Sony TC-K555?

[NW1]

Details here: https://www.cassettedeck.org/sony/tc-k555

My Dad has one that I used 35-40 years ago to transfer LPs to tape. Hasn't been powered up since then. Just wondering if anyone has any personal knowledge or experience with this unit and where is it in the pecking order of cassette deck fandom.

Thank you.

 

[DCP]

I recently picked up one of these at a Goodwill for about $6. It was cosmetically challenged but it's unusual to find a 3 head deck at gw. Upon internal inspection it had the typical melted belts. Replacing those plus a general cleaning the unit plays and records great. It has a robust build quality compared to a lot of other Sony units I've worked on. I'm not an expert on where it sits in the collectability pecking order but it seems like a solid unit.

 

[NW1]

Upon internal inspection it had the typical melted belts. Replacing those plus a general cleaning the unit plays and records great. It has a robust build quality compared to a lot of other Sony units I've worked on.

Thanks. Are there specific things (belts, degaussing, etc.) I shoud look into before trying to put this unit back into service?

 

[DCP]

With cassette decks I always start with the belts. At best they break or get soft. At worst they turn to black goo. It's a bit of work to change the belts on this one. You have to take out the mechanism and remove the bracket on the back of it.

In order to get the mechanism out you need to loosen the circuit board so you can get at the screws. It's not hard it just takes some patience. I like to take pictures as I go to help when reassembling.

There are 2 belts, pay attention to which is which when you take them out. The belts you need are FR8.2 and FRW8.5. Those numbers are from Russell Industries PRB Line belt crossover list. One piece of advice - don't buy the cheap belts on Amazon. They are terrible. They have inconsistent thickness and cause bad wow and flutter.

I have had good luck with the PRB Line belts http://www.russellind.com/prbline/index.html#

and also Elliott Electronic Supply in Tuscon has good quality belts.

One other bit of advice is if the deck has not been messed with before avoid disassembling the slider that the heads move up an down on. There are 3 tiny steel balls the slider rolls on. They disappear in an instant and are tricky to get back in place.

After belts, clean the heads, capstan and pinch roller with alcohol. Degaussing doesn't hurt. Pinch rollers sometimes get hard or have a hard or flat spot. If so they would need to be replaced. The ones on mine were fine.

Anyway good luck - take your time.

 

[perryinva]

Spot on advice. The original TC-555 is a VERY capable playback deck, with excellent sonics and can handle recording TypeIII, so it shows its age and therefore has limited success on recording TypeIV. It will, but with nowhere near the low distortion and FR that it does with TypeI &II. As mentioned, VERY tightly packed electronics and heavy build, with a fair to good transport. Nice looking deck, as well.

 

[justin_r_23]

I have a used one of these that I got last September, at around the same time as my Concept 2.5. I’ve only recently gotten around to checking on its condition. Outside in in rather good shape. Playback is pretty good until about halfway through a tape (Prince’s “Graffiti Bridge” — toward the end of “Release It”, things get warbly. Could be the tape, though: sadly, another deck wrinkled up the beginning of side 2, and I don’t know what effect that might have on playback on side 1.

Does anyone have any more specific guidance on changing the belts on a TC-K555? I found the service manual for the TC-K555ES - which has the same button layout on the front, and looks like a very similar mechanical layout inside, but if I look at mine, it’s hard to tell what, exactly, I should loosen. In particular, there’s this gossamer-thin wire that seems to ground the tape mechanism circuit board to the front chassis that makes me very nervous.

 

[justin_r_23]

Okay, I answered my own question: the service manual for the TC-K555ES that can be found on ManualsLib is a good guide for disassembling the TC-K555 (non-ES) version I have. It seems as though the main difference between the two is the color of the faceplates.

 

[justin_r_23]

One other bit of advice is if the deck has not been messed with before avoid disassembling the slider that the heads move up an down on. There are 3 tiny steel balls the slider rolls on. They disappear in an instant and are tricky to get back in place.

The belts I got from WebSpareParts were not right at all (width was too wide, too loose), so I’m hoping another pair from TurntableNeedles.com out of Oregon (Corvallis, not Portland which I mistakenly wrote before) will do the trick. Fortunately, they tell me sizes of each belt and which is the capstan belt.

When I was wrestling the mechanism out, one of the ball bearings actually fell out! I did manage to keep it, but that means I’ll need to get it back behind that slider you mention. I suspect that one ball bearing missing from the slider is why pressing “stop” won’t disengage the play heads and pinch rollers when I’m testing a tape?

The TC-K555ES service manual only lists two ball bearings, so I wonder if that was one of the few design changes.

One side effect of needing to rescue the tape: learned I can disassemble and reassemble the cassette holder and eject mechanism, and, after all that, that I can push the the pinch rollers down and thus re-set the tape head. After that I can eject the tape.

 

[justin_r_23]

Took my TC-K555 to our one remaining tech in the area and after waiting a month and a half to get through the backlog, all is well! He found what the actual problem was (sticky left take-up reel) that caused me to wonder about the belts, and he found a bunch of issues that he fixed. Now it's working fantastically! Doing a test recording right now.

 

[justin_r_23]

Test recording went well! Recorded to a Mitsubishi Type-I tape I got from WebSpareParts. I turned on Dolby B, and monitored from the tape. Lost an acceptable amount of high end, and I noticed no speed problems either. Tested the tape in my other deck, a Sony TC-WE305 (early 2000s dual-cassette deck) and playback went well and sounded how I expected.. My one quibble with the TC-WE305 is that it’s mechanism is noisy. I should probably get it checked out and calibrated anyway.

 

[kwax6000]

Hello! I am hoping this is the right thread to get some answers. Recently picked up the tc-k555 at an estate sale, seller said it turned on but was untested. It was cheap, so whatever. Got it home and it does turn on and I can see the tape moving, but nothing plays. Is this just stupid user error and I don’t have something plugged in correctly? I’ve tried everything lol. Even took the lid off to examine the belts (which seem like a common issue for everyone?) and I found what looks like rodent fecal matter. Even though I can hear feedback from the speakers while the tape is “playing”, is that something that would affect it? I would assume it’s fine since none of the electrical components seem broken? Idk, very new to this tinkering with electronics thing. Any insight is appreciated!!

 

[justin_r_23]

One super basic thing to check is if the MONITOR button is depressed and the associated light shows “Tape.” The picture below shows the front. The “MONITOR” button is right above the “REC MUTE” button.

On playback, do you see the meters move? The meters will reflect the recorded material’s signal or the source music signal depending on if the MONITOR button is pressed in (TAPE) or out (SOURCE).

Other than that, I have nothing except find a tech. I had to. As you may have noticed this deck is very complicated.

 

[kwax6000]

One super basic thing to check is if the MONITOR button is depressed and the associated light shows “Tape.” The picture below shows the front. The “MONITOR” button is right above the “REC MUTE” button.

On playback, do you see the meters move? The meters will reflect the recorded material’s signal or the source music signal depending on if the MONITOR button is pressed in (TAPE) or out (SOURCE).

Other than that, I have nothing except find a tech. I had to. As you may have noticed this deck is very complicated.

View attachment 3280768

Thank you! Yes I the light does show "TAPE". Eventually it did start playing, albeit the sound quality was trash, but then it started eating the tape so it would stop. Any suggestions to get it to stop eating the tape up after like 3 seconds of playback?

 

[justin_r_23]

Something I found is that the Service Manual for the TC-K555ES applies to the TC-K555 as well (the parts are the same -- certainly the guide to how to replace the belts was).

But it's very easy to get in over your head with this one. I managed to dislodge one of the ball bearings -- and if one of the ball-bearings is missing, that means the tape head assembly may engage, but then won't disengage unless you turn off the deck and push down on the assembly!

Getting the transport assembly out so you can check on things like whether the pinch rollers are what are eating the tape is a tricky business.

I would definitely consider finding a tech, but doing so will turn a "cheap" machine into one you're into for 100 to 200 dollars more depending on what they'll need to fix.

 

[kwax6000]

Something I found is that the Service Manual for the TC-K555ES applies to the TC-K555 as well (the parts are the same -- certainly the guide to how to replace the belts was).

But it's very easy to get in over your head with this one. I managed to dislodge one of the ball bearings -- and if one of the ball-bearings is missing, that means the tape head assembly may engage, but then won't disengage unless you turn off the deck and push down on the assembly!

Getting the transport assembly out so you can check on things like whether the pinch rollers are what are eating the tape is a tricky business.

I would definitely consider finding a tech, but doing so will turn a "cheap" machine into one you're into for 100 to 200 dollars more depending on what they'll need to fix.

Oh gosh, sounds like it may not be worth the headache lol. I have no idea what the transport assembly or pinch rollers are- I'm a quick learner but VERY new to all of this- so it sounds like it might be a wash -___- Thanks for the help!!

 

[justin_r_23]

I'm in the same boat as a beginner. I was able to replace the belts on an early-2000s TC-WE305 (dual cassette deck) pretty easily, but there's so much more air inside "modern" decks compared to decks even until the early 90s.

It seems like they were able to shrink the three 5? circuit boards that were needed in a deck like the TC-K555 into one circuit board by the late 90s.

 

[kwax6000]

I'm in the same boat as a beginner. I was able to replace the belts on an early-2000s TC-WE305 (dual cassette deck) pretty easily, but there's so much more air inside "modern" decks compared to decks even until the early 90s.

It seems like they were able to shrink the three 5? circuit boards that were needed in a deck like the TC-K555 into one circuit board by the late 90s.

Yes these things are packed with all sorts of things for me to mess up lol

 

[BilboBaggins]

@kwax6000 Your symptom sounds like the pinch roller is misbehaving, or the capstan. This is likely going to require you to change the belts. By this time, the belts are getting tired and need replacing. If it is the pinch roller, you can roughen up the surface with a diamond file of fine sand paper. That might help. Make sure to clean all the crud off anywhere in the tape path with alcohol. Also, I recommend you watch a few youtube videos on cassette repair. You might even find some videos on repairing basics on your particular deck. And do take tons of pictures as you disassemle. You will be happy you did.

 

[radiokom]

Make sure to clean all the crud off anywhere in the tape path with alcohol.

Acetone. For general cleaning, including pinch roller, it is safe, if not used as everyday cleaning fluid. But be careful not to touch plastic parts, so the best is to disassemble deck first. And belts should be replaced and transport properly lubricated anyway.

 

[oldvinyldude]

Cassette deck mechanisms are fiddley. So many ways to create new problems if you have not practiced on several, and have lots of patience.

My advice: If you intend on learning down the road, then put this solid machine on the shelf for a while, and practice on lesser\simpler decks, to learn. That's what I have had to do-I have brought several back to life, but I have several more with needs I am not skilled enough to address-for now. One of the most important lessons I have learned is patience!