Chirping noise from cassette deck in Panasonic RA-6500

[orange]

There are no electronics to control the speed. The manual says to adjust the screw in the back of the motor with a plastic screwdriver. I didn't have a plastic one so I adjusted it with a metal one with the power turned off. That worked fine. Got a recorded tape to sound close to CD, and that was good enough for me. One day I'll get an actual test tape and equipment to adjust the speed on the cheaper decks.

Charles.

Take a deck with the closest accuracy to factory tape you have a CD of as well and use that as a guide.

 

[orange]

Remember, we fix just about anything (but your love life, that's not gonna work).

 

[ChopperCharles]

I adjusted the speed to match my Pioneer CT-F950 (which is also an exact match for my Nakamichi BX-150). One of these days I'll get my CT-F1250 back from the service tech. It has quartz-locked speed control, and I can use that to make a proper test tape. If my tech ever finishes it. (He's had it for 4 months now)

Charles.

 

[ChopperCharles]

So, I replaced the FM bulb with a LED instead, and added three blue LEDs on a strip beneath the cassette deck, which lights up clear cassette shells with a slick blue glow. It looks pretty awesome sitting in my bedroom. I'm happy with it, and happily rocking out right now. It's also hooked up through the wall to a pair of Minimus-7's attached to the wall in the master bathroom, and I just flip the speaker switch to B to listen while I'm taking a shower.

The Kenwood KR-4070 I replaced with this Panasonic is by far a better receiver, but it was very much wasted in my bedroom, where it gets infrequent use and the speaker placement is far, far from ideal.

At any rate, I'm quite happy now! I've attached a pic of the receiver in its new home

Charles.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Isn't it nice that no one on this forum pokes fun at you for running a cassette receiver? It's a handsome unit. How many watts does it pump out??

 

[ChopperCharles]

Well, I just didn't want to add a cassette deck on top of my KR-4070 receiver, as it's kind of overkill for my bedroom. I didn't want a big stack of components on top of my dresser. And I have other uses for the KR-4070 (driving a pair of ratty-but-awesome Cerwin Vega VS-120s in my garage, for instance).

Finding this little receiver on eBay for $15 bucks buy it now was pretty awesome. It's in great cosmetic shape, and just needed a bunch of small issues fixed. (bad trace, corroded solder joints, broken azimuth adjustment boss, blown bulbs, and lots of deoxit in the selector and record/play switches)... and it exactly suited my needs. It also looks pretty slick with that gold/bronze finish.

I dunno why anyone would make fun of me for wanting a receiver that exactly suits my needs... I want to play tapes and not have the system be overkill for the space. I have a huge collection of cassettes and am constantly recording new ones with TOTL (for their time) decks. (Pioneer CT-F950 does most of the recording, but I also have a CT-F900 and a Nakamichi BX-150 in use)

For specs, it's 12wpc, very suitable for a bedroom and bathroom. It's driving a pair of Paradigm Mini Mark 3's in the bedroom and Minimus-7's in the bathroom. It cost $370 new in 1979, which is $1200 in 2015 dollars. Not exactly hi-fi, but it wasn't a total POS either.

Charles.

 

[fitz43]

At any rate, I'm quite happy now! I've attached a pic of the receiver in its new home

Charles.

View attachment 23716

It looks like an attractive piece. Glad you were able to resurrect it.

 

[Elite-ist]

Wow, that does look good with the LED lighting, Charles. Casseivers get overlooked and I don't see many pop up in local thrift stores. Nice to see you get the issues resolved with your Panasonic in such a short time, with Steven's distance-assistance.

Nando.

 

[62vauxhall]

Wow, that does look good with the LED lighting, Charles. Casseivers get overlooked and I don't see many pop up in local thrift stores. Nice to see you get the issues resolved with your Panasonic in such a short time, with Steven's distance-assistance.

Nando.

True enough, I've not seen not many either and my scouring thrift stores et al. spans a good number of years. The odd Sound Design, Lloyds, Yorx etc. but none, if any, with a worthwhile brand name. When I first started in that business, the big names had one, perhaps two examples of such systems (usually including speakers) available but they never took off. Maybe elsewhere but not here. Since pre-recorded cassettes sales exceeded vinyl LP sales for a time they made sense especially, for those wanting a first system and for people who were not stereo devotees but wanted something to play their music on. Unfortunately, I believe that those groups were audio agnostics who equated dollar value with cosmetics, features, purported watts per channel vs price and therefore the lion's share of that product market went to those aforementioned brands

 

[orange]

There are some decent Soundesign models out there...it was the YORX NEWAVE, GPX and some Lloyd's stuff that was the junk (and oddly enough, SEARS LXI that was made by Sanyo Fisher).

Soundesigns were originally sold at Kmarts and were good values for parents with young teens, especially girls, who knew their folks weren't rich back then and did their best for them.

GPX was formerly Gran Prix Electronics and I saw a fairly decent example of one of those casseivers with PLL tuning even once. York became YORX.

I had a Lloyd's AM/FM stereo radio (Walkman type) and stereo alarm clock radio in my teens. The clock radio worked okay, the Walkman ate AA cells like I eat dinner.

I LIKE my Soundesign receiver!

 

[ChopperCharles]

Soundesign made a decent receiver? Really? Go figure. What model, out of curiosity?

Charles.

 

[orange]

I have to look for my service manual (YES they do exist)! It's in the shed right now, although it works other than some LEDs/lights out and a channel imbalance that needs to be worked on. I used to tease them a lot on Tapeheads as well as here about it. I'm still going to give the cabinet the Pioneer 'rosewood' veneer treatment.

PS Made in South Korea if I recall correctly.

 

[stuwee]

Day um Charles that pic brought me back! In High school a good bud had one of those, he was a spoiled brat and wanted more power , his parents traded it in for some nice Kenwood separates. anywhoo, ya got something real nice and good on ya for spending time and effort into it!

For others looking for nice all-in-one units Superscope by Marantz with the pink/magenta lighting are also very nice

 

[ChopperCharles]

I'm really happy with it, for the purpose I'm using it for. Which is blasting some music through minimus-7's while I'm showering, and a bit of soft music while I'm dressing or sleeping. And I use the hell out of the tape deck already, which means I'm already using the receiver more than the one it replaced.

It's really not bad. The KR-4070 receiver it replaced was quite a bit better receiver, but it's needed elsewhere, and this thing really does the job. I like low-power receivers for some reason, and this one is built nicely and the bronze is very pretty. The cassette deck (after repair) is reliable too. So I'm happy

Charles.

 

[tivali]

By the way, is the indicator actually out or is it not going into FM stereo? Give a careful listen.