Pioneer CT-S99WR - sharing story and searching advice / experience

jomaroliv

New Around These Parts
Joined
Nov 7, 2022
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4
#1
Hi all - I acquired an used unit and looking forward to hear from others that might also have it. Before going into details, this is quite a good machine from the 80´s though I've not been a fan of dual decks - after opening / cleaning (was reallyyyy dusty inside) / demagnetizing heads playback still sounds quite good, all operations ok, the one thing I noticed so far is on deck II, recording is about 4 to 6 db lower in left channel (might be azimuth issue or circuitry component mal function). Measured speed about only 1% off and w&f less than 0.06% on both decks - impressive as it seems never been serviced .
PLUSes - solid build from the 80´s / individual Dolby (double circuits for each deck) / dbx boards. Good implementation of the common ops found in thy type of dual deck. Choice of 3 NR (Dolby B / C / dbx). Silent mechanism. Auto tape selection.
MINUSes - some irresponsiveness in buttons ops (might be just need of cleaning), lack of BIAS adjustment, only 1 REC level adjust for both channels.
Overall, considering its 36 Years, I'll give 6 out of 10 - improvements / deep cleaning & check might raise it up to 7.5.
What's ahead - One of the reasons I bought it (cheap) was because of dbx - always wanted to try dbx but not willing to pay what's being asked for other decks with dbx in nearby countries. And then being already an user of Dolby B/C codecs (from Anaxwaves) I added the DXII dbx codec app also from Anaxwaves to experiment with, and I'm really impressed with the results even using plain "Normal" Fe cassettes playing them back on this Pioneer. More info onthe setup on the end.
Now comes the question: being 36 years old, most probably many cap's are out of specs - because the Dolby / DBX boards are plug-in and easily taken, will the effort of replacing all of them (about 80+ in both boards) by low ESR / audio rated caps bring significant enhancements ? Does anyone ever started this journey on this or similar unit ? Most probably, for a full improvement also caps in main board (rec / play amp sections) would have to be also replaced - overall quite an effort. ("If it works don't touch it unless fails !?"
Here's my setup for dbx recordings - with fantastic results even with Fe Normal cassettes:
Step 1 - with DXii codec (using it on a MacMini 2014) open the audio file (wav, flac etc) you wish to encode. In this scenario, there isn't any need for calibration as we are working on digital domain - just save the file with "Encode" selected and voilá
Step 2 - I use a cheap Behringer UCA222 connected via USB - selected as default output in computer. Prepare cassette for recording: while in Rec/Pause activate the Signal Generator on the application for calibration - adjust PC output level / tapedeck rec level whatever needed so that the late points to 0dB or Dolby Mark [in case of my recorder I obtained better results pointing to slightly below the Dolby mark that is "0" dB]. Use an audio application of your choice to playback the encoded file - I just use Audacity for the job.
Step 3 - Tape recorder doesn't have to have dbx - what you recording is already encoded. In my case, I choose to record on a Technics direct drive RS-BX626 which is supposed to have better recording quality.
Step 4 - Playback the recorded dbx encoded material on a dbx enabled tapedeck (in my case the new Pioneer) - and you might be amazed with result.
Thanks
 
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