Kenwood KX-710 cassette deck repairs

This 1976 Kenwood KX-710 hifi stereo cassette deck needed new belts, as well as some other work.
Follow me on Instagram:
/ drcassette
Check out my KZbin channel:
/ drcassette
Also check out my other KZbin channels:
/ vistavox
/ plustotal

[@EricLDC]

man Iove old cassette decks with vu meters. trying to find one but it's hard when everyone and there grandma snatches them up from goodwill thinking they got a million dollar item. cause "it's old"

[@LZDEN]

a lovely deck..and a good repair.well done.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@dykodesigns]

Nicely built mechanism, those dentists tools make light work of that rather fiddly job. Mechanical design in consumer electronics is really becoming a lost art with digital solid state storage media.

[@davidbrown5646]

I have a Technics deck that looks a lot like this, with the same problems. I was going to dump it, but I sent a picture of it to a radio DJ friend a couple of days ago to see if he wanted it, and would you believe, this video appeared on my notifications!

[@davidbrown5646]

Technics RS 263

[@PeterMilanovski]

I have said things while talking to someone and the next time I'm on my phone I get ads for the things that I was talking about! It's getting to the point where you have to watch what you say.... So much for privacy.

[@davidbrown5646]

This was a welcome post on my feed. I'm now having second thoughts about dumping it, and I've seen some of the Ebay prices as well!

[@HamtaroEL]

@@davidbrown5646 M263 is a good deck. The start to decent decks due to bias.

[@BurhanRana]

Your videos are really good :)

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@BurhanRana]

@@DrCassette hey great to see you reply !! Been watching your videos since yesterday. Subscribed long ago though. Dear do you have NATIONAL PANASONIC GRAMOPHONE CASSETTE DECK? I want to see you repair it. I have that at home (1974 model).

[@BurhanRana]

@@DrCassette if you have time please do reply :)

[@777jones]

I have a Panasonic unit that is quite similar. It works, but it needs repair.

[@cbow]

What would make the tape stop automatically during playback?

[@DrCassette]

When the take up reel (right side) is not turning, the auto stop will engage.

[@robertol2275]

I had a sony that looked a lot like this one, but someone managed to brake the part that holds the capstan bearing, so it was beyond repair :(

[@cat-lw6kq]

These machines were popular in the 70's when i was in the navy they were perfect size to fit into a small lockers.

[@ronaldlambert85]

I'm glad I found this video. I just bought a nice KX-910 from ebay. Seller said it's not working. I assume it will need belts. It's a similar set up, so it doesn't look like the belts will be too difficult to replace.

[@SjoerdTube]

You conclude with 'thank you for watching', I would say; "thank you for showing'! What a nice, clear, beautiful presentation. Clear explantion brought with patience. Many kudo's from me!

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@onesixfive]

Positively beautiful piece of machinery. I was curious how you’d be able to find a belt kit for such an old unit, of course I should have known you already had them in margarine container #47! Excellent video, some of the best content out there. Thank you so much for sharing your work!

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :) Well, my collection of replacement belts takes up a bit more than just one margarine container...

[@hellion9547]

@@DrCassette How to build a Dr Cassette-style workshop: Step 1: Save 100+ margarine containers, preferably Delikata brand! Step 2: Repeat Step 1 but with Ja! yoghurt cans!

[@HamtaroEL]

So much better than today's cassette decks in 2010 and 2020.

[@profibere]

I once repaired one of these Kenwoods and got surprised about how good it sounded after almost half a century denoting a good engineering and manufacturing

[@DrCassette]

Kenwood made excellent equipment back in the 1970s :)

[@clydesight]

I enjoyed your video and showing off the internals of this deck so well. I keep meaning to get myself some of those dental tools like you are using... I see a lot of repair techs using them! Please keep these videos coming, they teach me a lot! Thanks!

[@theaylesburycyclist8756]

Nice deck.... Really nice deck!!👌

[@SuperKsounds]

I have this deck and the take-up reel is no longer working I believe. The deck plays for a few seconds and then auto stops. Any idea if that’s the case. All the other belts have been replaced, except that belt. It’s in a very tight spot.

[@halitmarmaris]

You are Great ! And Great !video I always love it to watch 👍📣🎵

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@jeremytravis360]

This looks like an old Matsushita / Panasonic design of chassis. Kenwood must have bought some for a first cassette deck although they did make a none dolby version. I saw many Panasonic cassette decks and others when I was in the Hi Fi trade. As s buyer I would often open and item up ad have a look and the control mechanism and well everything about it screams Panasonic. They were nice basic decks more for playing than recording. Panasonic did sell a lot of replacement heads when people used chrome tapes on them.

[@DrCassette]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[@hugoherreradiaz459]

Muy bien video gracias

[@nicomeier8098]

Nice service on a very nice looking seventies deck. I remember those day, before the front loading decks came along, beautiful looking machines.

[@JamesE707]

Just re-visiting your videos. Great to see them again DrC!

[@DrCassette]

You are welcome :)

[@willtubes73]

Thank you so much for this video! It helped me repair my Kenwood KX-720 cassette deck, which is very very similar inside! Probably the same mechanism, but the electronics layout is completely different as well as the hidden screw being exposed.

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

You gotta love those violent eject mechanisms of the 70s.

[@pliedtka]

I want the motor off this mechanism, 'cause the newer ones are total garbage

[@mikerm19]

+5 points for the Cafe 80s tape.

[@DrCassette]

The label on that cassette is old. This has just been a workshop test cassette for years...

[@larryblake3048]

I purchased this new back when it first came out, lasted seems like forever. I tried to change the belts and could not get the ejection plate back on correctly. Finally gave up and retired it. It had great playback fidelity for it's day. I would like to find one that has been repaired back to factory condition!

[@nate2801]

I have a cassette player just like the one that you're working on May I send it to you and have it repaired?

[@DrCassette]

Sorry, I don't do commissioned work.

[@Jammerk40]

I had one of these back in the eighties and I really liked it because the playback was so clean and I did a refurbish on belts and tire and more belts under reels! It was worth fixing and I gave it to my Brother-In-Law he had it for a long time but then it wore out again! After that I didn't see it again!

[@mickspencer4171]

Nice top loading deck

[@saarike]

Excellent work and nice video! Thanks a lot.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@PeterMilanovski]

Well I guess that I'm off to fleebay for some dental picks....

[@iamrichrocker]

there always seems to be another screw or two.. and they are hidden..maddening at times..

[@1979starscream]

Excellent as always!

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@EclectikTronik]

I have the Trio badged version. Unfortunately mine suffered a bad pinch roller and a hamfisted repair bent the bracket. One day I will revive it.

[@seantweedie9268]

An interesting video. Have you work on a different model of this deck because I swear Ive seen you work on this deck or one of it other models.

[@DrCassette]

This cassette deck has been in my collection for almost 10 years now, so I'm sure you have seen it before in one of my videos.

[@paulb4uk]

Nice repair of a quality deck .

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@JamesE707]

Fantastic VU Meters on this machine.

[@macintosh_waifu]

Really nice deck and repair!! Wish I could find something like that on recycling center. Usually there are 80s Technics or Pioneer....

[@DrCassette]

That's still better than what I usually find at our recycling center these days. HiFi equipment is getting increasingly rare :(

[@macintosh_waifu]

DrCassette better than nothing I guess. Btw did you find that player from there?

[@DrCassette]

No, I got this cassette deck off Ebay about 10 years ago.

[@SonnyKavanagh]

Absolutely brilliant as always ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@SonnyKavanagh]

@@DrCassette your welcome

[@revolutronic]

ha i watched this video exactly on the 44th birthday of this tapedeck

[@JamesE707]

Interesting, at about @1:35, output amplifier noise is present even though the Play button is not depressed. Usually, there is a muting transistor circuit that deadens the playback amp at this stage.Maybe not present in this model? Same muting (and input circuit short-circuiting) required for most (any?) record and playback circuits for a typical two-head deck. Solid looking deck! cassettedeckman.blogspot.com

[@JamesE707]

Forgot to mention - excellent photography!

[@JamesE707]

At around @13:40, good point about the crown of the pulley! I had a belt which was too tight, and they really do veer off!

[@JamesE707]

Grub screws are easy to obtain on ebay. Great video!

[@DrCassette]

This mechanism still has a lot of mechanical contacts directly linked to it that do signal switching, I'm sure there is no muting transistor. Not sure though why the deck only cuts audio in rewind...

[@JamesE707]

@@DrCassette Of course, silly me. This is a circa 1976 deck - I had forgotten!

[@wuss999]

Great video as usual

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@redfelipe6565]

Well done! Thank you, Like.

[@paulvogel6303]

im trying to take the eject mechnism off, how did you manage this?

[@larryblake3048]

It's even harder to put back on!

[@Capturing-Memories]

I can see from the close up shots that the capstan shaft is bent.

[@DrCassette]

Remember I had the back plate with back bearing taken off during the repair for easier access to the flywheel? That's why the capstan moved while turning it.

[@enricoself2256]

@@DrCassette Actually in the last test after fixing the motor pulley the flywheel does not appear to rotate evenly, that might affect W&F

[@seantweedie9268]

@@enricoself2256 I feel if the deck had any bad or unusual WnF that DC would have mentioned when he was trying to set it to the correct speed.

[@enricoself2256]

@@seantweedie9268 DC actually did not measure W&F and the fact that he had to use 8 averages for a 1 kHz tone (W&F is measured at 3 or 3.3 kHz) is an indication it might be not too good.

[@DrCassette]

The flywheel does have a bit of wobble, it's a problem of the cast metal, nothing I can do about that. Thankfully it does not seem to cause any audible W&F. I mentioned this in the raw video but cut it out later to make the video shorter.

[@CannondaleCAAD]

It seems these kenwood decks last a long time, though the belts always seem to go but thats per ususal.

[@DrCassette]

Belts are a very common point of failure on any type of cassette deck.

[@CannondaleCAAD]

@@DrCassette Ah, I have a akai M50 and the belts look really good. Not sure if they were replaced before hand or not. Also what was the music you used on that cassette?

[@DrCassette]

The music is license free background music generated by the ScoreFitter program.

[@TravisTev]

14:27 Hehe, for a second I thought you were being sarcastic because of the wagon-wheel effect on the camera making the fast-forward look slow (was sitting far away from the screen with bad eyesight).

[@bobjerome5390]

hi start looking at cassette deck again i am a audio / video man you do real re-pair video's not the fake video's the man with the things he finds in no where kenwood was a deck made of parts from all makes a tv video tec told me i keep away from video monitors bob

[@pcallas66]

Great video.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@pcallas66]

@@DrCassette You're welcome.

[@haydararslan974]

You love your job, thank you very much ...

[@bobjerome5390]

hi that would do it i used to have alot of video as you know eyes are all over the place bob

[@karatzdi]

I have a KX920 cassette player by Kenwood. Excellent machines. I recently maintained it to nearly factory specs. I have not adjusted the motor for wow and flutter at a 1Khz signal cause am missing a tape with a 1Khs signal. Ohh well ! Thanks for the video its been a pleasure watching it.

[@DrCassette]

You can adjust the speed of a motor, but not the wow and flutter. That is an inherent property of the mechanism as a whole system.

[@babibu3233]

what size of the belt used for playback, which connects the capstan, i have one like that, but the belt was gone sorry, my English so bad

[@babibu3233]

and belt for the counter too,

[@YoMamazYT]

i have a kenwood kx 7010 and it works but it slows down over time and then it just stops

[@DrCassette]

If this deck still uses an AC motor, that could be caused by a faulty motor run capacitor.

[@bobjerome5390]

hi to all go to 10.56 on the time line this deck is very ill there's a bend in the capstan pinch this deck will have bad audio could be fixed used i vice last time i had to bend in right

[@DrCassette]

Remember I had the back plate with back bearing taken off during the repair for easier access to the flywheel? That's why the capstan moved while turning it!

[@nickfrench7372]

Nice,very well built solid machine,,,as they were made to last as long as you do,,,with some tlc in keeping it clean,,replacing belts,,and lubricate the mechanism in a lifetime,,,and adjust the speed,,,and the azimuth head alignment,,,it will play well look aftered tapes as it should altogether. Ps,,,never had really seen 2 speed adjustment potentiometer controls on the motor,s circuit board b4,,I thought one of them is for the high speed recording/playback,,if it has high speed dubbing. I had repaired a teac tascam heavy duty studio,,stereo tape deck,,which had a normal/high speed tape selector switch,,,as it had 2 speed controls just like in your video.

[@DrCassette]

Dual cassette decks with normal and high speed dubbing always have two speed adjustments per capstan motor, one for high speed and one for normal speed.

[@nickfrench7372]

@@DrCassette Yes that,s right there,,,but the cassette deck u had fixed,,does it have a normal/high speed dub selector switch? As that is what I had found on a teac/tascam stereo tape deck model I had repaired back in 2018/19.

[@halitmarmaris]

Thank you 🎵

[@armike669]

What happened to your old osilliscope?

[@DrCassette]

What old oscilloscope do you mean?

[@gile849]

Great repair man. Kenwood back to life

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@atomic1950]

bravo

[@EddieJazzFan]

That is a very heavy duty fly wheel on that deck. Speed stability should be fantastic.

[@DrCassette]

If you look closely unfortunately there is a slight wobble in that flywheel. It's a problem with the cast metal, nothing I can do about that. This wobble will certainly have a negative effect on the speed stability.

[@PeterMilanovski]

@@DrCassette I noticed the wobble in the pinch roller and then in the flywheel also, but then I thought well... The bracket that holds the bearing for the flywheel isn't in place so that explains why it's wobbling... Is the pinch roller still wobbling after you assembled it?

[@DrCassette]

No, the pinch roller is perfectly fine after reassembling the back plate.

[@PeterMilanovski]

DrCassette excellent!

[@loricastro3772]

I think you should have changed all the belts. Thanks for share.

[@DrCassette]

As I said, there was nothing wrong with that belt. It felt like brand new.

[@loricastro3772]

@@DrCassette Sooner or later it will get loose ... in my opinion, if you changed one belt, you need to change all of them! Like capacitors, bearings etc etc

[@seantweedie9268]

Well in not gonna change opinions heres. But I personally go buy a "if it ant broke don't fix it" sorta mentality. The exception would be a leaky capacitor (or other component) as well as those capacitors from those brands that just happen to all ways go bad.

[@DrCassette]

I only repair what is broken or is just about to break. I don't have time for braindead exercises such as bulk replacing capacitors.

[@xray111xxx]

I remember this tape machine. I do tape machines for a hobby and my collection was quite extensive. Now I have an A & D 6300, Nakamichi CR-3A and a JVC KD-85, Technics M270x and Tandberg TCD-310 and couple of beater Pioneer dual decks. A Yamaha Dual deck too. These are quite fun to tinker with, but can be irritating no end too. I recommend to anyone, record digitally and be happy. SD card recorders a plenty and you will be happy. Cheap too. I have a Teac X7 reel to reel as well. I have too many Reel to Reels to list here. Again I enjoy tape machines. Nice video. The direct competitor to this was the Teac 360s, Sony SD-131 or 135 memory fades here and Pioneer CTF-6161 for instance. Some JVCs were quite nice too and built like tanks. My KD-85 from 1978 is quite the example. My oldest is the Tandberg from 1975. Nice Video.

[@pliedtka]

Seems like you collect the better sounding machines. I wouldn't go back to Analog recording because Digital is very much idiot proof these days. But I will keep Analog deck to play old tapes, sometimes who knows what kind of wonder might be hiding. Plus it's a nostalgia, many of grew up with them making own mixes, something that no radio station plays or can't be found on KZbin. My first cassette deck I was in love with was 3header Nak LX-5, the problem was that when the new IEC tape standard came in 1981-82 (more like 135usec) older decks like the LX-5 used different equalization and tapes played on newer machines didn't always sound right. I think Nakamichi is the only company that issued papers regarding modifications to some of their decks like CR series to fit the new EQ playback standard.

[@UrOpinionsSucc]

Hey Mr. Cassette, do you happen to know why recordings seem to sound very sloppy and keeps going into one channel into another like it's 8D audio? I have a Sanyo RD W389, the belts seem fine because it plays pre recorded tapes just fine but the recordings sound very sloppy and distorted.