I wouldn't change a single thing on this deck...you made that mod years and years ago. It gives it a story! Much more interesting that a run of the mill CTF500 off eBay.
True, it looks cool as it is unique, and brings back the memory of RAE electronics. One of many electronics shops that has gone away. Very few left. We used to have RAE, Heathkit, Ridd,RP, Main, Active Lee's. All that is left now is Lee's and RP and they are nothing like they used to be.
Hi. I replaced a couple of belts the other day on my CT-F500, but the eject piano key no longer opens the tape bay. It's still possible to open the tape bay by manually pushing the trigger with the cover off, but I'm a bit stumped on how to fix it. I heard something pop when I took off the bracket behind the capstan to get the big belt on, and I suspect either a spring came loose or I moved out of position some tab that the eject key pushes to open the bay. Any ideas on what might be the issue? Great video and many thanks!
If the smaller belt that spins the little plastic cam is worn how would you change that? My player stops after a couple seconds and it looks like the plastic cam wheel is turning. Thanks
Just happened to come across this video - Guess what I put on my bench for a belt change two days ago? Yup, the same Pioneer 500 deck! Your timing was unintentionally perfect!
Any recommendations on where to purchase good replacement belts? I used to work in a Bose shop that sourced belts from MCM Electronics. Maybe there is a better option.
Hi Dave ,great video and thanks for all of your tutorials. I actually have this deck but the motor rxm-055 is shot. Even after a rebuild it still runs fast then slow and everywhere in between. Question is what would you buy to replace it assuming you would replace it with a matching or matsushita etc. If I knew the specs ie;the rpm,cw,ccw and shaft diameter and length I could probably find a cheapo but I've worn google out and can't find a smidgen of info spec wise. If you know specs or what you would use as a replacement could you let me know? Kind Regards Randy Brown
i imagine the original belt would have been wider for a better grip. If you can remember, was the led bargraph made with two or three lm3915 log bargraphs or was it comparitors with a resistor ref string?. I have always liked analog meters, no stepping error.
I have the same deck looking mint all over.. It was repaired in 1990. I was about to trow it out.. It records to fast, and it does not seem to keep speed correctly at the end of 90 minutes tapes.. Also the auto stop does not work. The bulbs are OK. I don't replace them with LED I don't like the light it gives. I tend to hook hem also on AC. The led itself is diode :) Well this video was great learning how the deck works. I have ordered about 300 belts :) for 12 dollars in China.. Will try rubber cleaner and alcohol first, I have learned a lot of how to proceed. The deck is only needed for second holiday place on a 1970 amp, it would look great if I got it restored. Thank you very much!
That is so cool you have a cassette deck when you were a teenager and still working! You hold on to good equipment that is hard to find and was built like a tank! Oh and also made in the U.S.A,,,,,LOL
If you need a new belt , you have to cut it from a balloon with a pair of scissors. I did it , works perfectly . Not the easiest thing to do , i know but the result was remarkable on a Technics RS-B40 with a lot of flutter . Sometimes the plastic of the pulley becomes too smooth over the years and you need more grip , more grip than a normal belt has to offer ..
Howdy. I tried out an office 5mm rubber band. Did some pre-stretching around the whole perimeter of the band. Now enjoying the 1980 Tubular Bells album. Can't detect any warbly warbles. Attribute this to the flywheel. Anyway, works for me and replacement bands are free this way.
I have a couple of BIC T2 two speed cassette decks and I would like to get them going again but I believe the tires are shot on them. Is there any way to get new tires??? They were dynamite decks due to the high speed capability.
jp040759 Take tires off hub. Wind some dental floss around hub to make it slightly larger. Put tires back on. That should increase size and make them grip again.
good video! i changed the belt and like many others i couldnt get the eject to work. after some trial i got it to work BUT now my record button wont press, something is blocking the movement and for the life of me i cant figure it out! any help/suggestions???
здравствуйте… подскажите, пожалуйста, какие размеры всех пасиков и резиновых колёс?..я не могу найти эту информацию в интернете…если Вам известны данные, то напишите… спасибо
i got a set of belts of numerous sizes but looks like the widths are narrower than whats on the deck - do you think it matters to replace with a similar width? thanks
Stephen Hinkle I would say the meter is not calibrated. After all I built this when I was 16 and didn't have access to test equipment to calibrate the meters.
Excellent video Dave and thank you for the details on putting a belts back. I had my old CTF500 put away for over 20 years and the belts had melted. I was able to follow your video and get new ones on but now I can get the door to open and eject, any suggestions?
Did you ever find a solution to this? I just replaced my belts on this model and had the same thing happen, eject button won't work. It stops using the same button if it's playing, but it won't eject.
Hi everyone. Have the same deck but its main belt turned into ink.Tried out an office 5mm rubber band. Did some pre-stretching around the whole perimeter of the band. Now enjoying the 1980 Tubular Bells album. Can't detect any warbly warbles. Attribute this to the flywheel. Anyway, works for me and replacement bands are free this way. Damn, analogue sounds good after years of Cds and MP3s.
just came into possession of one that's been sitting for years and has the same problem, thank you so much for this comment!! Hopefully I can get it up and running quicker than I thought!
Additionally, if there was a market for $500 tape decks (around $1000-1500 in today's money) I'm sure Pioneer would be more than happy to produce them. It's the fault of the consumer -- he wants a deck for $20 if he wants one at all.
my pioneer ctf500 was just serviced n belts replaced.however when I rewind it goes fast for a few seconds n grinds to a halt.why.I noticed the flywheel belt is thinner in width than the original
Yes it is. this is because the ebay seller in china sent me something not as described. They sere described as 5mm wide and when they showed up they were 3.
I bought one brand new when I was in high school....early 80s.....so I could make and play tapes in my car...i used the FeCr tapes exclusively as they really sounded better in my car.....those tapes were phased out in favor of Cr tapes to my dismay
I got a pioneer ct-f651 it had no line fuse from the factory so i put one in i put a video of me puting it in and i found somthing that cleans belts that turn to tar very east i put that on my youtube hop you find it helpful to you you can watch hem on my youtube
I wish Cassette Decks would make a come back but designed in such a way that replacing belts would be easier. BTW, although I love Fuji Tapes this Fuji DR-I is not a very good sounding tape.
They came from eBay. Were supposed to be 4mm wide but they are more Iike 2mm. I am going to drag it out again and put in one of the Amazon belts and see how that sounds.
@@aelyssaaranas9299 i bought this one back in the 80s from a friend that bought a nakamichi. It didn't last nor did he. Fell off his boat. Dumb ass didn't have on a life jacket. Big mistake.
@@12voltvids I think it's the original belt and it looks ok. i looked through some of the belts i have but i did not have anything like it. i noticed that my belt does not stay in the center of the flywheel like yours does is there any way to adjust it maybe. i could buy a new one but i know it's not going to be cheap
If you connect a LED to AC you really should put a reverse diode in parallel. They really do not like reverse current and are going to die long term. I have done the same and the LEDs only lasted a few years.
It does but that is all i have on hand. Since this is my tape deck and it is not going back into service i didn't care. It was for demonstration only. I ordered a bunch of assorted belts on eBay. It said assortment of 5mm and 3mm belts. Out of a pack of 50 belts there was 1 5mm belts and 49 3mm. The seller knows they are not coming back nor can i claim not as described because the ad did not specify that there was only 1 5mm belt. Live and learn. When you buy from flea Bay you get burned more often than not. This video was about the procedure on how to do it. I could have wrapped string around the pulley to show and you would have learned something. My channel is to show what you need to do. Even when a repair is not completed you still learn the troubleshooting to get to that state.
Wow, you really saved my butt! I thought my motor was toast until you explained that bit about the motor switch! I was about to do sone stupid things to that motor...
@@12voltvids I have a single cassette deck, ivc kd75, 1977. It comes on, but it cassette deck doesn't work at all. I did follow your video to check, the belts seem to be fine, even the motors spins , so I don't want to disassemble the motor unless no power is going to it. Any suggestions please?
The track I used for the record test with the distorted electric guitar is called "Coming of age" and it is a royalty free track from Musicbakery.com. You can get it, and every other piece of music I use on all my videos from there. I use their content exclusively because my old production company purchased a big library. My old business associate went overboard and bough a dozen of their CDs. He passed away several years ago so I shut down the company and kept the assets, cameras editing gear, and this great library of music.
Don't really like these models, maybe because I was teenager in the 80's. Good mechanics etc, but it did not really gave you the same feeling as those Technics decks in the early 80's with those nice buttons and vu-meters, dolby-c, dbx ... back in storage this one goes.
RX-FW25 PANASONIC..git yourself in there and watch your inner real estate shrink like two foot ball fields shrunk into a thimble, yep decks look like battle ships compaire'd to boom box'es.
Hey man, i noticed that w&f is way to high on the deck, and actually it is a very low w&f deck, it has a 0.05 rating according to hifiengine. It is definitely the belt, it is too tight, and too thin, it should be a little thicker
Yup I suspect this. When I ordered a pack of "flat" belt I was expecting standard belts, and every one of them is a 3mm when normal belts are 5mm wide. Chinese crap.
santi0797 Yes I am aware. I bought a bunch of belts on Ebay. Ordered 5mm belts. Received 3mm belts. This deck is not going back into service. It was a demo on how to change the belt. Belt kit was cheap, not worth sending back to China land.
Isn't it possible to have stuff 3D-printed in any material you wish? Akbkuku did just that for one of his devices that needed a belt of it's own, just like this one needs.
Well, using a too thin belt of those flat types DOES cause a wow & flutter problem because it constantly change position on the motor wheel. My recommendation is to buy a complete set on ebay (or any other stereo restoration company) that is speciflicy made for your tape model with the right types of belts for best result, than using parts for anything else. Those belt sets are pretty inexpensive so it is worth the money than wasting time to solve the problem on other ways, (unless you won't throw it out to the trashes).
If I was actually going to use this for anything but a prop, to demonstrate the procedure I probably would spend the 50 to get a belt set. Yes you heard correctly, 50.00. That is the minimum it costs to get pretty much anything shipped to canada from any seller on ebay. Even when I had stuff sent to the states to my post box. I have to pay them 5.00 to receive the package. So if I am fixing a tape deck for a client and I have to order the correct belts, it is weeks to get the part, plus the cost of the part and labour drives the cost beyond what they are willing to pay. The decks I replace belts on are generally units that I have been given. I am never going to use them, I haven't used cassettes since the 80s. They are repaired only to produce a video to teach how it is done. I don't care how bad they sound because I will never use them, and I don't care about that when I sell it on Craig's list for 10.00 bucks. As long as it plays. And 10 bucks is about all I can get because they sell for that at the second hand store. Very few decks are worth money. People live in a dream world that this junk has value.
According to what I've seen, the set is for around 20 usd (w/o shipping) from Italy, and below 30 usd with shipping within europe. Then if you didn't know, the cassette tape is on its way back with a few recently released albums to buy ON TAPE! 😄 So some worth it must have. If you look for a Marantz 5220, you'll see. The quality of sound will never be like a studio reel-to-reel recorder, but is closer with better tapes like the chromium types and Dolby-S noise reduction enabled which people has rarly used. Therefore the good sound of tapes is unknown to many, and not necessary to explore since the release of Spotify. Also crackling vinyls has bin a trend again. By the way, greate work with the video! Wasn't looking for this at first, but viewed it as I found it a bit interesting.😊
@@draxoronxztgs1212 I will never buy anything on tape or vinyl. CD for me or nothing. Analog sounds like crap. Vinyl only sounds better than a highly compressed mp3. A proper uncompressed digital file or a cd played on something better than a 30.00 cd player will destroy anything on any analog format including open reel tape which still is limited to around 60db s/n. Sorry try to convince me all you want, I know what sounds good. I hand sampled everything from cassette to 15ips reel to reel and compared it to a good cd player playing a properly recorded session. Grp release mountain dance by Dave grusen is a prime example. Recorded and mixed live in the studio directly to 2 channel digital tape. About as good as it gets. The crack of the snare drum and the slap of the bass, you are there in the studio with the musicians.
@@12voltvids Well, the majority on CD's I know is on 16-bit compressed audio already, and alot of CD-players only have that resolution with a few bits more or less that is added by the player and not from the disc. There are some that claims to be 32-bit but those are costy af. A vinyl does'nt have a limit on details since the analog audio are recorded directly on the platter without any modifications to the audio (was in the past atleast). Therefore it has bin proven that records have a better sound quality if handled and stored properly throughout its all lifetime, and not played with a bad phonograph with stylus weight beyond 5 grams like on those piezo types that was used before the 70's and later cheap plastic phonographs that is still made today (like the crossley crap they sell). With a good calibrated phonograph with a high quality stylus of a MC or the best MM types, a good pre-amp and amplifier and the right tools to clean the record properly with so that all the dust between the grooves are gone and then remove all static with an antistatgun, it can sound like the whole orchesta was in your livingroom without any crackle. That's why vinyls are much collected by audiophiles, and a good phonograph and amplifier can set you back with a 10000$ tag, if not more.
@@draxoronxztgs1212 Bs. Audiophool snake oil. Vinyl is analog and has the limits if physics. There is the drag of the needle in the groove that heats the needle up. This in turn causes minute changes in the groove wall on every play. That's right, every play causes a minute change in the sound for the next play. There is also a frequency response that resembles a roller coaster, which is which the riaa equalization curve was created to compensate for the severe limitations to make the playback listenable. CD uses 16 bit recording, sampled at 44.1 Khz. This provides flat response from 10hz-20khz frequency response with 90+ db dynamic range, 90 db channel separation. Good cd players used dual dac and good filtering to cut off frequencies above 20khz so the sampling noise from the 44.1khz sampling and its sub harmonics down to 22.05khz will not be present in output. Cheap players omitted this costly part and even though th iij a noise was well above the hearing frequency it could cause beating with record bias oscillator on tape decks making the copy muddy. But a good CD player will always sound better than any vinyl providing the mastering engineer did his job. Check out mountain dance by dave grusin on cd and then tell me the vinyl if this sounds better. Fyi, this record done in 1979 was a direct to disk live recording that was simultaneously recorded on the sound stream 2 channel digital system. It was one of the very first full digital sessions and ranks as one of the very best recordings ever made.
Obsolete technology. A lot of background noise. Bad sound quality. And they are not sold. If I want to buy a cassette deck there are no for sale or they are very bad.Best Fiio X-3,X-5....
This was one of the first cassette decks I owed. Bought it from a friend that upgraded when I was 16. Used it for a few years. As you can see it had tape 2 labeled on it. It went into my mixer along with 2 turntables. I had a much better deck for recording mixed tapes that were actually mixed. I used this for mixing in stuff I had recorded off radio onto cassette. It got the job done.
