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Sony TC-160 cassette deck 1972

X

Xeon_sk

New Member
Hello,
I need advice.
Procedure: Playback Level Adjustment.
What a test tape (Sony P-4-L81?) and the output voltage is correct for the Sony TC-160?

Could someone provide a manual? This I will send a list of my manuals to choose from them.

Thank you and good day.
 
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Manual will be hard to find. Test tape also hard to find (though a newer tape will likely be fine). It's really not much of a deck though in frequency response though. It was improved on several years later.
 
Sony TC-160 Freq Response: Very much "hi-fi".

KentTeffeteller said:
Manual will be hard to find. Test tape also hard to find (though a newer tape will likely be fine). It's really not much of a deck though in frequency response though. It was improved on several years later.
Click to expand...

What do you mean, "It's really not much of a deck though in frequency response though."?

I had this exact same Sony cassette deck (made in 1971), and it was excellent. With regular iron oxide tape, the TC-160's frequency response was 20 Hz - 15 +/- 1 dB KHz, and with CrO2 tape, it was 20 Hz - 17 KHz +/- 1 dB which is well above the RIAA spec for the 33 1/3 high fidelity LP records (30 - 15 KHz +/- 3 dB). I verified all of these specifications with a spectrum analyzer, tone generator and oscilloscope.

The TC-160 lacked Dolby noise reduction (Dolby wasn't really mainstream in consumer Hi Fi until around 1972 - '73), but it obtained a respectable 50 dB S/N ratio. Its immediate successor had it, the model TC-161SD, in 1972, and it scored only 53 dB with the Dolby.

Around 1975 I built an SWTP audio expander/compressor unit for it, and I obtained around 105 S/N ratio from it, far exceeding Dolby B, and competitive with DBX.

I also modified the closed loop, dual capstan tape transport system by speeding it up by a factor of 3.4X, about 6.4" per second. I also rolled back the EQ considerably, and I verified a frequency response of 18 Hz to 23KHz +/- 1 dB, plus another 2 dB of S/N ratio, bringing the dynamic range up to 108 dB.

These modifications made my "lowly" TC-160 cassette deck exceed the performanc e of the Revox A77 reel-to-reel deck at 10.5" ips, as well as exceeding the Teac 3340S reel to reel deck. Just sayin'
 
pauldoyle98 said:
I also rolled back the EQ considerably, and I verified a frequency response of 18 Hz to 23KHz +/- 1 dB, plus another 2 dB of S/N ratio, bringing the dynamic range up to 108 dB.

These modifications made my "lowly" TC-160 cassette deck exceed the performanc e of the Revox A77 reel-to-reel deck at 10.5" ips, as well as exceeding the Teac 3340S reel to reel deck. Just sayin'
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I could not believe this. Impossible with a simple tape deck. Especially with this one. Its a good and reliable deck - without any doubt.
But it never started from real 20Hz up to 17KHz.
According to DIN 45511 the frequency has been from 30Hz to 15KHz +/- 3db with CRo² tape.
The twin has been the 165 (with autoreverse) which I had that time.
 
It's a good machine by the standards of 1971. But even in cassette decks, it was middle class. Advent 201 and Tandberg TCD 300 were the best cassette machines then. A new example I was flirting with buying couldn't do 14 Khz flat with CRO2, the Advent could reproduce flat to it's response limit. Obviously, I bought the Advent a year later. And I still own it. I'm talking stock decks here, both were set up for BASF CRO2 tape and not hotrodded. Remember, the ReVox A 77 and all ReVox machines are not designed to look good on spec sheets, their claimed specs are bare minimum they can achieve under hard service. Meaning very easily exceeded. Not even Nakamichi top end cassette decks or Tandberg's best cassette machines can do 23 Khz +/- 2 db in real life. 21 Khz, yes.
 
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pauldoyle98 said:
What do you mean, "It's really not much of a deck though in frequency response though."?

I had this exact same Sony cassette deck (made in 1971), and it was excellent. With regular iron oxide tape, the TC-160's frequency response was 20 Hz - 15 +/- 1 dB KHz, and with CrO2 tape, it was 20 Hz - 17 KHz +/- 1 dB ...
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. I bought one new, including the dust cover, and a year later I got the Sony outboard Dolby unit to go with it. I still have all that in fact but hasn't been used in over 30 years. Was an excellent cassette deck in it's day and reason I bought that specific model was the freq response and overall rating in a review comparing several, either in Audio or High Fidelity, or was it Stereo Review...?
 
Maybe this will help from my TC-160 service manual. Best I can do!
As usual I try to get the service manual for everything I own. :yes:
 

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aileenamegan said:
I'm sorry, but I could not believe this. Impossible with a simple tape deck. Especially with this one. Its a good and reliable deck - without any doubt.
But it never started from real 20Hz up to 17KHz.
According to DIN 45511 the frequency has been from 30Hz to 15KHz +/- 3db with CRo² tape.
The twin has been the 165 (with autoreverse) which I had that time.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that cassette deck freq responses were always spec'd at -30 dB. At 0 dB, most of them couldn't break 7000 Hz.
 
rnorton said:
Keep in mind that cassette deck freq responses were always spec'd at -30 dB. At 0 dB, most of them couldn't break 7000 Hz.
Click to expand...
It always depends on how you measure, At least the DIN-method has been finally the highest standard that time to fulfill.
I still have actually 120 decks - but none of the 70ties decks neither reached 20Hz nor 17KHz. Good sounding is one thing, measured results another story.
Even the Nak 500, one of the most advanced decks those days (appeared in 1974) met "only" 40-17.000Hz at +/-3db. And this was an awesome deck.
 
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Oh, really? Popular Science Labs (very reputable) tested the Sony TC-160 in November, 1971.

Read it and weep: http://tinyurl.com/aj7psmo

"22 Cassette Machines at a Glance" - TC-160, 20Hz - 16KHz, regular tape, 20Hz - 18KHz, CrO2 tape.
 
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This thread and its ebb and flow reminds me of the old snail joke:

This guy was washing the dishes in his kitchen and heard a knock at the door. He opened the door and there was nobody there. Just as he was closing it, he looked down and saw a snail.

"What do you want?" he asked the snail.

"Can I have a glass of water please?" replied the snail.

"No, bugger off!" shouted the guy and he punted the snail down to the bottom of the garden.

Two months later he was in the kitchen again and he heard another knock at the door. He opened the door, looked down, and saw the snail again.

"What do you want now?" he shouted.

Snail says, "What the hell was that all about?"


John
 
I know this thread is old... but....
I had both the TC-K160SD and the TC-K161SD.

The 160 had mechanical controls and I think the 161 was partly solenoid operated. The controls on the 160 wore out rather easily while the 161 did not. I must admit though, they were sweet decks back then. Later Sony decks were horrible. I had the TC-K177SD and the heads were misaligned. I noticed that all following Sony decks did not align to standard test tapes for some reason. Not only that, their dual capstan drives had a tendacy to leave a crease running along the center of the tape. Stuck with Nakamichi after that.
 
jdurbin1 said:
This thread and its ebb and flow reminds me of the old snail joke:

This guy was washing the dishes in his kitchen and heard a knock at the door. He opened the door and there was nobody there. Just as he was closing it, he looked down and saw a snail.

"What do you want?" he asked the snail.

"Can I have a glass of water please?" replied the snail.

"No, bugger off!" shouted the guy and he punted the snail down to the bottom of the garden.

Two months later he was in the kitchen again and he heard another knock at the door. He opened the door, looked down, and saw the snail again.

"What do you want now?" he shouted.

Snail says, "What the hell was that all about?"


John
Click to expand...


That's actually pretty amusing. Point taken.
 
Jon S said:
I know this thread is old... but....
I had both the TC-K160SD and the TC-K161SD.

The 160 had mechanical controls and I think the 161 was partly solenoid operated. The controls on the 160 wore out rather easily while the 161 did not. I must admit though, they were sweet decks back then. Later Sony decks were horrible. I had the TC-K177SD and the heads were misaligned. I noticed that all following Sony decks did not align to standard test tapes for some reason. Not only that, their dual capstan drives had a tendacy to leave a crease running along the center of the tape. Stuck with Nakamichi after that.
Click to expand...

Well, Nakamichi had dual capstan drives, too.
 
hi all, jumping on this old thread myself as I have just saved such Sony TC-160 from being trashed away.
Any chance to have a full scan of the service manual?
and BTW thanks to Ed in Tx for the first scans.
My unit does not play - FFW and REW are ok, but no Play: the small (idler?) wheel that makes contact with the flywheel does not touch the other plastic wheel that drives the take up reel.
Supposing that the rubber has degraded/wore out, I am trying to find a suitable replacement for the rubber ring, which seems to me approx. 15 mm of outer diameter per 3 mm thickness.
Another issue is that the Auto stop function does not engage when tape has been fully FFW'd or REW'd.
thanks to anyone who might help!
 
Hello @aileenamegan
thank you very much indeed for the link, I did not check the site myself before.
Also a lot of picutes showing the mechanism.
There's a Youtube video that might be useful for other owners here:
 
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