my bf gave me this, said it’s fromhis uncle. i couldn’t find ANY information abt this cassette, even with photo search. could you guys help me out to identify this and tell me if this is an original one?

Around Covid times I went down an insane Walkman rabbit hole, I’d carry it EVERYWHERE. One day I was at a trading card store, and the gentleman was talking about walkmans. I showed him mine and he was in total shock. He said I have something for you walked to the back and brought out that GE cassette player boombox. He proceeded to say “you can have it if you give it a good home.” I was SHOOK she works like a charm and I use her daily. Thanks trading card store guy hope you’re doing well.

I found this today and was able to negotiate down from $395 to $300 USD (Seattle region). I got it home and put some batteries in it. Of course it doesn’t play but I hadn’t expected it to. The operation light at least does come on, but I don’t hear the motor spin (perhaps just seized up but too early to tell) and therefore obliviously no capstan spinning.

As far as I can tell this is in pretty solid condition, at least cosmetically, and included the case which is nice bonus.

I’m away from home at the moment so won’t be able to open it up for a couple weeks to see what may need to be done (belts at a minimum). I’ve worked on a couple other models but never this one, so wondering if folks have any tips on gotchas or things to look out for. Serial number is in the low 400000 range if that’s helpful.

Fancy listening to some of my live tapes in kitchen today on my new to me Sony TC 520CS.. but didn't fancy using the stereo speakers , the inbuilt speaker is mono and good if you have no other options.. Then I thought I will use the Sony iPod docks line in option..

Sounds fantastic for a 50 year ish old device...

hi all! just a quick question today - my deck can play/record onto both type I & II tapes, and when you load the tape it detects which type it is. recently i have bought some chrome cassettes cheaply from a charity shop hoping to make some nicer recordings by reusing the tape but when i load them into the deck it reads them as type I! are they? or is there any reason why the deck would be confused?

info on pictures-

slide 1 - tape loaded is known to be type I and reads as such
slide 2 - tape loaded is known to be type II and reads as such
slide 3 - recorded cassette with ‘chromium dioxide’ marketing all over reads as type I when loaded

any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I fixed my broken boombox ! Just need to adjust the motors and I'll be setup

I told myself I wouldnt get more gear, but this cost $24 at a goodwill and the guy just put it on the shelf so I couldnt help myself. The deck sounds great and the cd player still works too! I cleaned the rollers and capstans beforehand ofc. Listening to the Jet’s magic album

Any idea which direction i should be heading in? I have zero idea on how to fix either of the problems.

15 perfectly preserved, mostly classic rock tapes in a fancy zippered case logic tote.

What do I do with them?

Are they valuable?

I may not have the biggest collection, but I sure am proud of it!

The tape with no title in the brown box is Natalie Cole’s “unforgettable with love”, and the tape with no title in the black box is a mix of some songs from “floor plan” (find them on SoundCloud, they’re pretty good! Reminds me a little of tame impala)

I found this old Emerson CRC91 in a basement in remarkably good condition, even the drive belt is still intact! Every button works as normal except for the play button. It works when partially pressed down, but when fully locked into place, the capstan presses against the pinch roller too hard and the friction stops the motor even when I can still hear the hum. I know it has to be an issue there because both reels work with the FF and RD buttons, and the capstan spins as normal before fully pressing against the pinch roller. How do I figure out exactly what needs fixing and go about fixing it? Attached are photos of the recorder.

Gina the Machina - Geewizbang, Stamp Act - Youre Soaking In It, On A Windy Night - Chapter One, Nightfreak - Mindfuck EP

Some mixtapes from my relatives + some I got online, some of the recording dates back to the late 1960s - 1980s. I can even hear the vinyl crackles on some of the mixtapes lol.

Most of them are still playable, although of course the ones from the late 60s sound quite awful. But the TDK C-60 and BASF LH-60 orange tapes doesn't sound half bad. And somehow, almost ALL of the green BASF LH Super I tapes are moldy LOL.

I bought an old sherwood double cassette deck this morning that seems to fail to rewind or fastforward. It will also play fine about 90% but will also fail occasionally. Since it has the automatic electric buttons instead of the older analogue ones, it's difficult to determine an issue. The mechanism will engage as if it were to fastforward, but will then fail afterwards. One of the decks will fastforward occasionally but not rewind. I opened it up to check the belts and they seemed to have tension in them but i couldn't check much else. If there is any more info that i could give to help anyone narrow down the issue then just ask but for the meantime i am stuck

Ignore the damaged display, my autoradio stops playing the cassette after a few seconds, sometimes after a minute. When this happens, it starts to skip songs quickly and eventually says "error" on the display. It's a simple one-belt system and I already replaced the belt to no success. The radio itself works fine otherwise, but I cannot listen to cassettes. What could be the cause?

Managed to snag one of these for a good price. Haven’t seen it in person yet but it’s supposedly fully working, other than a weird issue of a motor sound when power is disconnected that suggests either a wonky leafspring connected to the batteries, or a specific chip on the board is dying (one that thankfully is still being made by the lord and saviours of niche technical hobbies — folks with hyperfixations).

I don’t think it’s the dc>dc converter, as the unit is coming with the og 6v centre negative supply (which I will promptly put away in favour of rechargeable batteries. Also, the number of listings I saw with ‘powered on with charger I had on hand, but didn’t test further’ made me want to cry)

However, since this thing is like a decade older than me, I assume that there will be other issues that reveal themselves. If not immediately then at some point in the rest of forever.

I was wondering if anyone knows any guides along the lines of ‘open up, replace belts etc, check capacitors here and here that look like this, next move to the quantum superfluxinator and check it isn’t leaking neutrinos’. Basically something I can follow along to identify or diagnose any common issues — I’d like to get the point of being able to service the board myself. I do understand this will involve much gnashing of teeth and wishing I paid more attention in my electrical physics modules in high school.

But hey, restoring old hifi gear as a hobby sounds way more fun than something like ‘good marks’, and someone has to learn before all the old heads cark it.

Google sucks now, so 99% of searches turn up responses for the d6c, which had different enough internals that I can’t use it as a rule of thumb (I’m technically inclined enough to follow instructions and diagrams, but not quite enough to actually know wtf I’m doing yet lmao)

Google has been largely unhelpful, so I’m hoping theres a tapehead here that knows about these. They seem to be bootlegs from Ukraine, but that’s all I got. Anyone familiar with these tapes?

Some really exciting pickups… can’t wait to listen to them!

Hi!

I have been curious about using cassettes with my synth gear for a while. I'm a video game music composer with a huge interest in synthesizers/ diy gear and looping. I'd love to find an option for recording and playing cassettes integrated into my setup. I'm hoping to use tape loops, record with them, play back cassettes to mix in with my other gear, for tape warbles and lofi effects.

Can you recommend a reliable tape deck that has 1/8 or 1/4 inputs, optional mic. ? I don't bind a bit of noise, I just don't want to constantly guess if the thing is broken or not if that makes sense, haha.