Lendorien
New Member
When I was a kid, I lived overseas. We had tapes, but they were all mix tapes my dad found at a garage sale (which sparked my love affair with ZZ-top... but that's another story). We listened to them on a portable tape recorder. I have zero experience with tapes outside of that.
I've started getting into this hobby. I'll never be a collector, but I'm definitely the type who will try to pick up good stuff when he sees it. I'm not above selling things if I find something better.
In any case, I was thrifting the other day and found a Kyocera D-611 cassette deck for 10 dollars. The thing is in near new condition in terms of cosmetic condition. I mean, no scratches on the case or even the clear plexiglass. Whoever owned it kept it in a case for years and took very good care of it. All the buttons work, the volume sliders are clean and don't cause static, the LED meters light up as they should and it runs. I gather that the Kyocera decks were direct drive units. It plays reliably as far as I can tell, as I used a blank tape I had in an old box and recorded off of a CD (Donald Fagan's The Nightfly) and the output was really very good with no distortion that I could tell. In fact, it was almost as good as the CD. The tape, I think, must be a good one because there wasn't much hiss. I'm guessing the capacitors and such must still be fine because it sounded really pretty good to me.
I sort of fell in love with it at the store. It's got a great look. I know a lot of people like all the dials and such, but it's got this great retro modern feel to it with the LED meters and pushbuttons.
Next thing you know I'm playing all the tapes I have... All three of them, one of which I pulled out of a box inhereted from my late aunt. Low and behold it had my mom circa 1984 on it doing a recording about a trip to Washington DC for my grandparents who have been gone for decades. It has my little sister as a toddler on it saying "ball.". I haven't listened to it all yet, but I'm hoping my 7 year old self is on it too. Talk about a shock. I doubt the tape has been listened to since it was recorded. And it's a full 60 minutes too. I'm going to convert it to mp3 for my mom. She'll get a kick out of it. My sister too.
Another tape was of my Grandfather doing a tape to a war buddy. Guess he never sent the tape. Last time I heard my grandfather speak was in 1989. It was really trippy to hear.
Makes me realize just how much we've lost going digital. What person in 2046 is going to find an MP3 I made 30 years earlier and play it back? I just don't see it happening. Sad really.
Anyway, the tape deck does seem to have trouble getting started with fast forwarding and rewinding. I gather there's some sort of wheel with a rubber shoe in the internals that can wear out. I'm guessing that if it hasn't been used in years, the shoe might have flattened a bit.
I'm somewhat technically inclined and I wouldn't mind trying to fix it to get the thing into perfect working order. Here's what I'm wondering. Can someone point me in the direction of 1) a guide to the parts of a cassette deck (I'm really that ignorant) and 2) a service manual pdf that I can work from. Lastly 3) is this a decent deck or should I really be looking for something better?
Any other information or advice would be welcome. I'm new to this hobby. Thanks!
Pics if requested.
I've started getting into this hobby. I'll never be a collector, but I'm definitely the type who will try to pick up good stuff when he sees it. I'm not above selling things if I find something better.
In any case, I was thrifting the other day and found a Kyocera D-611 cassette deck for 10 dollars. The thing is in near new condition in terms of cosmetic condition. I mean, no scratches on the case or even the clear plexiglass. Whoever owned it kept it in a case for years and took very good care of it. All the buttons work, the volume sliders are clean and don't cause static, the LED meters light up as they should and it runs. I gather that the Kyocera decks were direct drive units. It plays reliably as far as I can tell, as I used a blank tape I had in an old box and recorded off of a CD (Donald Fagan's The Nightfly) and the output was really very good with no distortion that I could tell. In fact, it was almost as good as the CD. The tape, I think, must be a good one because there wasn't much hiss. I'm guessing the capacitors and such must still be fine because it sounded really pretty good to me.
I sort of fell in love with it at the store. It's got a great look. I know a lot of people like all the dials and such, but it's got this great retro modern feel to it with the LED meters and pushbuttons.
Next thing you know I'm playing all the tapes I have... All three of them, one of which I pulled out of a box inhereted from my late aunt. Low and behold it had my mom circa 1984 on it doing a recording about a trip to Washington DC for my grandparents who have been gone for decades. It has my little sister as a toddler on it saying "ball.". I haven't listened to it all yet, but I'm hoping my 7 year old self is on it too. Talk about a shock. I doubt the tape has been listened to since it was recorded. And it's a full 60 minutes too. I'm going to convert it to mp3 for my mom. She'll get a kick out of it. My sister too.
Another tape was of my Grandfather doing a tape to a war buddy. Guess he never sent the tape. Last time I heard my grandfather speak was in 1989. It was really trippy to hear.
Makes me realize just how much we've lost going digital. What person in 2046 is going to find an MP3 I made 30 years earlier and play it back? I just don't see it happening. Sad really.
Anyway, the tape deck does seem to have trouble getting started with fast forwarding and rewinding. I gather there's some sort of wheel with a rubber shoe in the internals that can wear out. I'm guessing that if it hasn't been used in years, the shoe might have flattened a bit.
I'm somewhat technically inclined and I wouldn't mind trying to fix it to get the thing into perfect working order. Here's what I'm wondering. Can someone point me in the direction of 1) a guide to the parts of a cassette deck (I'm really that ignorant) and 2) a service manual pdf that I can work from. Lastly 3) is this a decent deck or should I really be looking for something better?
Any other information or advice would be welcome. I'm new to this hobby. Thanks!
Pics if requested.
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