Aiwa AD-F660 Calibration/Service help

[VinylrulesOz]

Dear tape aficionados,

Last weekend I, along with my friend, replaced the two main belts on my F660 successfully. However, before buttoning the unit up, we decide to go by the service manual and look over and adjust all the parameters on the machine and calibrate. Or so we thought we did. Sadly, whatever we did, and we have now attempted it three times, we really screwed this thing up. The unit no longer records well. Boo!

At first, we had the issue of a great;y decreased level on tape compared to the incoming signal and the sound quality left a lot to be desired. Highly distorted even though the levels were very low - so it's not like we were over saturating the input.

Then during the last attempt, my friend was able to get be a higher recorded output, however the quality of the recording is still bad. The sound is moderately distorted at times and also wobbly. Not sure what to make of it except wondering if the translation in the service manual is faulty. You think this is possible?

This is not our first rodeo servicing either a cassette deck or an open reel machine. Not really sure where we went wrong but I thought too seek help here. Perhaps one of you could be kind enough to share a procedure or maybe even pics of the pots so I could duplicate their settings?

Last but not least, if you know of a reliable technician with experience with this particular brand, I would be most grateful. The unit sounded amazing before we decided to go in there and fiddle around. I mean, we had the right test gear, the right calibration tape, the service manual, what could go wrong? Well it did.

Thanks in advance,

Oz

 

[TECH---NICS]

Hello, if recordings are bad try adjusting Bias level..... Locate bias pots, put a well recorded song on source, start recording on a good tape, NO DOLBY, and then while recording adjust each pots until u get the best sound possible, this method is best because u can really hear sounds, if u use calibrating tape all u Will hear is a frecvency, and this can be accurate read only on a osciloscope if u have one, if u dont then your ears must tell you when is ok.......one other thing, u said u worked to change belts before, make sure u didnt make any mistake and now tape runs off heads, maybe u put something wrong, anyway since u mess with pots already, even if u find a mechanical issue, u still need to make adjustings....there is a rule.... ONLY WHEN TAPE TRANSPORT IS IN PERFECT CONDITION U CAN MAKE ELECTRIC ADJUSTMENTS.... good luck!

 

[VinylrulesOz]

Hello, if recordings are bad try adjusting Bias level..... Locate bias pots, put a well recorded song on source, start recording on a good tape, NO DOLBY, and then while recording adjust each pots until u get the best sound possible, this method is best because u can really hear sounds, if u use calibrating tape all u Will hear is a frecvency, and this can be accurate read only on a osciloscope if u have one, if u dont then your ears must tell you when is ok.......one other thing, u said u worked to change belts before, make sure u didnt make any mistake and now tape runs off heads, maybe u put something wrong, anyway since u mess with pots already, even if u find a mechanical issue, u still need to make adjustings....there is a rule.... ONLY WHEN TAPE TRANSPORT IS IN PERFECT CONDITION U CAN MAKE ELECTRIC ADJUSTMENTS.... good luck!

Thank you very much! We got lucky that we simply matched all the adjustments from our other AD-F660 we had handy and voila! Everything got back to normal! So not entirely highly technical but I am happy with it and I am leaving it alone.

Cheers!

Oz