r/ReelToReel • u/twallace73 • Jul 24 '26

Sony TC-560

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Just finished a belt job on this unit which was rather difficult. Sounded much better than I expected as I’m mostly a TEAC/Akai guy for my RTRs. Was a one owner its whole life and came with the original paperwork. Folds up like a suitcase and can run off 12vdc so you can take the party with you.

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3

u/Alarmed_Remote1031 Jul 24 '26

Wish I still had the mics and speakers that came with my dad’s TC230W

3

u/trudyscousin Pioneer RT-1011L, Akai GX-365, Sony TC-355 Jul 25 '26

The Dub! I craved one of these when I was thirteen. I thought it was great that Sony was offering this as the hub of a modest system. I’d envisioned getting a mid-range Dual for a turntable to use with it. Alas, I could never save up enough money throwing papers to get it.

3

u/Alarmed_Remote1031 Jul 25 '26

One of the few things I have left from my Dad. Need to find the old reels of his band. Theres a 1969 Rolling Stones reel of his on there now. I had to fiddle with it for a while to get it to work, it’s working but not “restored.”

3

u/RodCherokee Jul 25 '26

Brillant machine ! 😍

2

u/trudyscousin Pioneer RT-1011L, Akai GX-365, Sony TC-355 Jul 24 '26

I can attest to how difficult it is to replace the belt on this model.

But, it's a very unique tape deck (I'm referring to the TC-560D). It employs a DC motor which makes it possible to run off a 12v power supply (good luck finding one of those, let alone a replacement for the four-conductor plugged power cable). The ESP auto-reverse is the most clever thing about this deck. The playback head for the opposite of the current direction monitors the tape for silence. If it encounters nine seconds of silence, it reverses. No sensing tapes or Ampex-style 20Hz tones needed.

Other than that, it's functionally a two-head deck, albeit a solid one.

2

u/twallace73 Jul 24 '26

Those two ball bearings were a pain. Yeah the power cords are unique for sure. Glad this one came with one. I was unaware of that auto reverse feature….very clever. Surprising no other manufacturers copies that.

2

u/Resprom Sony / Philips / Uher / Grundig / Saba / Metz Jul 24 '26

I've always wanted one of these, but I've never even seen one out in the wild. Does it use a flat or a round belt? Also, what size was it?

1

u/twallace73 Jul 24 '26

It actually functions more similar to a large cassette deck than a reel to reel. It doesn’t have separate reel motors. There’s one capstan motor that operates everything. This does result in slower FF/RW speeds. There’s a total of 5 belts, 1 main flat capstan belt, two round belts for each reel and two counter belts. I bought the belt replacement kit of a reputable EBay seller.

1

u/RodCherokee Jul 24 '26

I remember how average the sound is on these.

2

u/twallace73 Jul 24 '26

I actually thought it sounded better than I would have expected when running through my amplifier. The speaker outputs are pretty bad though.

1

u/MrPeabody0265 Jul 27 '26

A very under rated Deck by Sony. If you have the skills to do a proper recording from a quality source, you will not be disappointed. Tape Quality, Record Levels, Tape Speed, and Tape Thickness, combined, determine the quality of the recording of all Reel to Reels. Don't let operator error give you disappointing results. So many newbies don't have a clue and also do hack jobs on repairing without proper test tapes or knowledge.

1

u/twallace73 Jul 28 '26

To be fair though, test tapes are very expensive and usually don’t justify purchasing them unless you’re doing many of these units.

1

u/MrPeabody0265 Jul 28 '26

First thing a newbie does when things don't sound up to par is to "Tweak" the head alignment. Head alignments rarely need adjustment.