1980's Tape Deck Repair (Technics RS-M230)

Mark repairs a 1980's cassette deck. How many problems does it have?

[@user-rg4ei7ix3t]

You have the energy and courage of a teenager, AND the wisdom, experience, knowledge, and patience of an old man. Great combination!

[@Jesselovespinball]

Every time Mark fixes one of these 80’s electronics it magically transports me to my childhood. I wish more people fixed these things . There really aren’t a ton of them left out there . I can remember making mixed tapes and trying to time each song . Oh the memories! Thanks Mark !

[@m80116]

I fix this stuff and sell it online... not easy. Very few customers manage to understand what you've done despite providing accurate description and picture reference.

[@michaelclutton8446]

You make repairs look so easy, when I know they aren’t. Smart guy

[@user-xv4hh2ck9v]

This is the kind of thinking that put man on the moon

[@nicholasburgess7035]

BTW, the music on the tape marked '17' was actually Heaven 17 and their album 'Penthouse and Pavement'.

[@djmips]

Specifically the 'avant garde' instrumental opening to the track Geisha Boys and Temple Girls. (1981)

[@robinsutcliffe-video_art]

a great album

[@RobertMattison-pp6uf]

Not only are you expert electronic repair tech but you are also a video production expert. You have great lighting and sound in your video's. Your are a Professional. Thank you for all your hard work.

[@vicsutton2]

Mark, you have the patient of a Saint- not many technicians would take the time or trouble to complete the repair, WHAT A GUY. really enjoy your videos many thanks..

[@theoldbigmoose]

I wonder if this is Mark's main job, how can he spend so much time on such an old piece of kit, and still stay solvent?

[@m80116]

@@theoldbigmoose making videos out of it

[@dobermanguy9437]

The excellent technician it's hard finding somebody just dedicated to their work to repair cassette decks very nice job

[@rfdave3980]

No money in repair to this level. People will not pay. It's a dead field, throw away world.

[@suarezuno3432]

@@rfdave3980 Because your not in this world. We need ppl like this man

[@gord8382]

How can you work on tape decks. Says a lot about what you are made of pure grit. I would be on the floor crying curled up in the fetal position after my first tape deck repair. Bravo again, another dragon slayed.

[@baronofgreymatter14]

The Bob Ross of Electronics Repair

[@RoughJustice2k18]

Who the hell is Bob Ross?

[@baronofgreymatter14]

@@RoughJustice2k18Google BoB Ross...famous painter and all around awesome dude

[@Singh-et2gx]

Step by step fault finding is so amazing. You aren't losing patience. Thanks for giving such knowledge.

[@mikeholden4432]

Hi Mark, that tape was heaven 17... a rather influential synth band. Those pins that broke were probably alloy and subject to age hardening which snap if you don't aneal them, which you can do with a hot iron. Great videos, thank you!

[@amnril]

lol, I just posted a similar observation….. then spotted your post. I guess that explains why the tape was labelled ‘17’

[@outfield1988]

Love this old stuff is being repaired.

[@davidvivian596]

Bloody hell Mark! You were a very brave man at 21:50. But then that's why I and 3,999 other people were watching your every move.

[@AudioGuyBrian]

Your reaction to that tape at the end was absolutely golden! Love your vids. Great job repairing that clunker as always. Cheers!

[@chillidogkev]

This was a great repair and a great video Mark. 10/10

[@ruaraidhmcdonald-walker9524]

Patience of a Saint!! Amazing repair!

[@kerrygleeson4409]

Brilliant work Mark thanks for sharing your vast knowledge 🦘

[@daljitsingh2143]

I've just bought exactly the same deck nearly 2 weeks ago. Stripped clean and took 4 hrs to repair and calibrate. Awesome sound!

[@craigdurling6136]

I recently bought a collection of old electronics and your vids have really helped fixing some of the stuff I've been dealing with. Thanks for the informative videos.

[@felipecervantes7881]

I find you amusing. You make these videos very pleasant. You don't waste words.

[@micksmixxx]

I've just been watching you deal with this 'problem', Mark, and I was so impressed with the way you went about things AND explained what, and why, you were doing it that I simply had to subscribe. Well done, sir. I'm glad you managed to get everything functioning correctly. 👍

[@tejtrambharatt5182]

You do brilliant work, I am impressed.

[@mattfear6345]

Your bloody awesome mate I had this tape deck when I was younger

[@ianforfun1]

I used to take on old stuff and repair and sell them on from all eras my favourite being old valve gear and I still have to pinch myself thinking back at how much there was involved and the hundreds of parts an MP3 player will out-perform cassettes, yet so simple! The most difficult cassette mechanism I ever had was an Uher CR 210 recorder. Your videos are great. Thank you, Ian

[@kendom33]

I remember these Mark. Only ever had a few in the shop back in the day. Record play switches were notorious. Goodness I even remember the noise of these decks Goodness me !! Great video

[@jamesrindley6215]

Finally we see what it takes to make Mark grumpy - the impregnable shell of cheerfulness is breached by a short mains cable!

[@rhkavli]

Well. That one was short enough to cater for a Seinfeld episode.

[@milind9098]

Excellent video quality and very nice fault finding method..easy Approach..

[@CallanChristensen]

Great video! That mech looked like such a nightmare to take apart, but you just pressed on. I really appreciate all the information and tricks you passed along with this repair. I also think this may be the first repair video I've seen where someone actually took the time to replace the Dolby chip, but it looks like you didn't really have a choice. This is the first video I've watched of yours and you've made a subscriber out of me. Cheers!

[@florianm3170]

i Mark, really enjoyed your video, i'm afraid i have to do the same belt change repair on a Technics RS-M250, i'll try to leave the mechanism more together though. Also had a bad dolby chip on a Technics RS-M280 from the same time period. Oh and about your technics tape, it was also recorded in the same time period, 1981, to be exact, and the 17 stands for Heaven 17, it was the intro to one of their songs, "Temple Boys and Geisha girls" from their classic "Penthouse and Pavement" album (no i didn't shazam it) I Like it how you take the time to explain everything and as a viewer you get the notion that it takes some time to do the servicing. No wonder there are no more shops doing this work, would be too dear. Anyway keep up the good work!

[@blackimp4987]

Nice job! if you publish more videos about hifi repairing, especially little more recent pieces, I'll watch all of them for sure. I like watching the whole process and listening to your considerations.

[@lesharknett3755]

Great video's Mark keep them coming.

[@MrPitatom]

Great Vid. The song on the Technics tape was the beginning of Heaven 17's Geisha boys and temple girls.

[@samb2936]

wow...impressive in all disciplines...you are a very good technician...good job

[@michaelcarey]

Great video Mark! Repairing cassette decks scares me. I've got a lovely old Marantz SD-55 that has a fault that I suspect to be a belt issue. The tape mech is VERY complicated. Your video has inspired me to tackle it again.

[@ickipoo]

Take lots of photos so you know how it came apart!

[@luizduque2172]

Really thanks for this video, I just purchased a RS-313 dead and I'm playing around with it. I suspect it may be either the supply to an IC (901 I think) from a faulty transistor/caps or the IC itself (power supply is good). Your video gave me great insights to move along. I love this feeling of brining thing back to life again, thanks for shoaring your knowledge on these!

[@quantumleap359]

Bloody hell, these tape decks are a royal pain in the bum! I've worked on a few, the Hitachi decks are well made, just not easy to repair. Great video Mark!

[@duncan-rmi]

I had a 250 from new in 1981, & it's still working. I've had a few more of this transport & its relatives through here, & the achilles' heel is the 'assist motor' belt, which leads to that characteristic whine & no transport action. not necessary to pull it all apart to change, but it was interesting to see your teardown nontheless. the technics cassettes, whatever is actually in them stock-wise, were very good too.

[@dushanrathnayake5007]

Love your videos man! This is my new fav tv series!

[@junpantilano1]

Sir, you have an amazing talent, patience and creativity. Yours is a one-stop shop with all the equipments you have to be able to troubleshoot anything. You have my full admiration although sometimes I'm having a hard time understanding what you're saying because of your diction.😅 But I love watching how you work as much as I love your videos. More power to you. You're one of a kind.

[@nicholasburgess7035]

I had this deck back in the day. Beautiful piece of equipment. Lasted for years then the speed changed. Didn't have the money or skills to repair it. RIP one Technics cassette deck.

[@aaronmalcolm8473]

Good morning Sir, I am from Goa india , love watching ur skills to repair the old sets , wish you could start buisness in India, great technical skills u hv

[@dhanapalp9323]

Appreciate your job. Excellent.

[@arthurdanielles4784]

As always a pleasure to watch you at work. Over 50 years on my part re what you do... in retrospective.. I truly respect your tenacity in the face as one might say; of adversity. Technics.. that tape deck BUT also I've tackled about three others.. and NO I am NOT a fan of Technics.. their wire connectors using BARE soldered wire pushed into sockets... clamped down ?? Cheap and often NASTY ... This one was no exception re the problems you have .. to me.. 😁hence why I recognise YOUR frustrations .!

[@samuelemosca1397]

I’m electronics engineer and you are the best. My compliments..😀

[@freeelectron8261]

That was a challenging repair!

[@Jimmermgb]

I love the no fear of taking these things apart, and then the process of elimination. Chasing down multiple problems must be so disheartening, fix one problem, and then another presents itself!

[@oiygfdxssfgg]

Very impressive work

[@fusion-music]

This was basically my job, in a busy electrical workshop, fixing the many tape decks with cheap mechanisms in the 70's. Didn't really need to fix many Technics, although we sold them. Main problem was grease and flimsy plastic mechanisms. They often broke and we replaced the bits. Those were the days when we didn't use video cameras to check each stage of job. These days, I always take photos. It's amazing, if a job takes several weeks because of stock etc, how you can forget simple things, especially at my age. First suspicion on a tape deck not playing is the belts hardened into their static shape. Always best to change them if you have got that far, so you don't end up with a sticky nasty mess when the belts melt. I enjoy your video approach.

[@EsotericArctos]

I wouldn't call Technics cheap decks though the principle of "change the belts first: is always a good policy on anything this age. Technics are well worth fixing. The belt replacement on this particular deck didn't need quite so much of a tear down. The joys of refusing to look at a service manual and experimenting with them :).

[@fusion-music]

@@EsotericArctos That was my point Brendan. Technics and Panasonic were made by the same company, Panasonic being the lower priced version. I liked Technics and still have a Technics system that only has a faulty on/off switch which I haven't seen the need to spend time on to repair. Technics were very well priced for what they were offering. It was the cheaper brands that had a lot of trouble very early on in their life. Back in the 70s and manual for each item was around £60. There are some good sellers on ebay now that will sell digital manuals with schematics for very little. Only problem is that you need a PC really to read them.

[@JamesE707]

The Technics RS-M230 is a nice looking deck. Those record/Play multiswitches are a common source of playback noises - good fix Mark!

[@autobotjazz1972]

The short cord makes sense if you consider this was designed for use as part of multi component Stereo system and in many of those , the main unit ( usually had the AM/FM radio and equalizer) was set up for the other components to get power via pass through plugs on the back of it. This one though seems short even for that and may have been part of a larger set up and the whole thing was meant to set up on a specific order.

[@AllenCavedo]

Amazing repair 😄

[@summerforever6736]

Great stuff Mark!!!

[@peteschreiber9517]

Excellent job!

[@dinosdagkas917]

Very nice work,nice video, thanks a lot

[@em-dashman4404]

After watching a few of your amazing videos, I decided to try my hand at fixing a guitar pedal. Turns out that for a noob like me, desoldering and removing a 6-pin footswitch is much harder than it looks! In hindsight, a heat gun would have been better than a soldering iron, but I don’t possess one. Even after adding more solder then using a solder sucker, there was still a minute amount of solder holding each pin to its pad. That, combined with the fact that the switch was a really tight fit in the board, made for a very long and frustrating afternoon! I ended up fitting a fine tip to the iron and pushing each leg of the switch through the board.

[@ivansemanco6976]

You are on right way. YT videos are good to get knowledge but you still need to take skill you start to get. Next job will be more easy and if you proceed, you will get more and more experience and skills became stronger.

[@THEOLDMOVIESHACK]

Really interesting.....thanks for the video 👍

Superbe!!! I so share all. Cheers from Patagonia Argentina

[@rcetvg11n72]

excellent source to learn stuff

[@zuvinrat4155]

Love the videos, I can't wire a plug it's facinating and entertaining, more hifi videos please Mark

[@johnlomasney]

You're a man of patience

[@zbaby82]

Amazingly good job!

[@alphabeets]

It seems like one needs to practically be a watchmaker to fix those contraptions. Nice work.

[@EricTViking]

When you realise the tape deck is closer in time to the end of WW2 than it is to the present day 😮

[@rhkavli]

Yes. I'm actually chewing on that one. Especially thinking that that was a very modern type with servo mechanism, fluorescent VU-meters, and whatnot. Some serious amounts of water has apparently passed under the bridge...

[@Nomad_Audio]

Mark dealing with something that would make me rage and throw things: 'light chuckling' Mark dealing with a short power cable: 'you basterds, Technics'

[@cat_jumper_netscape]

日本人じゃないかというくらい細かい作業をされていますね。 ハンダ作業も素晴らしいと思います。

[@pauldavies6037]

Some cassette decks are nice and easy to dismantle and repair this one is not ! Mark was more patience than most of us another great repair !

[@karimdailyjazz]

Good job i have a m234 x very nice deck

[@johnsampson1096]

Good job on cleaning those contacts on that switch! Good for another 40 years.... Most people would just spray the cleaner in and would have problems shortly. Great patience!

[@jamespassas9441]

You can sometimes use rubber restorer to rejuvenate hardened & shiny rubber belts, & it restores their 'grip'.

[@ogorekkiszony7236]

these old technics are lovely but a pain to work on. i have an RS-M235X from '83, and when i got that the logic control mechanical parts were all dirty and jamming like on yours, and also mine has a little green ribbon on the top of the mech which tells the logic control microprocessor the current state of the tape, for example, playing or fast forwarding, using a series of leaf switches. this ribbon cable is bent at 90 degrees and it broke over time, and finding a new one is impossible. i had to run wires from each leaf switch and solder them to the ribbon socket. it isn't pretty but it works.

[@davegalimba4047]

Great Video !!! Thanks 🙂

[@markjames9252]

When I finished reassembling there would be so many spare parts left 😂

[@pipiferry]

Great repair! When you said it has a bad chip i thought deck was done for. But i guess ebay to the rescue XD

[@j.harbottle8928]

Thanks for the vids, keep em coming ! new subscriber 👍👌I've been watching Techmoan for some time too

[@adamrogers1044]

I have been working with electronics for years and although never done it professionally, it is something I would love to start doing much more of. The costs of your testing equipment is huge, and I will have to work towards a setup like yours (very impressive), but what I would really like to know is how did you get started in this industry. Your knowledge is outstanding? I think it's great you're working on the older electronics too, repairs are not common much anymore and it's such a shame, but then again, I guess things now just aren't built the same either.

[@ickipoo]

If you're using the gear every day and it's making you money, it's easier to justify spending money on quality gear. But really, quite modest equipment will suffice for most of these repairs. This video is a good example - a scope, a manual desoldering pump and some screwdrivers! Knowing where to poke 'em is where the art comes in, and the depth and breadth of Mark's knowledge is really impressive. I think that only comes from Doing It for many decades.

[@samchipner1131]

Really great job amazing

[@amnril]

That music at the end was early 80’s Heaven 17, a track off their Penthouse and Pavement LP. I guess that was why the tape was labelled ‘17’

[@johnallen8680]

Mark says he hates working on tape decks, but going by his video list he's a glutton for punishment ! I couldn't do doing with all those scary levers and hair springs !

[@dingshangliu2521]

感谢你的分享！

[@philchurch927]

Great video, what patience! rather you than me ! (even better without the nervous laugh too) .

[@brianhoskins1979]

I love the full window for the deck so that you can see the cassette in action. I wish they did something similar with CD players too, to be honest. I know a spinning CD is less exciting than a running tape, but it'd make CD players a lot nicer to look at when they were running if you could see it happening.

[@Digiquarium]

The bent pins on the switches in Technics units are very difficult. I always re-solder them first applying some new solder, then vacuum it with a desoldering pump, then lever the pin up by pushing a small flat blade screwdriver underneath it without applying extra heat. Don't bend the screwdriver, just push it under the pin carefully and then use needle nose pliers to finish straightening it.

[@DjDestinyChicago]

I’m not sure how you managed to stay so calm during this repair lol

[@gribbler1695]

edited out

[@marcse7en]

I have to say, Mark certainly makes repairs entertaining and interesting! ... He certainly makes his "mark" in the KZbin video repair world! ... And always smiling and joking too! 👍🤣 EDIT: A disassembly nightmare! ... If it was me, the Cassette Deck would be returned to its owner in a bucket! 👎🤣

[@halluciongen3000]

Love it!

[@HowardKlein1958]

Short mains lead wasn't Technics. Owner would have done that. I've had many Technics cassette decks and all had sensible length leads. RSM228X, 253, 235, M216 are some of the decks i still have. I'm still old school and solder with a Weller PU-2D and an RS solder sucker. I must try one of these new fangled rework stations😂

[@duroxkilo]

one could cumulatively spend days chasing down a funky pulley in those tape deck mechanisms. the auto-seek or whatever the feat was called, and the auto-reverse were the next level of insanity for a hobbyist repairman :) as clever as those designs are, some were over engineered(?) creating too many failure points; like 100 things had to go perfectly right for it to work properly.

[@rhkavli]

What did we do in the mono-age, when we couldn't do channel swapping tests? I'm old enough to have forgotten, to be honest...

[@kasemsheikh685]

Love from Bangladesh

[@ambientfish1369]

It was common to cut the power cords to tidy up the bottom of the beautiful cabinets these components fitted in, no problem as you had to supply and fit your own 3 pin plug, it could get messy with a turntable, Amp, tuner, Equaliser and 2 tape decks in the cabinet.

[@rockyhill9965]

At 22:14 it looks scary for me. I once changed belts and idler wheel on my Nakamichi older type 480 mechanism. I had to draw pictures at every screw removal otherwise I'd have zero chance to get it back together.

[@Ziduche]

If you are lucky enough to find a qualified technician not retired yet and willing to mess with belts and things that would be at least a $500 repair to a $100 deck and that is why those always end in the recycling bin nowadays.

[@Sha-pn3ky]

Ништяк 😊

[@StevenLemmens261061]

17 is for "Heaven 17" the track you played is called - Geisha Boys And Temple Girls. 🤪

[@allantoft9961]

14:39 Oh now I'm mad you got an orange sticker in the middle?! Mine was green! And also, what's up with the screw organisation?! 😱😭. This feels like it should be super boring to watch but actually it's amazingly fun! Great video!

[@ProfSimonHolland]

awww Heaven 17 intro.

[@issaccartwright736]

I wish you and everyone else was a bit less quick to judge, that was my band 17 and while I appreciate you giving it a third of a second before making up your mind; it was about to drop. It would have been large. The oscilloscope wouldn't have seen it coming.

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

maybe the most common problem on the mid 80s Technics tape deck.. that belt and one of the most labor intensive belt changes.

[@jeromestevenfaigin6059]

Without knowing the outcome yet, I definitely prefer to think electrolytic capacitors will be found to be bad and maybe leaks of it will need to be cleaned. A bad solenoid or more. I have (or had) a dual tape deck by Sony. I also have a TASCAM 4 track cassette deck. That one does work so the Sony is not that important. Cheers Mate!

[@dannyfreitas2120]

your amazing