Technics M85 - worth restoring?

BlueCrab

BlueCrab

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I bought this in 1979 when I was living in Amsterdam. I haven't used it for years, but it has been well cared for. I'm thinking it might be a good project. What is the consensus?
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Have you tried using it, recently? Sometimes, the contact switches for the play, rwd, fwd need to be cleaned as they will corrode depending on environment and lack of use.

It's a 2-head deck, but it's well-built. It isn't meant to record on Type IV tapes, as the next model up - the M-95 - was metal tape compatible. If you keep your costs below $200, it's worth putting money into.

I, recently, bought an M-95 for $350 Cdn..

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Nando.
 
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No, I haven't tried it lately. Before I do, I'll open it up and at the very least check it for leaky electrolytics, corrosion, and clean it. How well do cassette tapes hold up? I must have some that are 40 years old.

Nice deck you have there. I've always liked the looks.

Do you have recommendations for tape?

I also have this beast too.
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Amazingly, quality cassettes can hold up quite well if they are stored in a good environment. Pre-recorded tapes sometimes don't do as well. Pre-recorded tapes from the late 80's & 90's can be okay.

Look for any of the Sony Type I, II tapes, as they seems to have the least amount of issues.

A Pioneer dual-well deck. I would have to look up more about that particular model. I have a couple of Pioneer dual-well decks and a Pioneer 7-tape changer.

Nando.
 
Hell yes to the M-85 restoration. For my money, it's one of the best 2 head decks made. Very robust. I used one in a radio station newsroom to edit audio we captured from field interviews. It sat just to the right of that mixer in my avator photo. It held up well in spite of me spilling a cup of coffee down it one morning. (Fortunately, the deck was not turned on at the time and it was black coffee...)
 
That's good news. I'll be looking for guidance when I get around to restoring it. I've got oodles of experience with radios and stereos, but little with tape decks. I'm currently staying warm in Florida - good for the arthritis - but the tape deck is shivering in the cold in Maryland. It'll be a nice project this summer.
 
I don’t know the deck, but if you can take the transport out and deal with it separately, your life will be much easier.

The Kenwood KX-1030s I have you have to untwist a ton of wires off posts to take it out- not an option, so I have to fix the mechanicals with it in the deck. And in case you were wondering, that’s not fun.
 
Elite-ist said:
Have you tried using it, recently? Sometimes, the contact switches for the play, rwd, fwd need to be cleaned as they will corrode depending on environment and lack of use.

It's a 2-head deck, but it's well-built. It isn't meant to record on Type IV tapes, as the next model up - the M-95 - was metal tape compatible. If you keep your costs below $200, it's worth putting money into.

I, recently, bought an M-95 for $350 Cdn..

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Nando.
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Nando you Dog !! Hiding the cool SAE gear. I loved that tuner! Could pull in train. That multipath meter was very helpful and not many tuners had one. Is that a P102 pre-amp? I have one not working after a power surge. They are delicute for SS gear, that Computer direct line curcutry must have seemed a good idea at the time. Like Ford's horn on end of the turn signal stalk, so evertime you got in the car it beeped :p
 
I don’t know the deck, but if you can take the transport out and deal with it separately, your life will be much easier.
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I'll remember this when I start to restore it.
 
stuwee said:
Nando you Dog !! Hiding the cool SAE gear. I loved that tuner! Could pull in train. That multipath meter was very helpful and not many tuners had one. Is that a P102 pre-amp? I have one not working after a power surge. They are delicute for SS gear, that Computer direct line curcutry must have seemed a good idea at the time. Like Ford's horn on end of the turn signal stalk, so evertime you got in the car it beeped :p
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Craig: The SAE components were something I recently picked up. They are part of the SAE 01 series of components. I have the T-101 tuner, E-101 parametric equalizer, and P-101 preamplifier. Bought all three together for $30.

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Nando.
 
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I always liked the looks of the SAE stuff.

No idea how it sounds however.
 
Finally pulled RS-M85 off the shelf and gave it a go. I'm sure it hasn't been turned on since the 90's. Initially, nothing worked - couldn't get a tape to play, occasionally it would go into FF, but then I couldn't stop it - it seemed as if none of the switches worked. As Elite-ist predicted after I pulled the switches apart (fairly easy to do) and cleaned them with contact cleaner, it worked. While inside I checked the PS voltages - spot on. No obvious signs of electrolytic leakage. So I put it back together and stuck a tape I recorded probably over 40 years ago - Who's Next. Sounds like them. The highs might be a bit dim, but so are my ears and I'd have to compare it to the album I recorded from, which I still have.

My question is: what do you recommend I do next? Replace the electrolytics? Service the drive mechanism?
 
Don't mess with the caps until you've ascertained it's steady state performance - sound wise. And don't start down that path until you've given the transport a good, once over.
 
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Does anyone have a speed calibration cassette they'd be willing to sell? Making one myself would be like using your own voltmeter to calibrate itself. I'd be willing to buy a reference tone tape that someone made themselves from a good machine that is known to be true. I'm not looking to have traceability to NIST standards or anything like that.
 
BlueCrab said:
No, I haven't tried it lately. Before I do, I'll open it up and at the very least check it for leaky electrolytics, corrosion, and clean it. How well do cassette tapes hold up? I must have some that are 40 years old.

Nice deck you have there. I've always liked the looks.

Do you have recommendations for tape?

I also have this beast too.
View attachment 39194
Click to expand...

I have one or two in that series and when they work they are excellent. The 90s dual decks seem simpler though, those are my favorite black faced Pioneer decks.

But then again I have a CT-F1250 in like new condition,...major score THAT was.
 
BlueCrab said:
Finally pulled RS-M85 off the shelf and gave it a go. I'm sure it hasn't been turned on since the 90's. Initially, nothing worked - couldn't get a tape to play, occasionally it would go into FF, but then I couldn't stop it - it seemed as if none of the switches worked. As Elite-ist predicted after I pulled the switches apart (fairly easy to do) and cleaned them with contact cleaner, it worked. While inside I checked the PS voltages - spot on. No obvious signs of electrolytic leakage. So I put it back together and stuck a tape I recorded probably over 40 years ago - Who's Next. Sounds like them. The highs might be a bit dim, but so are my ears and I'd have to compare it to the album I recorded from, which I still have.

My question is: what do you recommend I do next? Replace the electrolytics? Service the drive mechanism?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother. Decks of that era tended to top out on Type I at 13-15 kHz and it took metal to see improvements...not to mention at our age our pets hear better than we do. Give it some time and see what happens. 40 year old tapes may not be as spectacular as we thought. Try recording a blank from a CD and also see what kind of balance etc you get before tinkering. Blowing the dust out of the rec/play switch and circuits may help too.. Those are things you might expect anyway with other gear.

PS Technics was some of the best stuff you could get in 1979 as well. Matsushita/Panasonic has always been really decent (well, there WERE those THRUSTERS speakers)...
 
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