NEC AUK5000 One of the most under rated cassette decks. One channel motorboating.

These components were overlooked by many, and they were really quite a good performer.

[@kevinfisher1070]

I learn a lot from you professor thank you for the education

[@zx8401ztv]

So its made around 1979, thats a long lasting tape recorder. And the belts are still working fine, unless they were changed. Nec was a company i would have never thought about. I bet you can fit an electret mic in that free tuner, a 2k2 and d.c blocking capacitor into the guitar socket would work.

[@TerryMcKean]

Yup... that's definitely a gorgeous and sturdy machine, no doubt. Thanks for sharing, 12voltvids.

[@markb3129]

Interesting video, didn't know you could time a cassette like that.. Wish I would have kept my stereo from the 70's, 8 track and cassette player recorder with equalizer and channel meters and phonograph on top, don't recall the brand. Speakers were about 3 feet tall and would rattle the windows in my room, those were the days of great music and pretty decent stereo equipment for a good price!!! ✌

[@hansu-nihon]

Glad you made the owner happy. A satisfied client.🙂

[@maxbrown347]

Love the story. People don't figure keep the backup even if you've nothing to play it on.

[@douglashoff95]

I lost count of how many tape recorders/decks I have repaired by cleaning the record/play switch(es). Some customers complained of "farting" in one or both channels.

[@Oldgamingfart]

11:53 I've had good results in the past with a freeware program called Disk Drill on a failing USB stick. All depends on how bad the corruption is, as sometimes only one or two files are totally unrecoverable. Of course, that's if you can get the drive to mount in the first place! Prevention (i.e. regular backups) always better than cure, as they say..

[@ERROL007]

Great work as usual. As a semi pro photographer and knowing someone that works now mainly capturing data for films, TV commercials etc. I have a cloned drive at home ( 2 hard drives ) and another clone offsite (at another flat). A lot of people forget the offsite back up. If something happens to your drives on site at least you have the offsite drive.

[@TerryMcKean]

I just started watching and yes indeed, the picture looks nice and bright and clear, and I also notice the the audio is very 3-dimensional with great separation and frequency-response... I'm listening through a nice set of Sanyo in-ear earphones and it feels like I'm right there. Back to the video...... : - )

[@Raptor50aus]

I just serviced a Sony FH-7MKIII and the cassette deck had a hum and very low volume on the right channel. resoldered the connectors on the main input multi plug on the back and also cleaned the plug and socket which connected by wires to the tape head. Sounding excellent now :) My Sony FH-110W had the same issue.

[@iammikebrazeau]

Would you ever consider making & selling speed test tapes? :D

[@wayneg296]

👍👍😎✌️ Another Win for the customer, at a very reasonable rate.

[@sitarnut]

Liked this swell presentation.. learned a lot.. instantly subbed... Good Show.. dig your new lighting....

[@zulumax1]

4:53 I have a 450 g can of MG Chemicals Safety Wash II electronics cleaner. It has no lubricants whatsoever, just 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane, various butanes, and acetate d'ethyle. Another tech recommended it for cleaning circuit boards and such that have been saturated with De-oxid cleaners. It also says test on plastics before use. Have you had experience with that one? The one I use that is plastic safe and leaves no residue is CRC QD Electronic cleaner.

[@sjn7220]

My iPhone app (Decibel X) read 445 Hz through my iPad speaker before adjustment and 440 Hz after. Pretty neat the fidelity is kept from your speaker output all the way through my iPad’s speaker output.

[@dinosdagkas917]

New video....First i like...then i watch😆✌️

[@sunspot42]

So I've been watching your channel religiously for about 2 years now, and finally decided over the weekend to take the plunge and pick up an old Sony TC-K555ES I found locally at a good price ($225). It was sluggish to operate but seemed to be working well. Of course after I got it home all hell broke loose - the cassette door split a pin and the spring popped out. When I tried to remove the mechanism to get at the door a little BB popped out of it down by the heads and now that mechanism won't slide up and down properly anymore. Also I broke (or at least popped out) a little nylon clip on the head mechanism. What did I get myself into? 🤣 The heads are also badly worn, not that I'm planning on using the deck much. My advice to those who'd buy one of these older Sony decks is, don't! They were great in their day, but their day is long gone.

[@markmiwurdz202]

Good from afar, but far from good!

[@sunspot42]

@@markmiwurdz202 Apparently the heads are made out of butter. 🤷‍♂️

[@crashbandicoot4everr]

If you don't backup your stuff then you're asking for trouble. Now that lady may need to go to a data recovery specialist and get charged several hundred dollars to get her data recovered. I basically clone the entire drives of my computer so I can have bootable backups and restore them in a few clicks...

[@Sans_Solo_]

Sound is excellent indeed....good looks too!

[@Shadepariah]

9:24 I found a smoke detector at the store that used AAs and I was so happy...

[@12voltvids]

The ones we supply at work use 3 AAA. My smoky / CO is line powered with a lithium backup that is rated at 10 years shelf life. It is a laser smoke.

[@Xantylon74]

NEC made so many Chips for so many brands, why shouldn’t they make their own great equipment.

[@12voltvids]

They did.

[@bigalsmallengines]

These units remind me of some Panasonic Cassette Decks. NEC was a decent brand of electronics. They have some GREAT medium grade turntables as well. Glad I still have a half box of Freon TF and Electro Wash from the 90's... When I heard they would be outlawed I bought 2 cases of each.....LOL Cheers! 🍻 -Al

[@12voltvids]

Yes I still have some too

[@bigalsmallengines]

@@12voltvids Those are excellent products indeed..... Freon TF is my favorite tape head cleaner indeed. Electro Wash is good for delicate circuit boards and switches. In a picture for an estate sale, guy must have been a tech or formerly anyway, I seen some cans of Freon TF in the back ground that I am going to Saturday this week. I hope to snag those and I'd like to find me another Simpson VOM would be nice. Great Video!

[@professionalvr]

Didn't expect a two head cassette deck to make such a good recording. A very nice deck, indeed.

[@12voltvids]

As I said, underrated. Most nec gear was overlooked and was better than many thought.

[@nickwallette6201]

I thought the 3-head thing was just to make monitoring easier, since you could play the recorded signal back in realtime. Does it actually have any impact on recording quality?

[@12voltvids]

@@nickwallette6201 yes it does. The head gap is optimized for the function. A wider gap produces a good strong magnetic field to record the strongest possible signal however s wide gap doesn't play high frequencies as well. A narrow gap produces better high frequencies but can't handle the highest record current. A 2 head design they choose the best head gap to perform both tasks. This is a compromise however a good design engineer can make a two-head deck sound every bit as good as a three head deck. three head deck might have a little better signal to noise ratio in the high frequencies but a two head deck can sound very good. There were tons of two head decks out there that actually outperformed a lot of three head decks because it was only in the very best three head designs that would outperform a good two-head design so if you're looking to buy a cassette deck and you're looking at two head versus three head I would spend the money to get a good quality high-end two head deck over a mediocre three head deck. Another thing is alignment three head decks require separate adjustments for both the recording head and the playback head which is much more difficult to do. Another problem with three head decks when it comes to cassettes is because a cassette was never initially designed for three heads they were never designed to have two head stuff next to each other the recording pad typically forces the maximum pressure at the center of the head window which is directly over top of the head gap on a two head deck but slightly off to the side on a three head deck in other words not as good head to tape contact for both the record and the playhead unless you have a dual capstone design which will apply additional tension to give you the best head to take contact. Some companies actually used a mechanical lever to lift the cassette pad out of the way. Again things that are not necessary on two head decks. Three head deck does have the ability to monitor after recording and that's really it's big advantage because it makes bias set up a snap you can do it in one pass or is on two head decks you have to make a test recording play it back make an adjustment make another test recording play it back which takes time but once you get a two head deck dialed in to a specific brand of tape you typically will stick with that brand of tape and never have to adjust the bias again.

[@nickwallette6201]

@@12voltvids OK, now that you mention it, I do remember hearing about the head gap before. Thanks for taking the time to explain all that. I have a couple of decks: Kenwood KX-W8050 -- dual well recording, 2-head, auto-reverse, B/C/HX-Pro. This was my deck growing up. Sony TC-WA9ES -- same, but maybe a little nicer. I got this one a little while back to be a higher-end convenience deck. Sony TC-K707ES -- single well, 3-head, dual capstan, B/C/S/HX-Pro. I bought this one recently to get the most out of tape, and maybe use it as a musical instrument to run tracks through it for saturation and tape compression.

[@iainoggy]

Must be an illusion but one of the fuse holders looked a little loose looking at one end I spotted

[@TheStig1961]

Interesting video. My Technics M5 deck looks identical🙂. Regards Stig Österberg from Dalsbruk in Finland

[@m80116]

I am wonder if this has ever happened to you... you squeak the capstan clean and at some point it decides it can't take it anymore and jumps right at you. Was I forgetting... under underrated I'd also list Hitachi as an outsider brand. Nice construction even when basic.

[@frankearl7530]

Spinrite, from Gibson Research, also works on thumb drives. Might be worth a try.

[@mrnmrn1]

I had good luck many times with ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery).

[@Raptor50aus]

Interesting my Sony FH-7 MKIII did exactly same as that deck besides the hum it pulsed the woofers until I fixed it. I did also resolder the ground lead to the chassis. My desk does not have those record play switches but it does have a relay which engages when recording.

[@12voltvids]

Those clear plastic top relays are the problem. Omron made sealed replacements that didn't have the oxidation problem.

[@Monza62000]

check fu403 looks like its not in right,,,nice fix,,,

[@SabatinoSmith]

Question: I have a Technics 630 and it’s in amazing shape other than the right channel drops because of that rec/play switch you mentioned. When I crack it open and hose it with Deoxit D5 it sounds good as new but it will only last a few days before it’s right back. I tried putting a blank tape in every day and just switching the record and play back and forth about a dozen or two times but it seems to never want to go back unless I hose it down again. Is there a better spray to use that you can still buy today that will solve this? I want to just replace it but I don’t want to spend hundreds on another deck and have the same problem 😭

[@m80116]

You have to physically unmount the switch or if you prefer pry it open in situ, and clean all the contacts... beware they can fly everywhere if you're not careful.

[@dominikmichalczak4941]

I got the AUK 8000E. It play cassettes good but recording quality is very poor, the recording is disorted even when the meters are not touching -3dB. Looking for a service manual for it to know where to search for the issue.

[@pauldionne2884]

Any idea who made these decks for NEC? Sure reminds me of my old TEAC A-103.

[@DeePaignall]

You sank that motorboat:) I've just done the same on two Panasonic 5250s whose switches are (I think) servo'd - I couldn't get them to shift manually. Do all decks have the physical record bar switch?

[@zulumax1]

The 5250 switch is operated off of a cam actuator of the soft start mechanism. Open the cassette door and actuate the record lockout switch with your left finger, then hold down the stop button, at the same time press the record while continuing to hold the stop, repeatedly press the record.

[@SergZak2023]

Were NEC components sold in the US? I have never seen any NECs in my many years of purchasing audio gear at various places like Federated, Good Guys, Circuit City, etc, etc. I don't ever recall seeing the brand here....but maybe I wasn't paying attention.

[@Oldgamingfart]

Some of the MCS Series components sold by JC Penney were NEC OEM, including the monster MCS 3125 receiver!

[@zulumax1]

Really sounded like that tape was getting oversaturated there at the end, the needles were bouncing off the pegs. I don't remember the levels being set that hot when you setup the recording. Well that can happen with a 2 head deck, you don't find out until you rewind the tape and play it. That doesn't mean all 3 head decks are better. I have 2 Teac CX-440 tape decks, three head, piano keys, but single capstan and lousy quality. On the other hand I have a Teac A-420 that was built in the 70's, is 2 heads, and built like a tank. Analog VU meters and peak level leds. That is a keeper.

[@koozmusic]

Agreed - definitely oversaturated. 2 head deck or not, the record levels shouldn't be _that_ far off from the input monitor... I wonder if the EQ/bias was set properly (hard to tell from the camera angle). I'm sure it needs a full service. 🤔 Then again, it's a $30 deck that was brought back to usable condition with some contact cleaner. I doubt the owner is planning on making master recordings with it. 😁 Edit: Hmmm... at 17:00, it also sounds like there's quite a bit of sibilance. I almost wonder if the head is badly worn. Again, hard to tell from the footage. Something's definitely not right though. I can push normal bias (Maxell UD) tapes well into the +4 dB range on my Tascam 112B and not have that kind of distortion.

[@rogerchurch3804]

yes I read way back in hifi engine Nec cassette decks their specs are off the hook! that's slang for excellent lol the made some great machines !

[@12voltvids]

Thats why I called it an underrated deck. It is a great sounding deck.

[@enricoself2256]

I understand that when servicing a tape deck it make perfect sense to also check recording, but who is using an old tape deck to record cassettes in 2022 ? It's like VHS machine, they will be used as playback machines for old tapes. If I need a tape deck to record cassette, I would go for a three heads dual capstan deck with tape calibration of some sort. Though not cheap, they anyway go for 1/4 of what they cost when new, so anyway a good bargain.

[@12voltvids]

You would be surprised how many still play with tape. I use DAT for logging content for transfer but not cassette or r-r.

[@gorak9000]

Lotta old farts out there don't like "the computers" and cling to outdated technology. Usually those people are called "12 o'clock flashers", and for good reason... :) A joke that most people wouldn't even get these days.

[@nickwallette6201]

@@gorak9000 LOL Sometimes I forget references like that aren't still ubiquitous. As a borderline old codger, I'm interested in tape because some things just sound better without full sparkling fidelity. That's why they still make tube amps and distortion pedals.

[@gorak9000]

@@TD75 Yes, where "character" = "distortion". If you really want your tape distortion, a couple FIR filters would do just as good as the real thing

[@waltercarpenito1737]

1 of that deck on ebay for 299.00 plus tax shipping from japan 35.00 for yours grate deal --

[@zulumax1]

Those items with crazy prices on eBay will be there for many many months hoping for a sucker, you have to look at sold completed items.

[@gavincurtis]

Assuming it doesn’t have Marlboro glaze, there should be a hint of vintage quality Japanese electronics odor wafting about the shop? Nothing beats h the smell of Japanese electronics from the early 80’s right out of the box in my opinion.

[@12voltvids]

This one is pretty clean.

[@theotherchannel2279]

Dave, si there any contact cleaner you can recommend to buy today that works and is pretty cheap?

[@12voltvids]

Nutrol is good. The new stuff is fine, just not quite as good as the old stuff. The old stuff used Freon as the solvent and Diesel type oil as the lubricant and contact protector. The new stuff uses ethanol alcohol as the solvent and a non-toxic vegetable oil as the lubricant and sealant. It's now safe to be used on equipment that is used in food production and preparation where is you wouldn't use the old stuff anywhere near anything you might consume. So the new stuff works almost as good as the old stuff but it's a heck of a lot safer to work with because it's non-toxic.

[@theotherchannel2279]

@@12voltvids Cheers mate. Have you ever worked on a Technics M8 cassette deck! What a bad design it is all upside down. You have to take the base off the unit to work on it. Crazy!

[@young_of_the_mill9560]

Still use my Nakamichi 680zx

[@b.powell3480]

Hi Dave, maybe the cassette deck is trolling and can't remember the words!!, lol 😆!

[@12voltvids]

John senchuk is trolling. He phones me all the time and plays music and calls me the N word. Now he fires off about 8 spam complaints for every video I publish. So I publish more just to piss the loser off.

[@b.powell3480]

@@12voltvids wow ! Lol 😆, he must be bored !

[@b.powell3480]

@@12voltvids Dave, the music you used to test the cassette deck,reminded me of a recent u-tube video that I watched where the music was controlled by a laptop, and had musical instruments set up in such a way that small balls were shot out of tunes and synchronized to hit each of the instruments to make some interesting music 🎶!, can't remember the title of the u-tube channel, however, but I will try to find it again 😀

[@zulumax1]

@@b.powell3480 Animusic

[@umajunkcollector]

tiz a shame to pay all that money to have faves preserved and converted, and not have a backup. perhaps for an extra ten bucks, you can give them a backup option.

[@12voltvids]

I did give them a backup option I gave them everything on DVD discs in addition to a copy on their USB stick. The dumbasses they are through all the discs away when they got rid of their DVD player. That's the other stupidity of it they had two copies even though they didn't have a player they should have kept their discs so that if something happened to the USB stick they could have come back to me with the discs and I could have ripped them and re-encoded them and put them on another stick. as I say you can't fix stupid I've said that many times and this was a prime example of stupid. They should have kept their stupid 8 mm tapes as well how much space does a dozen tapes take up it could have put the tapes and the discs in a little box and kept them rather than throw them in the garbage it makes no sense. a game as I said before you can't fix stupid. I don't feel bad for them I'm almost ready to laugh in their face because their problem is self-inflicted.

[@gorak9000]

The real question is, how often are you going to go back and actually watch these old tapes? I know I can't contain my excitement when it's "watch a random hi-8 tape from 1992" night /s

[@12voltvids]

@@gorak9000 yeah I can't say I've ever watched any of my old videos although, I was the official videographer at all the wild House parties that I went to when I was younger and I have hauled out some of those tapes seeing my friends and I having a great old time some of the stuff that we used to do when we had been into the sauce was pretty funny and we did watch one at a buddy's 40th birthday I guess about 15 years ago we put it on the big screen and everybody was rolling on the floor. But no I don't watch my home videos as a real I sometimes look at my scenery videos just because what I do a photography vacation I'm specifically looking for things to take pictures of that I know that I like to see. But watch videos of the kids when they were little can't say I've watched any of them they're on tape and backed up on the desk or maybe someday the kids will watch them but nope like everyone else they just sit there never to be seen again.

[@mrnmrn1]

Flash memory is the worst possible choice for archiving. The newer and larger the worse. USB stick, SD card and SSD manufacturers usually doesn't guarantee more than 5-10 years data retention. It's simple physics. The smaller the cells (higher level of integration), the smaller the capacitance, it will self-discharge sooner than later. I have 12-15 years old 512MB...1GB Kingston and SanDisk USB sticks still with intact data on them, but a current 32-128GB stick or SD card would probably not retain the data on them reliably for such long time. I really don't get why people are so reckless about storing their family memories. I would always recommend at least triple backup, one of them on a daily used HDD, an other on a backup HDD, two more copies on different brand DVDs (with new backup copies every 5 years), and also to keep the original tapes. The original tapes, if not from a problematic series and if stored well, would probably outlast any (unmaintained, non-backed-up) digital copy. The main problem with that: good luck finding a working Hi8 camera/VCR in 2050... Most of them also has flash memory / EEPROM for their firmware and calibration settings, with finite data retention time. And of course, degrading plastic and rubber parts, seizing drum bearings, decomposing windings in rotary transformers.

[@12voltvids]

Burn to M-disk or BD and be done. No organic dye in them. Burned into metallic film. Permanent.

[@mryamaha100]

moog synth on that track

[@TheDigitalAura]

Deoxit is the biggest rip off. Yup it's good but not so much better than other products to justify the huge price.

[@12voltvids]

Let me tell you something about caig, the company that makes deoxit. A few years ago they had a video contest to show what deoxy can do I entered that contest and won the grand prize. $1,000 USD was the prize that I won and I got the little card congratulating me on my video. The next year they invited me to enter the contest again so I went to town and put together another spot that was when higher energy and better then the first one. I was so far ahead of the second and third place in the votes that I figured I was a shoe in to win. I then received this email that both my video and the guy in second place had been disqualified because they detected that someone was using a VPN to vote and that was against the rules. Now I never voted for myself and I certainly don't use a VPN and I never have but their tones were that because my video and the guy in second place were so far ahead of everybody else that there must be some cheating underway so they disqualified both of us. That's kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and I kind of find it hard to promote the company. And no when I run out of their product I won't be buying it again just in spite of them even though I did win a thousand bucks for them the first year of the contest.

[@gorak9000]

@@12voltvids "...kind of left a bad taste in my mouth" - ugh, you're supposed to spray it on the contacts in the connector, not in your mouth, but whatever floats your boat :-P /s