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  1. mjolley

    My $5 Onkyo TA-2044

    Thanks for the replies! I've found when the deck gets stuck in "E," after I take it out of my stack and move it, it suddenly starts working again...for a few cycles anyway. So it seems like something mechanical that gets knocked back into place with the physical movement of the deck. I'll look...
  2. mjolley

    My $5 Onkyo TA-2044

    Photos! I was browsing around a Goodwill, seeing nothing but cheap dual-well decks priced at $10 or $20 when I saw the Onkyo Integra badge and stopped to take a closer look. It was only a two-head, single capstan deck, but it had a three motor transport and was probably better than my late...
  3. mjolley

    Question on demagnatizing?

    I have a TC-WE635, not the S version, which has Dolby S. Dolby set strict requirements for decks that used Dolby S: they had to have transports that met certain standards. That explains why my TC-WE635 has a rather sad single-motor transport while the TX-WE635S retains the more robust 2-motor...
  4. mjolley

    Cassette Deck Heads: How To Tell When They're Worn?

    Ah thanks for the reply! I didn't take those photos originally with the intent to check the heads, that's why they're not at a very good angle. Also, I saw that loose pinch roller too, this was when I had the transports out of the deck to check their belts, I popped that one back into place...
  5. mjolley

    Cassette Deck Heads: How To Tell When They're Worn?

    Hello All, I recently posted about my score of two rather unimpressive late-model Sony dual-well decks, a TC-WE625 and a TC-WE635. Both are pretty much standard Sony BPC fare, but after cracking both open and examining their transports it became clear the 625, despite being identical to the...
  6. mjolley

    Is demagnetizing really work / needed?

    I recently picked up a cassette deck that had seen more use than anything I had come across before. There was a lot of oxide deposits on the heads and the rollers were glazed. I pulled out my trusty Teac E-3 Head Demagnetizer, and when I approached one of the capstans with it I felt the...
  7. mjolley

    Musings on two new unexciting Sony decks and some questions

    That's a cool looking piece of gear, jan_stevns! I figured places like malls would have more specialized equipment, I was just trying to figure out SOME use for this random music programming feature...I've never made a custom program on any CD or Tape deck, not when the "next track" button is so...
  8. mjolley

    Musings on two new unexciting Sony decks and some questions

    It sounds like tapes sound slightly better in the B well than the A well, but it's not a big enough difference to make me wonder. The Onkyo could well have had bad alignment, it had gone through abuse before getting to me and while the tapes it made played back beautifully, I didn't really have...
  9. mjolley

    Musings on two new unexciting Sony decks and some questions

    I've been unemployed for a while so I haven't had any budget for any new audio gear of any kind. Because of that, it was pretty devastating when my tape deck, an Onkyo TA-207 Three-Head, Three Motor, Dual Capstan, Closed Loop monster from 1991 finally bit the dust. For almost a year I had no way...
  10. mjolley

    MiniDisc Deck as a DAC

    I've had a Technics 60-Disc changer for a year or so now, and I've always thought it sounded too loud, everything had a hard edge and it was fatiguing to listen to for long periods. Recently, I decided to pick up an optical cable and try running the changer's digital output through my MiniDisc...
  11. mjolley

    A look at the Optimus CD-1750, Circa 1990

    Okay, here's something weird I just figured out...the unit stops after 74 minutes of play regardless of the disc length. It reports the correct disc length, but won't play past 74 minutes. Obviously 80 minute discs didn't exist in 1990 and this system is probably intended to keep the transport...
  12. mjolley

    A look at the Optimus CD-1750, Circa 1990

    I was at Goodwill today and as per usual for this region, the electronics selection was awful. Two pairs of speakers, a dozen VCRs and wait what's this? At first glance I wrote it off as another early 90s lightweight junk player, but I knew from this site that Radio Shack components were often...
  13. mjolley

    A Baltimore Maryland CVS Audiokarma moment

    Here in Louisville we don't have an entire regional dialect, just a completely bizarre (to outsiders) way of pronouncing the name of the city. "Luh-vhul," not "louie-ville" like you'd expect given that the city was named after Louis XIV. The "louie-ville" pronunciation isn't heard here unless...
  14. mjolley

    Onkyo R1 Tape decks?

    An Onkyo Integra TA-207 is my main deck and it superb. Three Head/Three Motor Closed Loop Dual Capstan, released in 1991. 20-20k hz with metal tape, 20-19k with Chrome, 0.05% wow and flutter. Onkyo made some excellent decks in that era, and since they're a lesser known brand (at least, it's...
  15. mjolley

    Tape Biasing - Help Needed

    I've read though this thread so I don't think this was mentioned but there's so much good information in here forgive me if I'm being redundant but this could be useful...Your deck was probably set up to be biased for one of the tape types popular when it was released. The service manual/users...
  16. mjolley

    Teac A-170S Belts and Service Manual

    Thanks for the info on this deck! I already have a nice main deck and just picked this up because I so rarely see 'classic' cassette decks at the thrift stores and when I do they're usually in rough shape...I'm just a sucker for volume sliders and analog VU meters I guess! :D If anything, it...
  17. mjolley

    Teac A-170S Belts and Service Manual

    Hello all, I came across a Teac A-170S in very nice cosmetic condition at a local thrift store. It was priced at $8.99 and even though the capstan and hubs didn't turn when I put in a cassette and plugged it in, I bought it hoping it was just a belt issue. Upon opening it up, the belts had...
  18. mjolley

    Connecting a Graphic Equalizer

    I'm glad I checked this thread out...I've had a Pioneer GR-777 (TOTL Graphic EQ from the late 80s/early 90s) collecting dust under the bed because I found it introduced a considerable bit of hiss to the audio stream, and the spectrum analyzers never really seemed to "move" unless the volume...
  19. mjolley

    Sony ICF-5900W Questions

    Ah yes I did hear there was a solar storm recently, it seems the sun has been active as of late! The ICF-5900W does indeed have external antenna inputs, that's something I'll certainly try later! In a related note, I was talking about my theory that the speaker/audio amp was causing...
  20. mjolley

    Sony ICF-5900W Questions

    Thanks for the replay catman, that link was pretty useful! Now that I've found a user's manual and figured out how to tune to a specific frequency (Not exactly straightforward when there's two dials!), I've been interested by the wide range of what can be found on SW, even though it's really...
  21. mjolley

    Sony ICF-5900W Questions

    (I thought this may belong in Vintage Solid State, but I get the feeling more people will know about this subject here.) I recently picked up a Sony ICF-5900W from a thrift store because it looked like a well-built portable radio and I had always wanted to explore the SW bands, but never...
  22. mjolley

    I love big amplifiers

    Forgive my intrusion into this thread, when I opened it, I thought my amp was a big amp, but now I see the people here are running 500+ wpc amps, and I am suitably shamed. :D I'd define myself as a prosumer if I had to classify myself. I know more than the average person about home audio, but I...
  23. mjolley

    Any MiniDisc Fans Out There?

    I got into MD when I found a MDS-JE320 at a thrift store. It used the same flawed transport as the JE510, with the microswitch that becomes stuck, "eating" the disc and producing a constant grinding noise. I fixed the problem briefly, but broke the unit the second time I had to try and fix it...
  24. mjolley

    Cassette Tapes - The new bargain format?

    As I write this, I'm using a TDK SA made before I was born, bought at a thrift store for $1, to record a couple of LPs (I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, by Bright Eyes, on the A-Side, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, by The Low Anthem, on the B-Side). There was a large number of these at the store, each...
  25. mjolley

    Pics of your listening space

    Yes it is! WarGames was one of my favorite movies as a kid so I jumped at the chance to be able to play a game based on the "big board" from the film. It's pretty fun, but also pretty slow-moving.
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