I love cassette decks over the years I've owned quite a few different makes and models of them
many of which I've shown on this channel but sometimes they don't love me back
but it's understandable because they are highly mechanical devices with lots of intricate parts
some of which need periodic maintenance or replacement in order to keep the deck functional
but sometimes the repairs that a cassette deck needs in order to work properly again are just
not economically feasible and sometimes they may not be repairable at any cost
and I have just such an example of that with this Technics RS-TR180 cassette deck
from around 1996. some people pronounce it Techniques but regardless of how you
say it most people consider Technics to be a premium brand of audio components they're
probably best known for their SL-1200 series of direct drive turntables which are legendary
for their durability and performance both for professional DJs and home audiophile listening
they've also made some really good CD players such as this SL-PG300 it it's packed with
features works perfectly and sounds great so you'd think that same reputation would carry
over to their cassette decks especially on a model like this which has auto reverse Dolby
noise reduction soft touch full logic controls remote control capability and automatic opening
soft eject doors which is normally a feature you only see on high-end cassette decks
the price sticker says $29.99 but there was a 50% off sale at the thrift store so
I ended up getting it for around $15 which you'd think would be a great deal for this
kind of cassette deck but first let's take a closer look at this control panel
one thing you might notice is that even though this is a double cassette deck it only has one
set of controls for both decks and you switch between them with this button but
that's not such a big deal because normally you're only using one deck at a time anyway
but did you notice something else that's missing? there's no recording level control because as it
says down here it has automatic recording level there's no way to set the recording
level manually obviously that's no big deal if you're just going to be using it to play
tapes and some cassette recorders do an entirely respectable job of automatic
recording level but it's definitely not a feature you would expect to see on a Technics
also missing as a headphone jack which is a feature I really like to have on a cassette
deck so I can just plug in a pair of headphones and listen to what's on our tape without needing
to connect it to any other audio equipment but none of those may necessarily be deal breakers
for you especially if you only paid $15 for it but of course you want to see if it actually works
so let's put in a tape
and try to play
nothing's moving and it just timed out let's try playing the opposite direction
that way is actually working I don't know if there's anything recorded on that side of the tape
but it is moving in the opposite direction so at least some part of this functionality is working
how about rewind that works
what about fast forward nope that doesn't work so it looks like only the reverse direction
functions work the forward directions do not work so it probably needs new belts
let's just try with a pre-recorded tape to make
sure it actually was playing in the reverse direction
and yes we do get a indication on a level meter so it does appear to be
playing properly in the reverse direction but not the forward direction let's try deck two
the door does open automatically we'll hit play
again nothing happens and it stops because it realized the tape wasn't moving
but it does fast forward
what about reverse play it is playing in the reverse direction you can see
and rewind it is rewinding so this side works a little bit better than the first side the only
function that was not working is forward playback otherwise everything else worked
I couldn't find anything for the TR180 but I looked up the TR280 which is basically
the same thing except with Dolby C noise reduction and you can get a belt kit for
it for around $20 so you would think this would be a good candidate for
restoration just put on a new set of belts and you would have a working cassette deck
but before we click the Buy It Now button let's pop the cover and take a look inside
well this is certainly a highly integrated 1990s design it's mostly empty space inside a very
small main circuit board mostly with the power supply on it there's the mechanism
and electronics of deck number one which is a playback only deck and the belts actually
appear to be intact they're not falling apart and turning into sticky black goo
although they may have gotten a little bit loose of age so that's probably why it's
not working fully but at least we won't have a big mess to clean up when we're replacing those
deck number two has considerably more electronics on it this is the recording
deck and that's really where they put most of the circuitry on the back of the mechanism due
to the sandwich of circuit boards it's more difficult to see the belts on this
side but again they do appear to be intact although they've likely gotten loose of age
and I notice it has plastic flywheels not a good sign of quality
and here's where the repairability of this deck starts to go drastically downhill
another thing you may have noticed is that the motors are soldered onto the
circuit board and according to the service manual which does actually tell you how to
replace the belts unlike many service manuals for cassette decks it tells you
you have to desolder the motor in order to gain access to the belts
and that alone may make restoring this cassette deck unfeasible for many people
because they lack the proper equipment and knowledge of how to unsolder and re-solder
components but even if you do have the equipment and knowledge to do soldering
there's another big issue of these decks that may make them totally unrepairable
I removed the door to give you a better look at the mechanism look at how brown and crusty this
pinch roller looks the other one doesn't look nearly as bad although it's clearly
quite dirty itself and you may think this is just because someone mainly used it to play
tapes in the forward direction but if that was the case the wear would only be on the
surface of the pinch roller where it actually contacts the tape as it moves through the
mechanism but you can clearly see the entire rubber is all brown and crusty and degraded
it reminds me of one of those make-believe restoration videos where they paint on fake
rust on non-metallic objects but this is real that's exactly the way I found it
luckily you can easily remove the pinch roller assemblies they're just held on with little
plastic clips again not a good sign of quality so I already did that on this other mechanism
and you can even see some rust in here so here they are removed and just like that
other deck the one on the right is all brown and crusty and almost looks rusted even though it's
made of rubber and the one on the left doesn't look as bad but take a close look as I spin it
see how much that wobbles the rubber pinch roller is completely separating
from the plastic spindle it's mounted on again another sign of bad quality
it uses a plastic post to mount the pinch roller I've never seen that before I mean
even these cheap Tanashin knockoff mechanisms you find in boom boxes use a metal bracket and
a metal pin to mount the pinch roller but on this Technics deck it's all plastic and it's completely
disintegrating I don't know if that was glue or what that brown crusty stuff but this pinch
roller is shot they're all shot all these pinch rollers need to be replaced this is another one
that looks all brown and disgusting it's not quite as wobbly as the other one but still not usable
I popped off the pinch rollers from the brackets and this one is completely separating look at
that it just falls right out and this plastic post it was mounted on has some kind of crusty
stuff on it I guess that was the glue that was holding it together so that's
just the rubber and that's hard as a rock there's no flexibility to that whatsoever
and I bet if I take a pair of pliers to it
yep it just disintegrates crumbles and the strange thing is this one that was all brown
and crusty looking is actually still flexible see this one actually still has some give if I
squeeze on it so even though it looks a lot worse the rubber is actually in better shape on this one
so I was able to find a kit of replacement pinch rollers for Technics tape decks the
set of five of them on eBay for around $20 so if you add that to the belt kit
which costs $21 you're going to be spending over $40 to repair
this cassette deck once you add in taxes probably gonna be closer to around $45
and I couldn't find any Technics TR180 cassette decks that's sold on eBay but I found a TR170
which I guess was the previous model it looks the same and has the same features except it
actually does have two sets of controls for the two decks instead of combining them into one so
it's actually a slightly better tape deck and the last one of those that was on eBay sold for $49
so even if your time is worth nothing and you're just doing this for fun and
you have the knowledge and equipment to unsolder those motors I don't think it's
financially viable to repair one of these 1990s Technics cassette decks they were made mostly
of cheap plastic parts that are starting to disintegrate and even if you replace all the
belts and the pinch rollers who knows what else is going to start falling apart next
these simply were not good tape decks despite the premium reputation of the Technics brand
name and this is a perfect example of why I'm more enthusiastic about new cassette
tape equipment than many other tape enthusiasts because a new cassette deck that works OK...
"at the moment I am directly between the front microphones but I'm now moving over to the left
front microphone I am just starting a mechanical stopwatch which will move with me and help you in
locating the sound as I walk between and around the microphones no this is not 60 Minutes"
...is a lot better than a vintage one that doesn't work at all but I'll make a deal with you if this
video earns enough in ad revenue to cover the cost of the belts and pinch rollers I will go
ahead and repair this cassette deck despite my own advice that it's not worth buying or
repairing one of these because now that I have it in my possession I really don't want to see it end
up in the e-waste bin and I am kind of curious to hear how well that automatic recording level works