Alpage AL-300

20tajk7

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You never have too much tapedecks ^^
#1
A beautiful and amazing deck, back in 1979/80 it was highly praised in the French audiophile magazines.
It's a great performer with cool features such as, 3 ferrite heads with monitoring, dual capstan transport with two motors, independent L/R calibration for bias and level with built-in test tones, the ability record the four tape types, mic and line in can be mixed, pitch control, the detachable panel that can be used as a wired remote control and many more...

AL300A.JPG
AL300B.jpg
AL300C.jpg
AL300D.jpg
al300vu0.JPG
5AL300.jpg
More to come soon with the mechanism teardown and restoration and modification of the electronics.
 

vince666

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#3
a lovely deck!

never owned one but i am confident it plays and records just nicely.
those heads are just too good to not sound just good. :)
 

20tajk7

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You never have too much tapedecks ^^
#5
Mechanism disassembly.
meca1.JPG

The door is damped by a string and a couple of gears.
In this step a lot of parts must be removed, door, switches, brake solenoid...
meca2.JPG

A large plate of multi-colored spaghetti.
The big play solenoid must be removed to separate the front and back chassis, but the screws are blocked by glue and strongly tightened.
If the deck was "serviced" before you might find screws in very bad shape because that's not common Phillips screws but JIS screws (Japan Industry Standard).
Phillips screwdrivers fits closely, that usually works but for very tightened or glued screws the only way is the JIS screwdriver.
meca3.JPG

The capstan belt is always turned too goo.
So cleaning the metal parts with acetone, plastic parts with alcohol.
meca4.JPG

There's two separate clutches for reel drive, the left one with a low torque for playback, the middle one with high torque for ff&rew.
meca5.JPG

Lubricating the capstan bearings, cleaning and lubricating the levers.
meca6.JPG

The ff/rew idler arm pressure is adjustable by moving a set spring.
meca7.JPG
 

J!m

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#6
The Kenwood uses a couple gears and an “air brake” to create the soft eject. The arm motion is geared up to spin a “paddle” fast and wind resistance slows progress (against a spring).

I think you could drive a truck over the Kenwood. There’s a square tube frame inside the cabinet. Total nightmare to work on, because nothing unplugs!
 

vince666

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deep south of Italy
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I will not be missed! :p
#7
how it is nice to have disassembling pictures sequences and hints for some of those "less easy to handle" models? :)

Thanks, Leo, it if will ever happen to get a AL300, i just know which is the right thread to give a good look at. :cool:
 

20tajk7

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Absurdy, new name of France
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You never have too much tapedecks ^^
#8
Something that needs attention, the tape path.
heads1.JPG

Cleaning and lubricating the head base rails, same for the reel table shafts.
heads3.JPG

New reel table tires.
idler1.jpg

And new pinch rollers, the left one is hard to adjust with the two nuts.
idler2.jpg

Test with a cut C120 cassette tape.
test120.jpg

Also tested some red rollers made by a friend, he also made the gray reel table tires.
rouge1.jpg
rouge2.jpg
rouge3.jpg
 

J!m

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#15
I have found the same (by ear- no fancy equipment) that the Rega drive belts (which I happen to sell) behave the same way.

They need to “run-in” a few hours, perhaps overnight, to give the best representation of their true performance.
 

20tajk7

Chief Journeyman
Joined
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Messages
728
Location
Absurdy, new name of France
Tagline
You never have too much tapedecks ^^
#17
Tried this idler kit https://www.ebay.fr/itm/174124313758 and like most of the parts sold on ePay it's a counterfeit...
epaycounterfeit.jpg
Left : original AL-300 f/r tire.
Right : a way too hard piece of rubber that doesn't even fits on the pulley...
Same goes for the reel table tires, the rubber is too hard and the surface too slippery even after sanding.
 
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