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As on Nov. 18, 2014 all sellers have to provide a 6 month no questions asked return policy if the buyer claims the item sold is "not as described" and paid with Paypal. Well, what is "not as described" mean? Seller forgot to mention a tiny scratch on the bottom of the deck? Who gets to decide...

I have been buying reel to reel decks on ebay for many years that are DOA or have other problems and completely rebuilding them to sell for a meager profit to justify my time and parts I invest in these decks. I mainly do it for the love of analog and the joy of taking someone's trash and...

Obviously the tape died in the four days you were using it. Once the oxide flakes off, that's the end of the tape. There's no way to resurect it. The binder that was used to hold the oxide to the backing has disintegrated because it was un-spooled while playing it, thus flexing the backing of...

Whatever you do, don't buy an electronic switcher. There are some switchers that use relays, so stay away from them as well. Sometimes engineers think of the most complicated way to accomplish the simplest of tasks. Use a mechanical switcher which doesn't add anything to the input signal...

It sounds like you may have a classic ground loop induced hum. I suspect there may be two separate problems. One is the hum in the preamp and two is the hum created by one of your power amps. The way to trace the problem is to not changes two or three at one time. The first step is to plug in...

So what you have now is NOT an ST-70. It can no longer be considered as one. Whenever someone mods a piece of equipment to this extreme, it no longer has the same specs as the original factory version, for better or worse. It's like taking a WV bug car and replacing the body with an aftermarket...

Thanks for all your suggestions, especially Jim McShane website for parts. I agree about the Chinese "gold plated" tube sockets. I bought them to see what it's like and it's real flimsy. The pins are floating around in the holes real loose. I don't have a good feeling about them. I will take it...

I just got a Harman Kardon Citation II power amp. It works perfect, except all the tube sockets are very noisy due to it's age. I can wiggle each tube while on and get a lot of noise from the oxidized socket contacts. I cleaned all the tube pins, so I know they are not the cause. I tried to...

I have two ST-70's run in mono mode each (paralleled the outputs and flip switch to mono) driving two Martin Logan Quest (6ft. tall) electrostatic/dynamic hybrid speakers. They sound awesome! I also have a Harmon Kardon Citation II power amp (60w/ch) costing three times as much as the ST-70...

What to do with multiple cartridges? (better late than never) I have several turntables and cartridges (Marantz SLT-12 no anti-skating needed, Denon DPF-51F, Pro-Ject Experience, Panasonic SL-1100) and about a dozen different cartridges, both MM and MC using a Harmon Kardon Citation I preamp...

There's one other problem I experienced on .5 mil tape: print through! It's the phenomena that one heavily magnetized layer of tape is printing the magnetic image of the music on the layer below it. This is especially noticeable on classical music when there's a silent or very low volume...

Alcohol is good, but naptha is the best for rubber rollers. I use it to clean the whole tape path, including the heads. I have been using it for decades! The speed problem is not with your deck, it's the deck the tapes were recorded on. Whoever recorded the tape and played it back on their own...

What makes you so sure the transformer is blown? All electronic equipment is required to have a line fuse by UL (Underwriters Laboratory) to be able to sell in the US. Sometimes this fuse is inside the equipment and soldered in. Also most newer power supplies do not have a transformer type power...

Maybe it's me, but since my first mono Ampex tape deck back in the late '50s (am I dating myself?) until today, I have found splicing tapes of all colors of the rainbow: blue, green, red, and of course white. The last time I looked (I verified it this morning) all audio and video tapes are...

This is a true 4 channel recorder. I have the manual for this recorder and the settings I attached show that track 1&3 (front) and 2&4 (rear) operate independently. It appears you have track 1 as both input from the CD and the mike. You can have only one input to track 1. Either mike or line...

I have been using cabontetrachloride until banned. Then I tried acetone from the giant hardware store (orange is their color) and it really works great! Removes tape oxide, rejuvinates the rubber and removes all glazing on pinch rollers. Just a quick swipe with a rag on the roller and it's...

I just received the Teac 80-8 varible speed control box VS-88. It works perfect! When I opened the case of the VS-88, the only electronics in it is a standard linear power supply (bridge rectifier and an electrolytic cap) to supply power to the capstan board inside the 80-8 deck. The only...

Why is it necessary to have a pitch control and to go to this extreme (redesign, external box, etc.) to provide one? If the capstan is rotating at the precise speed to provide the selected ips, then it's not necessary. If the recorded tape is off pitch, how would one know what the right pitch is...

Wow! Thanks for all you guy's help, especially tapetech. This is exactly the box I was looking for! I checked the socket pins and the socket key and it matches the 80-8 cable pinout exactly and the label on the box said "To 80-8" at the socket! It was still available, and I just bought it and...

You are correct, the old one is driven directly off the power transformer, so it is an AC motor. This one is a 24VDC motor. I also think you are correct about the speed control because there are two trimpots on the pc board: "Normal" and "Var1" which means the speed is adjustable on this deck...

I just picked up another Teac-Tascam 80-8 deck and 48 1/2" tapes (Ampex, AGFA, Maxell, etc.) for $100. The heads look like it's never been used since the studio converted to all digital a long time ago. This is my second 80-8 deck. The first one I have works like a dream. I aligned it with...

I just showed the pen to give you an idea to the relative size of the brush. BTW,the brush is brand new, never used I "stole" from my wife's makeup kit.

I never immersed the tip far enough to touch the rubber suspension part. Just the cantilever part. I found naphta to be totally harmless and better than alcohol in most cases. I use it to clean my pinch rollers on the Revox B77 and a few Teacs I've got. It also cleans the heads and tape path...

The USB microscope has a variable magnification up to 400x. This is the 400x view. I forgot to mention that I used a super-sharp pointed xacto hobby knife tip to "reshape" the groove. It's amazing how precise you can be when viewing it on my 24" monitor during the repair process. Just like in...

I just received a Pioneer PN-5MC Moving Coil cartridge I bought on FleeceBay. The seller claimed excellent condition and the price was right. When I received it, I took out my new toy, an USB 400x microscope. Good thing I didn't play any records with it before I examined it. It's amazing that...