Sony TC-K611S Three Head Cassette Deck - Transport, Playback and Recording issues Repaired
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Documenting working on this lovely three head K611S Sony cassette deck. Won't play, won't eject, won't do much!
Fully repaired and restored.
#cassettedeck #cassette #s #cassettecollection #cassettetapes #cassetteculture #cassettetape #cassettecollector #cassettes #hifi #tapedeck #vintageaudio #cassetteplayer #tapes #music #tape #stereo #cassettejunkie #cassetterecorder #nowplaying #cassetteporn #nowspinning #vintage #audio #cassetteigclub #taperecorder #vintagehifi #sony #analog #audiocassette
Catching up on some of your old videos. Thanks for the clear explanation how things worked in the decks.
Great information about where the cams should be and the purpose of the motors etc
Really nice video! I have 711S myself, which is basically the same device but it has two capstans and pinch rollers. I have no idea why two is better than one in the device without auto reverse, but I'm been happy with it. 😁 Calibration works great, very little tape hiss and stable speed. Also Dolby S is nice addtion. These decks from early 90's are imo best Sony decks from tape era.
Hi,
I have a TCK711S of which the heads were misaligned FROM THE FACTORY ! Like you, I modified a cassette to view how the tape ran across the heads. After making the adjustments, it has been a great tapedeck, without issues.
Thanks for this video. I will keep it for future reference 👍🇳🇱
Update: took it from storage, powered on and face the same problem, same mechanical sound. Ordered a belt set, some fiddling comes next week. Thanks for this very helpfull video. Cheers 👍🇳🇱
@@Plons0Nard good luck!
Belts are in. Tomorrow I will try to be as good natured as you were during your repair. Cheers 👍🇳🇱
I had tap rec like that in 1996, never had any issue, worked fine
Hi what a fantastic video my friend. Thank you. I wanted to share my problem with a similar deck. Mine is TC-K815S.
I paid a lot for it about 1 year ago. It is in mint condition both cosmetically and mechanically. It was actually as good as brand new. You won't believe, in 1 year that I have it, I recorded only 2 songs.
I've kept it ON for almost every day, reason being I keep it with source button ON to watch LED dance to tv, cd, tuner or whatever I am listening.
All of a sudden, it doesn't play. To get it to play, I used to press play and stop super quickly a few times and it would then play. During the last 1 month, that fast finger work of play stop play had gone to 20 to 30 times. Now to get it to play, I've had to remove the door cover, press play and lift the pinch roller with a screw driver all at the same time and only then it plays. I am not techy but I do feel it's all just a matter of dust and needs cleaning. I am just too afraid to remove the transport. Woukd it be possible to clean other areas you may know that could fix this issue. Also sometime I press open to eject and I hear motor and it doesn't open so then I quickly keep pressing open close and then it opens and closes fine. I am very sad to see what has happened to my deck and seek your advice. Thanks and regards, Sami.
Sounds like the tactile buttons have died. They operate in a weird way, in series almost. You have to replace all of them to make one work.
What's happening when you lift the pinch roller is you're manually putting it into play mode, and it will play. Almost like bumping off a car.
I would replace the tactile buttons on the front. Maybe £2.
@pwrestoration Thank you so much for your kind and informative reply. You mean the play button area, behind the plate where I press play? I thought this has something to do with cleaning the 2 sensors you showed in your videos, where you mentioned if not clean it keeps stopping. My deck once playing never stops though and works fine and stops when the tape ends. Forward rewind is fine, but when I get it playing by play and quickly screw driver pushing the pinch roller up, while playing if I press forward or rewind it does forward or rewind and play icon stays on screen. I need to then again press stop and play with screen driver action pushing the pinch roller up and it plays. It usually used forward and rewind but now that has also stopped while playing. With play, it forwards and rewinds fine. Thank you so much. I'll keep reading your response, learn and try to do this, although I am very scared not to further damage it.
@pwrestoration Hi Paul. I hope you are doing well. I wanted to tell you, when I press play, it does lift a bit but doesn't engage into play mode until I remove the door and lift it immediately after pressing play.
I am so sad to see this issue amd seel your guidance. I've seen some of your videos to remove the transport and wanted to know should I remove and clean. Could be be something related to belt. Although it plays fine. I've also done something else and I hope it's not a mistake. There's a black plastic screw type. I turned it a bit and when I played the treble has gone. While playing I turned it again and brought back the treble but I just pray I haven't messed it up :( This was my best deck and I've done recording many times to perfection from tv, cd and even turntable. Please give it a thought one more time, as I feel you might identify something easier to fix. Tactile in my ignorant head feels ok as it stays in play when I lift it and while it doesn't play without lifting, it does make a eletronoc engagement sound when I press play and does lift a bit but not till play mode. Appreciate your knowledgeable thoughts Paul. Thanking you.
I have a SONY TC-WR820 dual cassette deck. One transport won't open and the other opens but won't play. I've never attempted this but I'm going to try and take it apart and fix it and came across this video. The two transport mechanisms look exactly like the one in this video. This is very helpful. Did you need to replace the motors? where did you get the spare parts?
Generally the motors are always fine, it's the belts that cause the issue with these, then secondly the pinch rollers which cause tape chewing and skewing - the skewing leads to poor sound particularly loss of treble and clarity. Good luck!
Think I have the same issue you talk about at the end of the video with the Erase head not working. I'm a novice when it comes to electronics but very keen to learn ! I know the connection you are talking about but presume I'd need to remove the whole board to get to / examine the solder underneath ? Thanks again for all your videos on this Deck - I'm pretty close now to getting mine back up and running.
Yep, it's really common. You'll have to unscrew the mainboard, and then it's held down with a few plastic clips you need to squeeze.
You'll see under the plug if the solder points are cracked.
Symptoms of this are the auto cal not working properly, and also you can hear the previous tracks under the one you just recorded.
No need to touch the transport.
You'll need to remove the backplate though.
Hi, thank you for the explanation. These decks are sometimes tricky. I've changed the belts on my tc-k500 S, I have to take out the transport out a few times because it won't play properly, the grey cam gear😂 now it works nice but the Dolby section is completly not working. I've used contact spray on the switch and checked all connections. Do you have any tips? Cheers
Double check you've got the ribbon cable in correctly from the front panel to the main board and the display
@@pwrestoration ok, thanks
Hi, I have subscribed and watched most of your Sony videos, good stuff! I have a TC-RX79ES. I changed the belts, cleaned the rotary encoder and diodes, all gears are aligned proper, changed the capstan motor, cleaned and greased gears. It works but only sometimes, it seems that the take up reel does not always spin, so play starts and then stops and the tape wants to chew. I have not changed the pinch rollers since I had normal playback numerous times but never consistently. I can play one side of a tape and then rewind it and then the take up reel wont spin. Any help would be appreciated, pinch rollers are on order.
I'll tell you exactly what's happened here buddy. When you remove the black plastic cover panel (with the light inside that shines through your tape) the next thing you remove is a black plastic arm, with a cog on it that touches each reel. The arm moves left or right through friction, touches the appropriate reel, and either runs the take up reel or in rewind mode rewinds the tape.
If you lube the axle this sits on too much, it reduces the friction on the arm and it won't move correctly.
Pull the arm off (it's on with a circlip), clean out ALL lube from its axle and where it sits. I reckon this will solve your problem.
It's viewed here at 5 mins 48:
th-cam.com/video/Aks6OxqsK-w/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NJfA3ssu2pP2ATOq
Sound quality is Deffo better on these decks with new pinch rollers, they suffer from tape skew sometimes otherwise and high tones are affected.
Nice Video squire, You inspired me to dig my Yamaha KX-580 Cassette Recorder out as I boxed it up and put the KX-400 in its place as the 580 was not sounding good, I’ve just set it up & plugged it in to a Stereo with Speakers attached and it’s now sounding fine, I have no idea why it’s now sounding fine when it wasn’t before, Weird, One thing I am having an issue with is sometimes when I press the Play button it will either choose to Rewind or Fast Forward the Tape, Not sure which to be honest, Any ideas or suggestions?
The tactile switches on the circuit board behind the buttons will have developed corrosion. There's no real solution bar replacement, but they're about £2 for 10! They are wired sort of in series and some use a common earth, so if one fails it can affect others downstream. Always better to replace all in a oner.
You'll have to remove the board from behind the front panel and measure the dimensions of the ones fitted, they're readily available on eBay and a simple four point solder-in job!
@@pwrestoration Thanks for that and appreciate the info, The 580’s called me a Liar now, It’s starting to do what it did before I put it away, It sounds fine at first and then the Audio
gets muffled after a few seconds, I have cleaned the Heads but not with IPA as I didn’t have any at the time, Any suggestions for why it starts fine and then gets muffled after a few seconds?
@@AJComputerServicesUK I would say the pinch roller could be causing the tape to skew. Give it a change for a few quid!
@@pwrestoration Ok and thanks for that, Would a drop of IPA on a Cotton Bud make any difference do you think & swap it out if not?
@@pwrestorationHope you don’t mind but I’ve sent you an Email with a few pictures attached!
Thank you for your video. I do have Sony TC-WR90ES. The tape deck is similar to mine. I did change the belts based upon you video. Everything is working, however, the sound is like I have 2x speed from the motor (like chipmunk sound in the movie). I wonder you have any suggestions or do you thing the capstan motor is bad? Thank you again.
Hi! Was it playing at the correct speed before your belt swap or was it broken when you started?
If it was fine before, check your belt routing and belt sizes. If it wasn't, it's just a simple speed adjustment. The hole on the back of the motor is where to adjust the speed, it has a little rubber cap with a slit. You'll need a 1mm flat screwdriver.
Hi there - Great channel - thank you - A quick question please - I've just bought a Denon DRS-610 which wasn't working - When you pressed play it stopped after a 8 seconds with no sound, so I opened it up and changed over the belt - now it plays and records, but ehn you take the tape cassette out, all the tape on the reel inside the cassette has moved up the reel to the top (rather than being in the middle of the reel - when I try to play the tape again, the cassette tape stops and no other cassette deck I have will play the tape because the tape is presssed up against the top of the cassette casing - have you ever ween this before or have any idea what could be causing it? - Thank you - Gary
Gary, I'd say that from what I can work out there your tape isn't playing / rewinding / fast forwarding and keeping good alignment. Therefore when you use the tape somewhere else, it's 'tight?'
If that's what you mean generally it's a pinch roller issue, whereas the pinch roller is more rounded or solid than it should be, thus misalignment occurs inside the cassette itself.
Hope that helps!
@@pwrestoration that’s great - would the pinch roller also make the sound wobble on playback and record? I suppose if the tape isn’t winding properly because of the punch roller, then the playback and record will wobble - thanks again - I’ll order a pinch roller and see how it goes :)
@@in_the_moment Yup, exactly that. It's called tape skew and I imagine you're losing treble off playback too?
However if it's a 'speed' wobble it could be that your capstan needs a clean and reoil. Otherwise called wow/flutter
It's very common when pinch rollers die off. Good luck!
I just purchased a mint one but for almost $300. They’re probably more expensive here in the states. I chose this model because I read it one of Sony’s best and it didn’t suffer from a lot of the issues other models had. I also have an NAD 6240 that was much cheaper but sounds absolutely amazing. Better than the Sony IMO. Have you worked on an NAD deck?
Yes, a fair few - and I would say the Sony deck pips them all day long. Perhaps it needs a service? Give the heads a wipe over in the meantime. But one thing I will say is that sometimes tapes that sound great on one deck can sound different on others, for lots of reasons. Have a go recording on the Sony deck and playing that back. That could be your issue - simply transferability of tapes between them.
Excellent demonstration. Thank you. I would also be grateful for advice on how should the gear loading cam be aligned with the loading roller. These were the parts you were demonstrating close-up, and freeing, at around 16 minutes.
The cam gear has a ridge next the highest point on the inner crescent-shaped cam and I do not know where should this point be aligned in relation to the loading roller. Otherwise the cassette holder would not open. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I think I know what you mean, however I did not remove the door and loading mechanism anymore than what you see in the video.
When rebuilding I simply let the door mech open, and the cam was as you saw it in the video. It has a spring under it so when you are refitting the board over the top of it you can feel a little pressure.
Does this make sense? If you are struggling I would suggest trying to line it up exactly as per the video, as it did not offer me any problems from memory. Regards
@@pwrestoration Thank you very much. This is very helpful and I shall heed your advice.
Thank you and sorry to trouble you again. Your demonstration is extremely useful, which I am viewing repeatedly, and it is why I am encouraged to seek your advice again.
At 16:47, where the gear loading cam can be readily pushed down (to open the cassette holder), the ridge (like a pointer but possibly a switch-trigger, next to the highest point on the semicircular cam), is exactly away from the loading roller, and I wonder if this is the alignment this gear-loading cam needs to be in on assembly. I would also be grateful to learn how did you re-align it (from the stuck position as at 16:30).
Apology for troubling you.
@@eliasragi7472 I think I understand. The small piece sticking out is a switch activation point, these switches detect whether the door is open or closed. In the next scene you will notice one I melted slightly. It touches onto one of these two small black microswirches.
How I aligned it was to simply turned it manually, whilst looking at the switches. It must be in one position when the door is closed - against the closed switch. Then when the door is opened, it will rotate to the open switch.
My advice would be open the door, rotate the sprung wheel by hand to where it would be activating the open switch on the attached board, then reassemble.
If you're in the UK I could possibly carry out this repair for you.
Thanks to your advice, I am nearer. May I also ask:
At 17:15, is switch 1004 opening or closing? In the service manual (TC-K590), it is given only as switch, with no indication of function. Also interesting, while the manual gives directions on aligning the boss on the mode cam to the notch on the assist motor cam, it gives no guidance on aligning the door-opening gear mechanism.
Another interesting aside: given the genius of design of all the myriad mechanical and electronic components, the designers may have not foreseen the whole is as good only as the shelf-life of two rubber bands.
Having identified the switch, looking at the loading cam as at 16:34 and with the door open, which direction would the cam rotate, or which switch would it hit first so as to close the door? On the same theme, at what hour would the switch-tripping ridge be aligned?
I live in Devon and, at this stage, I am taking the task in the spirit of a supreme DIY challenge, though keeping your kind offer in mind.
Your demonstration is what makes TH-cam revolutionary especially for niche-end DIY; inconceivable only few years ago. Forgive me for troubling you and thank you again.
@@pwrestoration
I've got the same deck with same issue, thanks for video 👍
Hope you get it sorted!
I have one of these, came with a really bad pinch roller, replaced it and it's been golden since (had to align the heads because some puppet had moved the height and the azimuth witch was fun :D It's also my main recording deck and I own a Denon 740 and it's night and day (no calibration on the 740 apart from bias fine) Great vid :D
Thanks! Coincidentally I was just watching a spares or repair 740 on eBay and decided not to go for it. Lack of features and no Dolby S meant I would only be buying to repair and sell. I wouldn't use it.
The pinch roller really sorted out the tape path on this, I had a wobble with one tape j was using for testing as it had no top end. Turned out the tape was just crap 😅
@@pwrestoration Hahaha that happens, Just for reference though the 740 is an excellent playback deck with the recordings done on the Sony (assuming I didn't use S NR) the mids are a but more pronounced on it and sounds a bit "fuller" however with an S encoded tape, switching the 740 to Dolby B seems to work well (S was designed that way unlike C which really needed another deck with C to playback correctly) but yes the 611S for the money is a fantastic deck in my opinion, and the single capstan isn't an issue :D
Do you find you get slightly different calibration levels when you switch the machine on from cold?
I've not noticed that before, however it does sometimes take a while to settle down. It does state that in the manual though. My only thought with that is the caps on the record head power side could be a bit old by 2023. The only time I've ever had problems with the cal function has been when someone's messed with the bias and the record / playback levels on the mainboard. That's a pain to sort out too 😅
@@pwrestoration lol tell me about it!
@@dean6816 if you've got that issue just go through it step by step. Put a signal into the deck and you'll need to monitor by oscilloscope. 400hz for playback levels. Then it's just a case of recording it, and monitoring the results through the third head. Don't use higher than 400hz for signal volume levels it all gets a bit freaky in the higher tones otherwise
@@pwrestoration I had issues setting the calibration tones. Not sure if I done it right but I kept adjusting the pot on the level, then playing it back until it read 400 hz on my multi meter. Thanks for the advice, I'm a massive cassette addict lol.
My deck is a Teac V7000, one of them anyway lol
I was expecting to see what did you do in order to repair that infamous stuck open mechanism but nothing came. You fixed it and that's all. Thanks anyway.
I didn't suffer that problem I'm afraid, I always have an eye on eBay for these so maybe in the future. Generally if the door is stuck open it can only be a few things - do you have one with that issue?
Would have been nice to show the actual repairs. What's the point otherwise?
You raise a good point, this was one of my first videos and I've learned a lot since. I'll do better with showing repairs when I can!
Your wish is my command Peter, just uploaded another video of a rotary encoder fix!
@@pwrestoration Cool. I will check it out. And one of these days will take out my TC-K615S. Do you know what the difference is vs tck611s?
Before calibrating you should turn the Dolby off .
Did I not? Good spot!
Why Sony didn’t have Dolby S in their high end European decks like the tck-990es is strange. Only midrange decks did. Except Japan models
Not sure, I'd rather have this and Dolby S!
@@pwrestoration i had a tck-970es and didn’t use Dolby when recording at all,
Yes it removes hiss but also sounds, so unless i record some classical music with lower volumes it’s rather useless and gimmicky i think.
On pop and rock music it’s destroying more than fixing. I guess that the Japanese models just had to have it because of those reasons. And seeing it on European midrange models but not top of the line ones just underline that it’s true
@@ingenfestbrems Dolby S wasn’t available during production of those decks. The TC-K555esJ has Dolby S but you can tell it was rushed because there is no indication lamp on the display for Dolby S and they just went ahead and defeated the illumination of Dolby B and C since S didn’t have an indication on the display.
@@VintageAudioTech s came out in1989. And the 970es vas made from 1990 to 1992, and replaced by 990es with also didn’t have Dolby S….
Sony was late to the party maybe
Got one today at charity shop for 20 quid
Bargain!
@@pwrestoration thanks i new it was good due to dolby s, did not know they are worth 200plus. i turned it on, and its making a whining noise when not even playing a tape, sounds like motor noise
all lights up ok, and eject works ok, google say to strip down and clean and maybe replace capstan motor
@@lumsdot quite common. The motor runs constantly and can wear bushes. Leave it on for 24 hours and let it run, sometimes they quieten themselves
@@lumsdot I have another video about noisy motors on them
giving You '5'!