple external dac's I messed with.
@@driver8sk ditto. I have one and it sounds better than my Kenwood player. Also have Sony and Magnavox single players but they are a lot newer
I've had bad luck with 90s Sony cassette decks too. If you want one of these 90s-tastic dual cassette decks, then Kenwoods are the best! And yes, I'll die on this hill.
Technics may have been premium brand long ago. I had a complete Technics sets from the early 1990s. Came with amp, the double cassette deck (the same one that you had pictured), 5-disc CD changer and tuner. While most of it worked flawlessly, the tuner was too wideband for the post-Docket 80-90 world with too many stations crammed into one media market. That was a problem solved by buying a vintage Technics tuner with adjustable IF bandwidth.
The amp was pretty powerful, but it had the same amp ICs that a lot of those had in the 1980s. I ended up overheating it. The amp had a fan for the heatsinks that the amp IC were attached to, but for nothing else. The main processor for the amp died. Thankfully, we had a shop that could repair it and they did.
Auto record level was alright on those decks, but it doesn't really do anything. On a variety of material, it didn't adjust at all. It was like it was pre-set to a lower level and you were stuck with it.
Just goes to show how much cassette decks were being cheapened out already in the 90s. I own a Technics RS-M205 from 1981, and it works perfectly (the disclaimer being I don't know how much it was serviced between manufacture and me buying it in 2019, but it's hard to imagine too much money would have been sunk into that year's bottom-of-the-range model).
i'm sure it was a marketing ploy. CDs are so much easier to make than cassettes or Vinyl records. So they just started making really bad Cassette decks and turntables to push us all on to CD.
@@janedoe6350 wouldn’t be surprised. After all, it’s always all about money. What customers like and/or want comes way lower in priorities compared to what’s cheap to manufacture and easiest to roll over 300% mark-up with. If they used better quality parts in this deck, non-plastic roller shafts, metal flywheels etc, the profits would be next to none. Do you expect them to stoop down on the level of 299% mark-up? Ridiculous. How dare you.
@@janedoe6350 That's wrong. These decks (at least the ones with manual level controls) sound quite well when working.
@@DaXande135 For sure... but that's the catch "when working"". Stuff from the late 80s /90s are just full of non-serviceable plastic parts that fail. They sounded fine when new.... just don't give them high hours. Too much inbuilt obsolescence to keep them sounding good for any length of time.
@@janedoe6350 That's a point, yes. But in my case I got them for free or very low costs...
Also, my dads 1990s Sony TC-K 620 failed just 15-20 years after buying, even recordings from the 1990s showed a known issue with the erase head (little popping sounds repearingly)
In comparison my Nordmende radio recorder from the 1970s with a 90% metal mechanism had only the belt failing after being used as a garage radio for nearly 50 years.
When I was learning to solder as a young boy in the 1990s, I absolutely did what the woman at 6:26 was doing...several times. I learned two things from this experience: 1) Don't do that; 2) The smell of human flesh cooking.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice that! And this is in the service manual of a premium brand..!!! ???
The other thing that I learned when soldering as a boy was not to do it over the edge of the bench while wearing shorts.... 😆🤬
I was going to say I want to see her hold the soldering iron like that at full temperature lol
Your videos are a reminder, to me at least, that cassette players should stay in the past.. Too many fail points.
Another very common issue with these decks is the idler gear between the hubs. It's made of soft plastic and breaks/strips over time. There are plenty of videos on TH-cam describing this and it's likely why the tape is not moving forward. The gears are available on ebay but you might want to check that before committing to a parts order.
This is true but the idler gear issue is related to the AR300 mechanism - which is a better mechanism than the one used in the deck from the video.
I've repaired heaps of Technics decks where the idler gear has missing teeth. I've had varied success with different manufacturers but there are gears available on ebay that work just fine.
@@andromedastrain77 hi there I have ch950 that has similar problems belts gears. Can't find any vids to have a go myself. Best regards
Thanks for sharing your experiences. It is so interesting. Keep up the good work. Stay safe. 😊
I am shocked to see those low quality plastic parts in a Technics . Like you I always considered them to be high end . No better than a cheap Chinese modern unit . I think the decks produced in the 70s were better quality . I like the Pioneer equipment from that era . Interesting video . Thanks and regards from the UK .
worse than the cheapo chinese ones, as said in the video, at least they had a reasonable amount of metal parts! i've come across late 70s/early 80s panasonic(technics is just a brand name of theirs) decks that have similar plastic piinch roller frames, but at least a metal roller rod, they can twist out of square and cause tape riding up or down, making it chew up, and parts werent available even in the early 90s,
The problem with Pioneer stuff especially with the 70's & 80's plus even some 90's stuff is getting hard to find and is usually very expensive when you do find it. The other problem if you find something like a receiver, they're very heavy and that means crazy high shipping costs if you were to find something on eBay or anywhere it would have to be shipped from.
You don't have to go back to the '70s, even their early '90s decks are good, but all of them has disintegrating polyurethane gear problem. Not a big deal, replacements are available, although not cheap. I own several Technics RS-M205 and RS-M215 decks from 1981-1983, these were their most basic models at the time, all of them has the original pinch rollers and original belts (!) in them, an they just work fine, even the one which was used so much the head completely worn out, and I had to replace it. A bit later the belts started slipping, but that was just from the dust accumulated on their (and the pulleys') surface, it started working fine again after I cleaned the belts and pulleys with IPA.
@@andygozzo72 While I don't like these plastic shaft pinch rollers, they might be better than a metal shaft inside a plastic frame, because that will cause a crack in the plastic frame as it ages and shrinks. Of course metal shaft and metal frame is the best. I have many Technics RS-M205 and RS-M215 decks from the early '80s, they also have plastic pinch roller frames but metal shaft, some of them is cracked next to the shaft due to plastic shrinkage. Although they still work fine, with the original 40+ years old pich rollers and belts! Their most common problem is bad contact in the REC/Play switch, and head wear, but their tape transport is very robust, despite it looks very fragile with a ton of plastic parts and gears, it almost resembles a clock movement with its many gears sandwiched amongst three layers of metal plates, because of the mechanical soft touch system.
Love the picture of the woman soldering! "Hey, let us know when that soldering iron heats up. Oh don't worry, once it's plugged in, you'll know within a few seconds!"
I have 1996 technics cassette deck, but it's RS-TR474 (and funnily enough it has all features that you pointed out were missing on TR180). I asked my dad if it wouldn't need a belt replacement soon, but as it turns out it doesn't operate on belts, instead it has clutch based mechanism, which lasted all those years. I don't think we've ever opened it. Does anyone know how durable are mechanisms like that?
Not very. I have the RS-TR333 and the issue with this deck in the video is the cogs have disintegrated. You can buy new ones. Do not buy the 3D printed ones. Buy the milled ones from hard resin. th-cam.com/video/cPdm6SB_yMg/w-d-xo.html
If they have not gone yet they will because the originals are very weak plastic.
I have a TR575, which I assume uses the same kind of mrchanism, and despite being sitting abandoned in my grandma's house for around 20 years, it works and plays perfectly fine, without any noticeable wow & flutter. It probably needs some demag on deck 2 though, but nevertheless it's a great deck, it has Dolby B and C NR, with HX Pro, and a lot of other features like manual recording level and ATC.
@@theotherchannel2279 I see. The deck hasn't seen that much use since we don't have that much tapes anymore. I mainly used cd player, but these are pretty much bulletproof.
@@eskeletor Apart from those gears. They will fail at some point it is a given with these units. They do sound great when fixed though!
@@theotherchannel2279 I mean, yeah like all stuff that has mechanical parts. The fact that it lasted 27 years and counting is mighty impressive to me and I wouldn't be mad if it did fail eventually. Try buying anything nowadays that'll last you 3 decades.
Just picked one of these up at the thrift store yesterday. Belts were shot on both decks and all four pinch rollers were hard like a rock. Easy fix.
While I can't speak for other models of Technics cassette decks, I do have an RS-B207 from around 1990, which is even still using the original belts, and it works flawlessly. None of the parts are disintegrating either (so far, that is).
I had a technics rs-tr232.
The center gear was plastic and pretty much disintegrated on both mechanisms, didn't have the skill to fix it despite actually being able to find parts, and I unfortunately had to dispose of it
I watched.
Wow! You have to unsolder the motors in order to replace the belts? That would make it a nonstarter for me. Here's the funny thing -- I also have a Technics double cassette deck from the 1990s. I wonder if the same problem is endemic to mine. I bought it brand-new in 1990, making it a bit earlier than the one you show here. (It's in my storage unit and not accessible at the moment, but I think it is the RS-T165 model of 1990.) Mine has manual volume-setting controls and a headphone jack. I bought it brand-new in 1990 -- I think the list was about $230, and I talked the stereo shop down to $190. It was still functional as of 2004, when I last used it. I wonder, does mine have the same problem, or did Technics adopt a cheap cost-cutting design when it produced your deck a few years later?
Pretty much every high-end cassette deck of the period requires belt replacement these days, as belts degrade over time. I had several, including two dubbing decks, as I collected old radio shows on reel to reel and dubbed tape copies to swap with other collectors. My favorite dubbing deck was a high-end 1994 Sony deck with an unusual feature allowing me to vary tape speed plus or minus 10 percent. Recently, when I wanted to add a cassette deck to my stereo, however, I chose a top-of-the-line single-well "silverface" Kenwood deck from 1978, really one of the best ever made (the KX-1030). People interested in having a repair shop go through an old cassette deck ought to know that the typical cost is about $150 plus belts.
I can see that because of the design problems with this particular Technics model in this video, the repair cost would probably be much higher. I just wonder, could this be an example of the cheap BPC models ("black plastic crap") we started seeing in the mid-1990s? I would say, knowing this about this particular model, it is a bad, bad choice, especially since there are so many out there that do not have this design flaw. And frankly, for audiophile usage, dual-well decks were never the best choice -- they were useful mainly for high-speed dubbing. When you are selecting a cassette deck for restoration, you should pick a good one to begin with, as you can expect $150+ for repair no matter what you do.
Panasonic has cheapened the Technics brand during that time and it’s like they outsourced the components for the cassette decks, since cassette players were beginning their decline. Kind of like with vinyl turntables, Panasonic and Pioneer cheapened the mechanism to cut costs!
Well that's synchronicity... just saw two of this exact model at a local thrift shop yesterday. Wisdom prevailed and I didn't buy them, even though Technics is a great make.
PS. If I remember correctly, the budget Yamaha and Denon machines of that era (can't recall model numbers now) were the best by a long way. Not sure how they are for longevity, but we sold them by the bucketload. Many should be still about. They were built extremely well and had a quality, if basic mech. They looked a hell of a lot more upmarket than this Technics and likely the same price at the time and produced very decent playback results (no metal).
I've got a denon deck and one side don't work, and when i took it apart I was shocked at the build quality ,it's cheap rubbish. Put that against a technics one which is easier to repair and fix. And the quality of the build is much better.
@@stevencornish3188 Yes. Depends on year and model, post 1995 quality was all over the place. In the late 80s the Denon budget machines were excellent. I've sold/repaired 1000's of machines over 40 years. Technics were/are mid market in general. No serious audiophile gets too excited by Technics.
Yeah I have a late model Yamaha, it can be remote controlled and has a play trim (pitch) control at least. It’s a loud clunky mech and has plastic rollers but they look new, the deck is very clean. Other then having a tape stuck and the door stuck shut- switched direction during play with remote, my fault.. It works as it should and has been used a lot as it was in my kitchen hifi stack (yeah complete with Sansui speakers 😁 I have several Yamaha decks from the mid 80’s and they make a reliable deck, almost 40 years and never a problem. But I USE them so that is also a big factor in a deck lasting. I even have a Yamaha VCR from 86 as my main VHS unit, it makes excellent hifi recordings and is built like a tank. You won’t see many of them they seem quite rare
What a great example of 90s hifi cost reduction.
I have a older technics deck that exhibits the same symptoms as this one, I actually had 2 of them, The first one I ended up throwing away before I knew how to repair it and I acquired another for free, the issue is the plastic drive gear that controls the forward playback shatters in half usually due to age, theres several eBay sellers that are 3d printing replacement gears. its a very tedious job if you are not comfortable repairing electronics.
To me, it seems as though that Technics were winding down their cassette decks in the mid-late '90s; seems like a lot of cost-down has gone into it.
They made some very well-featured and robust decks in the '80s.
I've been a Technics turntable user since the late 1970's and own an SL1700 along with an SL1800 from new. I would never let them go. However, that's where my love of vintage Technics ends. You need a strong stomach for a Technics receiver restoration that includes the need to replace every single Capacitor. It's sad because they do sound sweet but they used their own components and everything leaks. The good news is that their original line of SL turntables will outlive all of us!
Reminds me of basically anything Sony from the 80s. Before you can do anything with it these days, you need to change every. single. capacitor. No exceptions. And of course clean up all the mess the original leaking ones caused on the board, and worst case scenario fix eaten-away traces. It's a massive pain in the rear and that's coming from someone who only fixed two devices so far, a TA-AX410 amplifier and a XO-5 "casseiver" (tape+amp+radio in one). never again...
My SL-1300 is an absolute tank, apart from the automatic play. Can't say the same for the tape deck I just bought.
I got an RS-TR355 from the thrift store a couple of days ago. It doesn't get a lot of love in reviews, compared to Nakamichi and others. But it sounds fine to me and doesn't seem to be disintegrating. And if it does...well, I'll be out $6.
It's great you point out that Technics CD player. We gave almost the exact same model (PG320) to my grandfather back in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, he's since passed and I'm the proud owner of that player now along with his Magnavox reel-to-reel recorder and tapes.
@8:00 Don't apologize for your fingers! Show me fingers that look better under such magnification and lighting and I'll show you a god damned android trying to infiltrate and kill us!
In the late 80's I had this Technics RS 671, contrary to this later model it was a beast of a cassette deck. All metal inside and out in that typical Technics dark brown livery. It had a door that hinged downward, you had to place a cassette flat into the belly of the beast :) The controls were to the right of the well, not like the usual piano keys, they were soft-control and actuated huge solenoids to engage the mechanism. One of the most unusual cassette decks I have ever seen. I still enjoy recording and listening to tape, but switched to Sony years ago, although I still use my SL1200's on a regular basis.
Personally I stay away from the 90's Technics ugly grey-brown colored gear. IMO it's the ugliest of any manufacturer in that period and doesn't offer the quality.
If they're cheap enough or free looks don't matter.
@@BubbaBigDude This era gear you can find better at the same price, even free. At any price, even free, these wouldn't enter my house. But have at it, they are all yours.
The sound of those tape mechanisms were immediately recognizable to me, as my grandfather gave me his old bookshelf system a few years ago. Sadly, the tape mechanism was completely broken, and trying to fix it somehow caused the 60 CD changer to break.
I have the Technics RS-TR373 and just recorded at least 15 cassettes and played them back just as much. It depends on which model you get of that era. There are not that many videos on how to change the belts/rollers on one of these, and the inside of yours looks similar to the one I have. I'd love to see that repair video in the inevitable event that I have to change the belts/rollers.
Does anyone have any positive/negative experience with the RS-TR373? I'd love to know.
I know it's not the best 1990s tape deck, but I did get it for free and I cannot argue against that!
I have a Technics cassette deck from 1983 and it's built realy well, even the belts are still original. Then I have a Sony stereo from around 2004 and it has a bad belt. I knew theese auto record level late 90's Technics cassette decks sucked. Hopefully the higer-end models are built better.
Nope, anything cassette from Technics 90's onwards should be avoided...
I sincerely hope that picture of someone soldering (about 6:30) wasn't from a "how to" video.
I love watching your videos. I owned quite a few of Technics decks, mostly the top of the line models and from what i can see, you bought a very basic model that was not that great even when was new. Better models do have better quality parts and also, if you get a better one, makes more sense to invest in it as they usually are more valuable.
Great example of "they lack the proper knowledge of how to unsolder components" may be found at 6:29.
I worked for Technics back in the day, and you'll probably find that most of the decks for this era follow this design, except for maybe the top end models 373/474 series. They're not bad decks in general, wow and flutter is fairly decent, the only thing that really differentiates any of them are the features on the front panel. This deck would've still been fairly expensive back in the day so is still worth repairing, considering the lack of quality decks available today and the demand for anything cassette-based. I still prefer Sony ES Decks though, as I also worked for them too, and they are much better in every regard.
I have just got out my As New RS BX701 from the 90s. I still looks brand new and plays like new. Was this a 'half decent' deck when it was made ?
@@JIMMIX7 Yep, it was the top end tape deck for 1995 with a good 19khz top end frequency which tapered off to about 21khz. Only bettered by the 1996 RS-AZ6 and RS-AZ7 which had slightly better wow and flutter. Dolby C was nicely implemented on the 501, 601 and 701 and worked well. Very underrated decks. Ast...
@@AstonsVintageTechnologyWorkshp Thank you so much for your reply. If the deck hasn't been used since the mid/end of the 90s would you say the belts, rollers etc will be perished,? everything seems to work just fine.
@@JIMMIX7 Difficult to say without seeing it, but I would say if it sounds stable on something like piano music, and functionally works in all modes, then I would say it is probably fine. I guess it matters more on how it has been stored over the years and what temperatures it has been exposed to. If boxed up in its original packaging and not boiled in the summer heat, (in a loft, say), or exposed to damp (garage etc.) then it would be similar as if it was stored in Technics warehouse. After 30 odd years things might need a quick check over, but as they say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" 😀All the best from Ast...
@@AstonsVintageTechnologyWorkshp Thank you ;-)
Ah, yes, technics mechanisms. I actually tried to put a new belf on technics and during that complicated mess that they called in manual "disassembly" I broke traces on motor and some gears in mechanism..... Yes, I am not a professional, but soldered motor (especially, when soldered that way, that pads just beg to break) is a horrible thing. And also gears inside that became brittle and required mechanucal stress on the to put back in (mechanism was like a sandwich of two parts and gears were connected with eachother on opposite sides) really make me feel more angry, than sad after repair attempt....
Technics is a Panasonic brand AFAIK. Which means mass produced with the cheapest components. You're better off with a 70s Sony deck since they were built like tanks. There is a Technics model that is a work of art from the 70s. It's a RS 676 model. Even has metal sheilding around the giant transformer and has solenoids throughout.
You can check it out on 12voltvids channel
Yeah, they are and the Cassette decks are not the best in the world. I went Yamaha with my set up as these decks are known as Nakamichi's little brother. They are very well spec and sound fantastic. The reason I would not go Sony is the same reason as Techincs. Anything after the 90's that Sony or Technics made cassette wise are really not worth touching. Just watch 12voltVIDS video on a recent Sony deck he pulled apart. He hated it!!!
@@theotherchannel2279 A good rule of thumb is that if it isn't a silver face deck, it's probably junk. Nakamachi excluded obviously. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and watched the decline of audio gear in real time😁
@@3dsmaxrocks699 Denon made silver aluminum faceplated tapedecks in the 90s.. and they absolutely sucked balls. Generalizations never work
And people bash the brand new TEAC W-1200 decks you can buy today.
Normally I don't like or even dislike YT videos, but I "liked" this one ... hope to see Technics repaired. I actually got something very similar, but made by Kenwood. The model number is KX-W4080 ... I think. Mine has separate controls however, and unlike some of those disastreous Sony models it uses entirely separate transports but otherwise it's more or less identical to your Technics. Featuring 4 plastic flywheels and a small PCB inside the huge metal cabinet.
That being said, I also had (and still have to this day) other decks, which are either far more superior to Kenwood and Technics (Pioneer CT91a for example), slightly better (Aiwa AD-F550) or even worse than Technics (Dual- branded unit from around 1989, 1990 ... not sure which model) and I honestly can't tell much difference between all of these in terms of playback quality. Yes, the Pioneer with closed loop dual capstan sounds better due to tape tension & better contact with the head, but I wouldn't describe it as "night and day" experience, just SLIGHTLY better.
I hope you'll end up fixing it, Kevin!
In the 80's makers like Technics, Yamaha and Akai made really decent decks featuring good engineering and excellent performance. I was 'in the trade' from 1969 to 1993 and saw the rise and fall of the cassette deck. By the 90's, following the advent of the CD and recordable digital media, demand fell away and the quality of the cassette deck began to decline. The ones you can buy now are awful things. Try to find a well-kept 1980's one if you can.
2:04 Technics started doing this since 1988 with their RX-FD75.
This kind of mechanisms are used in some "high end" late 90s Panasonic boomboxes that usually have dual cassette decks and soft touch controls. Lots of klunking noises when every function is activated and same layout of the electronics behind the deck. A nightmare to work on... And yes, I totally agree with you, despite the premium "Technics" brand on it, it is a very cheap, nasty, not worth spending time piece of equipment .
Happy New Year from North Germany.
Did like the video 😀
I always stuck to Yamaha cassette decks, never had many problems!
Unfortunately the pinch rollers are common thing with all Panasonic/Technics equipment. I had a Panasonic stereo from 2000 and the pinch rollers were as hard as rock. Also had a Panasonic from the year 2002 hard as rock as well. So I would avoid all Panasonic/Technics equipment from mide 90s-2000s as you will have to replace the pinch rollers if you intend to use them.
Lol yes, let's share this video out of spite. Smart call to action tbh.
i love how the deck was labelled furniture
Coincidentally, I have the superior version of this recorder, and I will not repair it except out of curiosity to see it in operation. It is absolutely not worth wasting time on this rubbish from the 90s. These are very low-end, two-headed recorders; if you find them lying around, leave them where they are!
I have that tape deck and I keep it in his box was a gift from a family member and yeah still on the repair project table I have lol happy new year btw !
Turned out I wasn't subscribed. Guess the fact that your videos are the only ones I regularly share were enough to keep the notifications coming.
Anyway, I'm subscribed now. Hope another subscription based on this video helps with the algorithm and generates more add revenue. This tapedeck is far to pretty to end up as e-waste. I'm sure restoring it and being one of the few surviving examples will increase value, if only over time.
Any cassette deck with two cassette wells and especially auto reverse , can't be expected to be exceptional at anything, this looks like its particularly bad in it's features and construction , and it approaches some mass produced SONY stuff made in the same or later period . I have a MARANTZ Sd-555 twin well auto reverse deck , and while in many ways its a 100 % better than the deck you are presenting, i probably would give up on cassettes if that was my only deck . I'm by no means a big fan of TECHNICS, but I'm pleasantly surprised by my RS-B705, from late 80s still running perfectly.
My colleague and I often mused about the poor quality of pinch rollers on the Pan/technics even when they were brand new, always seemed very hard compared to older decks or other manufacturers. I would have dodged this unit anyway as it has that god awful rotary head which fall out of alignment very easily. I`d go for an older technics with no auto reverse & also avoid any 3 head units as these are proprietry to technics and you`ll have a hell of a time getting relacements
Fun fact, I had technics all-in-one system that had this mechanism HOWEVER even though it was easier to service than this, it only had 1 motor for both decks. On mine the pinch rollers were fine but ALL the capstans were rusty. It was the most bizarre thing. Regardless, I got it working and I tried to enjoy the quality of the sound but it just did not deliver for me. The sound was luk-warm, nothing spectacular nothing fancy. It succeeded at being a full logic dual Deck and that was it. For as much as I loved the flashy lights I was unable to get the cd changer to work and I ended up putting it back where I found it.....the local recyclers.
How much money, so much Musik. You payd 15$. What are you expected? A new Recorder?
He expected a typical technics product… not junk
Oh...ok don't have this one... but got one I've had for time, seems errr....ok?! For now. Actually I think its an late 80s deck!
(It has recording level but only both at once not split)
Its a technics rs-b28r
I have a marantz sd151 for recording as its got split recording levels. My amp is a 1968 bang & olufson beomaster 900.... just like I am today (body oder 900.) Speakers a&r status s40s
Don't laugh at my turntable
Mtt1 Bush.....
I needed anything as my original b&0 1000 with proper sp45 needles finally died....no comin back ....sigh.... and I'm broke
Had this set up since 2000s
However
Recently gutted
Daughter had rabbit
Rabbit escaped to living room
Rabbit makes great wire cutters.
So so many wires cut....
Including very nice speaker wire....
.....sigh....
Now it has taken to finding my vinyl and eating the paper sleeves of some
Rabbit stew tonight anyone?
This is really a low budget deck but when it comes to quality Technics really went downhill during the 1990s. Even the top of the line decks like the RS-AZ7 had those really cheap looking plastic post pinch rollers, that's why I sold mine and bought a predecessor model (RS-BX747) which looks way better quality wise. Would love to see it repaired anyway, probably it will work quite nicely when fixed.
I have a Technics cassette deck of the same vintage (a bit more higher end, single deck, manual recording level, automatic tape calibration, Dolby B/C/HXPRO....etc.), and same construction. After 27 years it is still going strong with sporadic use, and no servicing required sofar (belts and rollers are still original). However the metal parts inside do rust.
6:26 - I love the meme value of that picture. I can almost smell the burning flesh...
If you DO make enough revenue to cover the cost of restoring this deck, the only reason I could see for doing so is to further prove your point that this particular model probably isn't worth investing money into. Comparable and more service-friendly decks are available elsewhere, and probably even better ones, for the same or less. Let's say you paid full price, and it wasn't a Yellow Sticker Day. $30. Then $45 for belts and pinch rollers, bringing us to $75.
One-week-old Craigslist ad near me: Sony AM/FM tuner, Sony 200W 2-channel Amplifier with Phono Preamp, Sony dual-cassette tape deck. Photos are poor quality, I'm guessing very-late-80s or very-early-90s, can't tell the model numbers of anything. Non-smoking, pet-free home running air purifier all the time (hinting the owner might be asthmatic or have allergies, so probably a dust-free meticulously-clean home). $75. An _entire working system_ for the same price, just add speakers.
Ten-day-old Craigslist ad, a little farther from home but not bad. Sony TC-WR520, needs belts, $40. It's not a Nakamichi, but it's a decent deck.
Ten-day-old Craigslist ad, about the same distance from home as above. Optimus SCT-74, needs belts, $20. A bit more vintage, but probably sounds halfway decent.
Two of those three are probably better options, and as Meat Loaf sang, "two out of three ain't bad." (RIP)
I just checked my early-90s Sony TC-WR635S. It has a similar design for the pinch rollers, might even be the same part. (I typed that before you found the eBay auction shown at 9:25 and I think we're both on the same path here!) They're looking kinda meh and the rubber feels a little stiff for my liking, I'll have to see if I can source replacements. Belts went to sludge, I'm STILL procrastinating on that job... I hope I can restore it, it's a great deck with thousands of hours on it, I mowed a LOT of lawns and did a LOT of extra household chores to buy it in junior high. It's made countless mix tapes and... **looks around nervously for Copyright Police** ...um, "backup copies?"
I helped you with the tape deck through TH-cam premium! It's the only streaming service I pay for since it's well worth the money and don't like using adblockers on actual content creators since they need the money. Plus it pays creators a bit more than ads
Iit's too late for me, I'm already past the point of no return. I bought a Technics RS-TR474 in 2019 for 20,000 moneys. I didn't know what I was getting into, I just bought it because I like Technics. The belts were fine, but the pinch rollers were already in bad condition. Then last year I replaced the belts and pinch rollers for about 13,000 moneys. And I also found out that the gears were broken, capstans worn out. So, now I'm waiting for my replacement gears to arrive from Poland for14,000 moneys. In short, I wouldn't buy it again.
Good video. [Subscribe] clicked. Funny thing: the channel's name sounds familiar to me but my subscription wasn't there. Oh, doesn't matter, I guess it's normal on YT now for the likes and subs to disappear. ;) Cheers.
Aah the CD player has the Index option.
Owning a similar model , the rs272, I can confirm much of this, with some differences in my experience. Like this one, my belts had also degraded. And can 100% confirm the process of changing them is a bit of a PITA. But watching videos on here, and esp Techmoan's channel inspired me to give it a try. Desoldering, replacing the belts, and resoldering the motors sucked, but is doable with basic soldering equipment. Though your average person may not just have that lying around I'll admit. After replacing the belts, it ran fine once again.
The differences in experience are, having watched techmoan, I know there's bulk pack with assorted belt sizes for cheap. So I spent maybe $6 for a pack of something like 60 belts, and was able to find the belts in my size in it. And I was back up and running. During the clean when putting back together, I did not at the time notice any degradation of the pinch rollers at the time. However, this has prompted me to go check again now, and yes, they are hard and crusty. But only the rubber part. No separation. Though you can see a band or crust on the rubber wheel where the tape runs across it where the crustiness is worse. So where this was gonna be "Well my pinch rollers never got crusty" comment, I can now confirm in the time since I replaced my belts, they have gotten crusty. It's a shame. I like my tape deck. I guess since I already own the deck, and the belts are new, it may be worth spending the $26 or so on a new set of rollers. Though I wonder if you can match up the roller and axle size to a replacement with a better compound and steel axle to prevent this happening again in the future.
11:03 It's not 60 Minutes. :(
I've made the mistake of picking one up twice. Technics made some damn fine workhorses elsewhere, but their tape decks in the '80s and '90s have been nothing but a headache. The best I can say for them is that if you get one that works for cheap, use it while it does and give it up afterwards.
Another spot that is a frequent issue with the Technics decks are the gears inside of the mechanism. They're made of plastic and will often strip teeth. That was the "give up" moment for me on the first one.
I know it's not feasible for everyone, but if you're not super handy or just don't want to deal with the frustration of thrifting and tinkering, the best option I've found for a vintage deck is to get one of the lesser Nakamichis and take it to a shop that still boasts authorized repairs for Nak. After years of struggling with short-term thrift finds I couldn't repair once they failed, getting a workhorse for a little over $100 tops ($10-20 for the deck, $80-100ish I think for the repair) was a dream. As I noted though, I was super-lucky to find that resource nearby, so for anyone else, just get that new Tascam if you don't want any headaches or tinkering.