Sony TC-RX79ES Cassette Tape Deck - Fail

A few days ago i ran across a craigslist ad for a Sony TC-RX79ES. $40 for a late model ES autoreverse deck with Dolby HX pro... The ad said it was "for parts", meaning it has something wrong with it... but it could be a fun project.

I picked it up, got it home and gave it a good cleaning. It was already really clean so it didnt take long.

The i stuck in a tape to see what it did. And, it ate the tape. I initially thought the issue had to do with dirty pinch rollers, but no such luck.

Opened it up, and the rubber is all intact, all the motors work, and everything seems to have its full range of motion.

My first impression looking inside the box was that there isnt much in there. But then again, the only deck i have looked inside in many years is a Nakamichi Dragon, so not really a fair comparison.

After a bit of googling i found a few others who had similar symptoms:
1. fast forward and rewind work
2. it goes into cleaning mode (power on while holding the open/close button)
3. it goes into play and reverse play, but stops after about a second
4. it makes a squealing sound when engaging play and reverse play
5. it sometimes gets into a weird mode where the heads just keep moving up and down

There are only 2 belts in this machine. And the belt that turns the capstains is doing its job. So that leaves the mode belt.

A quick email to the nice people at http://marrscommunications.com/ and new belts are on their way. I figure i might as well replace both belts while i have it apart,

The transport in this deck is pretty simple, at least compared to the dragon. it looks like it comes out with just a few screws...

Nothing to do now but wait for the belts to get here.

To be continued...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Repairing KRK RP6G2 Rokit 6 Gen2 Speakers

I often browse electronics on craigslist when i need to momentarily 'veg out' at my desk. Yesterday i came across a pair of KRK Rokit 6 Gen2 speakers. There were a few things about this particular listing that caught my eye: The seller claims one of the speakers has a "capacitor issue" that he cant fix himself The ad claims these speakers are Rokit 6 Gen3. the screws on the front panel and the text on the back are a clear giveaway that they are in-fact Gen2.  I wasn't really looking to buy speakers, but if the issue is a "capacitor issue"... This looks like a good deal. And it beats only using headphones at my desk all day (although i love my headphones).  I had a nice pair of Dynaudio BM5A's for the desk that i used with a Benchmark DAC1. But i sold both the Dynaudios, and the Benchmark last year... These KRK's aren't likely as good as the Dynaudios, but sometimes a good deal now is better than nothing. And in this case, if i ca
Read more

PS Audio Directstream, DS MKII, TSS : New DAC or Mods?

PS Audio has been making the Perfectwave digital to audio converter (DAC) for quite some time, in fact, it is now at the tail end of its third incarnation, all using the same casework.  It started with the Perfectwave DAC back in xxxx, in 2012 it was upgraded to the Perfectwave MKII, and then, with the introduction of Ted Smith to the PS Audio Team, the Perfectwave Directstream (aka DS) followed in 2014.  The DS has remained PS Audio’s flagship DAC since 2014, roughly 7 years, with all upgrades being free and applied as firmware updates. Even more impressive is that many audio journalists and audiophiles still consider the DS to be among the best sounding, if not the best measuring, DAC’s on the market.  Full disclosure, the PS Audio Directstream DAC is my personal reference. From what I gather, the last planned firmware update, Sunshine (named for sunshine peak in Colorado) for the DS MKI is scheduled to arrive by the end of April 2021… Though, according to a representative of PS Audi
Read more

PureAudio Lotus DAC5 Review

Image
Work In Progress Review: Background: There isn't much info on this DAC out there yet, but i expect that to change pretty quickly. Here is a foreign language thread i was able to track down: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://bbs.audiohall.net/viewtopic.php%3Ft%3D11656&prev=search When researching this DAC, I wasn't all that impressed by this unit containing a single ES9038PRO as opposed to some other units that use one for each channel, nor was i impressed by the claimed SNR of > 110db (which represents approximately 18.3 bits of resolution - 110/6), even the ifi micro idsd black claims a SNR > 117db (19.5 bits of resolution - 117/6)... But the fact that the opamps appear to be inserted into sockets for easy rolling is quite interesting, it appears this unit was designed from the ground up for the "tweak" enthusiast. As a benchmark, i typically look for claimed SNR >= 114db (19 bits), and prefer to see clai
Read more