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Sansui Cassette deck plays fast

johnny_fever

Sansui Addict. No Serious. Not Kidding.
Subscriber
My Sansui SC 2000 cassette deck seems to be playing a little fast. I thought It was the tape at first till I tried a couple more. Same Results. I can see them run a little slow because of old belts. But fast. Can anyone explain this? Thanks Rick
 
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Has it always done this, or did you just acquire it from somebody else who might have fiddled with something?
 
Hi, No visible pitch control that I can see. I cleaned switches about 6 months ago and It played fine. I hooked It back up the other day only to find a new play speed. Thanks for any help. Later Rick
 
Hi, No visible pitch control that I can see. I cleaned switches about 6 months ago and It played fine. I hooked It back up the other day only to find a new play speed. Thanks for any help. Later Rick

My Denon DR-M22 has a hole in the back of the capstan motor that allows access to a speed adjustment screw.
 
My Denon DR-M22 has a hole in the back of the capstan motor that allows access to a speed adjustment screw.

Was just about to mention this common set point. The first issue is to get a service manual, and check. Then either some speed alignment tapes or a tape deck analyzer and check the actual offset. It is possible to do by ear, by playing a duplicate tape on a known-good deck #2 and adjusting the speed to match. Or bring over your friendly piano tuner dude for pizza and beer and have him listen to pitch tapes by ear while you adjust the deck speed.
 
It's not unusual for a motor to get a touchy speed-adjustment potentiometer INSIDE the motor. Squirt some Caig DeoxIT into the hole in the back of the motor, and turn the pot up and down about twenty times before doing the final speed adjustment.

The easy way to do this is to order a low-cost test tape with some simple alignment tones on it, such a 400Hz and 1000Hz. Many common DMM's have a basic frequency counter built in. Play back the 1000Hz tone, for example, and measure the frequency at the LINE OUT jacks. Adjust the speed to match.

I like to use a jeweler's screwdriver to make the adjustment, however, I put a little shrink tubing over the shaft so that the metal of the screwdriver doesn't touch the case of the motor.

Best,

Fred
 
Thanks Guys,
I found the time today to adjust the play speed on my cassette deck. I gave It a shot of deoxit & used a plastic tv alignment tool to adjust the potentiometer. I think it's pretty darn close. So a big thanks goes to everyone who helped me. Later Rick
 
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