Q) I'm looking for a Marantz CDR 600 or a Phillips CDR 101. Do you have one or know where I might find one of these old units??
A) In all honesty I would have to strongly advise against looking for one of these machines. They were notorious for high failure rate, and parts are difficult to find. Seldom is a cost effective service possible. Philips owns Marantz and sets the policy. The only reason why a Marantz is listed here is because we can make sure the laser specs OK, and some people just want the same item for replacement, regardless of my informed opinion....Read Full Article
Chinese mics (and their boutique relabeled versions) almost all suffer from the same problems. In fact, AKG, Neumann, and many other big name manufacturers do not design their own internal power supplies, shielding, grounding, and RFI protection well enough. Now with today's super sensitive mic elements with high gain circuitry, and more radio frequencies emanating from computers and cell phones, such shortcomings can appear more obvious – such signals can invade mics or preamp wiring, causing noise, hash sometimes confused as mic noise, and hiss – so our mods correct those shortcomings. Most Chinese mics, like the Apex 460, can be modified to have better, correct capacitors, welded chassis grounds, and multistage RFI filters to lower the noise floor and improve long term use....Read Full Article
Read Full ArticleQ) How does the ADA MP1 Classic model compare to the modded MP1's? Do you repair them? Is the ADA foot controller the way to go with these?
A) The Modified ADA are changed to sound less "metal" on too many programs and more control is available to enhance regular electric and acoustic guitar sounds, but it still can do the "buzz saw" metal sound no problem. The MP1 is a device which obviously intends to use the tubes to create the nice "crank". The "Classic" versions add some minor features...Read Full Article
I have a love/hate relationship with these Nakamichi models. These units unfortunately suffer in performance with age and use. They use a sophisticated and complicated power supply and computer chip, but the audio circuitry is very basic, standard Japanese design used in many better quality designs like Adcom, Rotel, JVC, Denon, and Yamaha. Some people are under the impression that it's a special class A design or STASIS circuitry....Read Full Article
Read Full ArticleOver the Holidays we have turned over quite a bit of inventory. We have many additional new and used items that have been/will be added in the upcoming weeks, along with new modifications and upgrades which will be listed in more detail as we catch up on the website here. Including extended repeater mod and new low price (see here). So keep and eye out, thanks for stopping by. Oh, and Happy New Year!!!...Read Full Article
Read Full ArticleQ) What do you think of the Nikko Beta 30 Preamp?
A) The truth is any reasonably well designed preamp, regardless of what op amps or circuitry is in it will sound OK or excellent or terrible depending upon the expectations of the consumer. This preamp as well as many other better designed Japanese preamps were remarkable if careful gain staging to keep the noise down and quality components, switches, capacitors, etc. were used, proper grounding techniques and if careful circuit path of foils were done, would make for excellent preamp which was neutral in sound character....Read Full Article
Q) I found a strange old pair of speakers at the dump one day about a year ago. Brought them home, dusted them off, spent about a month killing mildew... They are Walsh 2 speakers, with a Huge crossover in the depths of the cabinet, and a removable "Capsule" containing the drivers. They sounded pretty darn good at first but now the tweeters, buried deep inside the capsule, are beginning to sound fuzzy and the mids need to be re-edged. i think I can do the latter. I don't know that I can cope with the tweeters, though. Ohm is still around. they charge about $900 to fix these. That might be a decent deal. I have no idea -- do You? Ever worked with these? Given that I'm in Freeport Maine, You are in "Wattatown," and Ohm is in NYC, even the Shipping might be prohibitive... whereas I could drive these down to you. Is this something you'd tkae a look at?...Read Full Article
Read Full ArticleQ) In your opinion how would these speakers work as rears in a theater system?
A) These are OK. People want them because of style appeal. Infact the speaker is a common woofer tweeter combination hidden inside an unserviceable sealed metal basket. The units I had were the better peerless dome and better CTS woofer, so they should be reliable. Others had cheaper parts. Ohm products varied tremendously...Read Full Article
Q) I have a problem with a Technics SV-DA10. It plays well, but is unable to rewind (except when the pinchroller is engaged, like when using the jog/shuttle). Would you have an idea?
A) The problem may be:
1. The brake shoe for either geared tape hub is loose, falling appart and interfering with the tape hub. I have simply replaced these with a proper sized piece of very fine felt or soft cardboard glued on with a tiny bit of epoxy.
2. The friction clutch/gear (under the chassis where the gear to shift back and forth to the tape gear hubs) is worn and exerting no friction to pull the tape. I pull apart the clutch gear, flip the clutch pad over and stretch the tension spring...Read Full Article
Q) Would be so kind to tell me which machine is better for recording and listening tapes? Revox B77 or Teac A3440?
A) Yes, one of my favorite kinds of questions, but strangely, a tough one to answer. Here's the strange truth. Both decks at this age would need cleaning and calibration. If basic service is done, the Teac would win out mechanically, but not by much. Yet the Revox would be the better sonically, but not by much. There's the rub. The Teac can be put back into excellent consistent, mechanical and audio quality condition with little trouble. But… As good as the Revox is, it will suffer some critical age related problems which will interfere with it's potentially much better sonic performance...Read Full Article