{"id":1718,"date":"2020-09-11T22:07:46","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T21:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2020-09-12T08:26:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T07:26:56","slug":"8-track-cartridge-stereo-recorder-deck-the-repairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/8-track-cartridge-stereo-recorder-deck-the-repairs\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Track Cartridge Stereo recorder deck. The repairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve just acquired this magnificent beast. It’s old, so I don’t expect it to work properly.<\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound
Senn-Sound Inside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s time to go inside and see what needs fixing and how it performs.<\/p>\n

I like to have a look inside old gear before connecting up to the mains, just in case there is anything obviously dangerous that needs attention first.<\/p>\n

\"Exposed
Exposed mains voltage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is exposed mains in several places. The fuse, the power switch on the tape mechanism and a tag strip. I insulated these points straight away with bright red tape for my own peace of mind.<\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound-Internal
Senn-Sound-Internal overview<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s very clean and almost new looking inside. . The belt is intact and stretchy in a good way.\u00a0The Matsushita motor has a date on it, 18th September ’73. These things date it to the early 1970’s. This machine was a <\/span>contemporary\u00a0of my Sony TC-377 Reel to Reel and TC-204SD cassette deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound
Senn-Sound lose pot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The right channel volume pot was wobbling about in the chassis. Easily fixed by removing the front cover and tightening the securing nut. I also gave all switches and pots a clean with a switch cleaning spray.<\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound
Senn-Sound Controls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a circuit breaker in place and a pair of cheap headphones plugged in\u00a0 I turned on power and put a cart in.\u00a0It works, playing at what sounds to be correct speed.\u00a0<\/span>Fast forward works.\u00a0<\/span>Eject works. Pause works.<\/p>\n

The only bad news is that select doesn’t fully work. Only programs 1 and 2 can be selected.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound
Senn-Sound Track selector<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The select problem was easily fixed by cleaning and re lubricating the selector mechanism.\u00a0While I was at it I also cleaned all the push switches and the wafer on the select mechanism which operates the indicator lights.<\/p>\n

\"Senn-Sound
Senn-Sound Head adjustment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A clean of the heads and capstan almost finished the job. The head alignment needed adjustment to eliminate cross talk between channels. Conveniently there is a fully labeled screw adjustment on the bottom of the unit for just that purpose. I just did what I was told and soon all was well.<\/p>\n

\"senn-sound
senn-sound All done<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cosmetically the unit is in good condition and cleaned up well. Proper listening tests were extremely rewarding. The Beatles “Revolver” sounded fantastic.<\/p>\n

The recording tests were a revelation. I recorded my Vinyl 2008 re issue of Steely Dan Aja. Hearing a modern recording come out of a 1970’s 8 track cartridge in Hi Fidelity was indeed a strange experience which demonstrated the capability of a format which was never developed to it’s full potential.<\/p>\n

And I figured out what all the controls do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve just acquired this magnificent beast. It’s old, so I don’t expect it to work properly. It’s time to go inside and see what needs fixing and how it performs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eight-8-track","category-repair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}