Problems with VHS Hi-fi bass response

[CanadianJoke]

So I recently picked up a JVC BR-S378U SVHS VCR. I had heard a lot of good things about VHS Hi-Fi, and this model has built in VU meters and level controls, so I decided to try recording some music onto SVHS tapes I had to see how it sounds.

I was very disappointed to hear that it sounded terrible, there was hardly any bass or midrange and the treble was very harsh. I think something must be wrong with the audio circuitry because it sounds like a bad cassette recording.

Here is a link of an audio sample of the problem. First you hear the song playing as it should, then I switch to the tape monitor from the VHS. You can hear that the bass is just completely gone

.https://mega.nz/file/fko2zIpA#EnSN6zU-1_sJ7Fn_ign4YOvhStPP59QtzpNPYZupuik

Has anyone ever heard of this issue before and know what I can do? Maybe there's trimmers on the audio board somewhere I need to adjust? I would really like to get this thing working properly again.

 

[vwestlife]

I know the Panasonic prosumer S-VHS decks from the early to mid '90s are dropping like flies due to bad capacitors. So maybe your JVC is suffering a similar fate. VHS Hi-Fi has plenty of bass even on a cheap standard VHS VCR, so something is clearly wrong with yours.

 

[Hajidub]

I wouldn't attempt any trimmer adjust without calibration equipment and tape. Has the unit been opened to clean the heads?

 

[titanstats]

I know the Panasonic prosumer S-VHS decks from the early to mid '90s are dropping like flies due to bad capacitors. So maybe your JVC is suffering a similar fate. VHS Hi-Fi has plenty of bass even on a cheap standard VHS VCR, so something is clearly wrong with yours.

Fired up my trusty (and expensive) Panasonic a few months ago to do a couple dubs only to discover the display fading hard and the picture quality turning to garbage. Needs a recap, and there's a *lot* of them; it's living at the bottom of my to-do pile currently...