Technics Stereo Cassette Desk 615 Troubleshoot

[Alex Herbert]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for accepting me into the community. I picked up one of these cassette players for pretty cheap on eBay, and it worked for a few months. I just moved, and when I plugged it back in, the left speaker level meter went wild, creating a distinct ringing. I'm new to all this stuff, so I'm not sure of the terminology. I'm not afraid of opening it up to clean it, if thats the problem. Anyone have any advice? It's definitely NOT my speakers or the power source.

 

[Alex Herbert]

I haven't actually used the recording function yet. I can't press the "Record" button down-- does it require a mic input? I have a tape in, but it doesn't go down.

 

[Bob]

check the cassette tape itself. there's a recording tab that, if broken off does not allow
recording - ie the record switch/piano-key will not work.

All commercial tapes have this broken off.

if you want to try recording with a cassette, place a piece of tape over the left
square hole on top of the cassette, and the right side if you want to flip it
over and record on the other side.

@inductor is correct work all the switches, break the crud build-up.

 

[Alex Herbert]

This doesn't seem to work for me. the record button just doesn't go down. Should I go buy officially "blank" tapes somewhere?

 

[revox-b77]

You need to press play and record at the same time.

 

[maxhifi]

I agree with inductor, the record/play switch is the number one source of intermittent problems like that or channel loss in old cassette decks. If you're lucky a good soak with deoxit and lots of working back and forth can get it nicely cleaned up. If you're unlucky, you may have to take it apart. I've found that Technics had some of the most failure prone selector and record/play switches of any brand equipment I work on, so really pay attention to this.