I recently obtained an old top loading cassette deck, a Sanyo RD-4055. For a change this wasn’t a customers unit in for repair but something for my collection of vintage electronics.
A busman’s holiday as the expression goes!
Top loading decks followed the style of old amps and turntables of the day by using wood as part of their construction. This deck sits in a wooden plinth.
The deck didn’t work as the main belt had stretched and no longer gripped the pulley wheels. Fortunately the belt hadn’t turned into the horrendous goo that old belts turn into!
In addition to the failed belt, the audio from the deck was very muffled and suffered bad wow and flutter which basically makes the audio sound like it has a bad warble.
I’ve fitted a new head (old one shown above) to get around the muffled sound as the old head looked well past its best and cleaning it made no difference.
A new pinch wheel made a big difference by getting rid of the wow and flutter. Fitting it wasn’t a five minute job though as it was fitted in its own metal carrier and the pin through the centre of the wheel couldn’t be driven out. Some major metal bending was required!
Repairing vintage hifi requires just as much mechanical work as electronics work!
Unlike newer front loading cassette decks these old top loading museum pieces show how the mechanics of the cassette transport works.
In early decks such as this old Sanyo RD-4055 from the 70s the cassette transport is all leavers and springs. Lots of them.
If you undo a spring loaded screw there’s a high probability the spring and screw will make a bid for freedom never to be found again!
Newer cassette decks replaced most of the heavy duty mechanical parts with solenoids operated by little push buttons along with simplifying the mechanism.
Apparently there’s only one company left that produces the mechanisms for cassette players as the demand isn’t there for others to justify the cost of designing and producing them.
Any hope of ‘the cassette revival’ will be somewhat limited to old restored cassette decks!
As the mechanical parts of this deck are really easy to get to I made an explainer video that takes a look at how it works for my @orangevalleysystems YouTube channel.
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If you need some hifi repaired, please contact me for a quote Contact Orangevalley Systems
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