Refurbishment of vintage Hi-Fi

[drrdf]

I attempted to post this item in Hardware, but evidently am not allowed to do so under the forum protocol.

I have just completed a complete refurbishment of my vintage H-Fi units. They are now mostly around 40 years old and had begun to exhibit some problems as might be expected. I have disposed of my two reel-to-reel recorders. I have refurbished my two ITT/Schaub-Lorenz 8025 cassette recorders. Obviously new drive belts were needed and general maintenance including head demag, head azimuth adjustment, general lubrication and other problems. The main difficulty now when doing this is obtaining spare parts. It is necessary to identify available equivalents because of course no original parts are any longer available.

I thought it worth mentioning that in these 8025 cassette recorders they had lost sound output on playback but were still recording. I was deceived because both playback channels had failed, and I naturally suspected thus that it was something common to both channels. I wasted a lot of time investigating the first one. I eventually discovered that the problem was not due to something common to both channels at all; but it was that both of the Dolby ICs in the playback channels had failed at the same time. Most unlikely, but a fact. The IC is a LM1011; fortunately these are still available on ebay and elsewhere. These cassette recorders are now 40 years old so I suppose it is not surprising that they should fail, but both at the same time - strange. So for anyone who may come up against this problem either in the playback or record channels, suspect these ICs.

Then there is another seemingly insuperable problem. After 40 years it seems the fluorescent peak display indicators begin to lose one or two segments illuminating. These of course are not available any longer. So it seems the only option is to modify the peak display indicators to work with currently-available multi-coloured led type peak display indicators, which in a sense may be an improvement.

When I have done this I shall probably sell at least one of these as they are very rare and high-performance machines with dual closed loop dual capstan drive and three heads. I do not really do any real-time recording any longer so do not need a cassette recorder now.

[Made in 1968]

Vintage gear can be a nightmare. I can't stress enough to people they must perform a full in depth service when they buy them, much easier to keep them tip top than problems occur in the long run leaving you with major headache. Cos they will go on forever if you do keep on top of them.

As for your ITT Cassette Deck, i don't know it but i used a '8020' for awhile.. Ive just finishing restoring a mid 70's CEC made JVC turntable that needed quite a bit of Work on it.

Auto switch off switch inside was Knackered..
Had to fit a cap across the switch to stop the contacts clicking when switching
New Belt. Replaced the Platter with a Pioneer 'PL12D' platter which are better quality
Rewired the Arm, New arm interconnect, New head shell Tags.
New Plinth with IEC inlet that the original did not have
Removed the suspension springs from the top plate & fitted Rubber isolators instead, those springs are useless & cause problems never mind levelling the deck
Serviced the motor, New Rubber motor mounts. New driver cap
General de-grease re-grease of all mechanical parts, Bearing service

That is about it. Will last forever now.

[RobbieGong]

Vintage gear can be a nightmare. I can't stress enough to people they must perform a full in depth service when they buy them, much easier to keep them tip top than problems occur in the long run leaving you with major headache. Cos they will go on forever if you do keep on top of them.

As for your ITT Cassette Deck, i don't know it but i used a '8020' for awhile.. Ive just finishing restoring a mid 70's CEC made JVC turntable that needed quite a bit of Work on it.

Auto switch off switch inside was Knackered..
Had to fit a cap across the switch to stop the contacts clicking when switching
New Belt. Replaced the Platter with a Pioneer 'PL12D' platter which are better quality
Rewired the Arm, New arm interconnect, New head shell Tags.
New Plinth with IEC inlet that the original did not have
Removed the suspension springs from the top plate & fitted Rubber isolators instead, those springs are useless & cause problems never mind levelling the deck
Serviced the motor, New Rubber motor mounts. New driver cap
General de-grease re-grease of all mechanical parts, Bearing service

That is about it. Will last forever now.

True - I'm a known massive fan and advocate of vintage gear because some of it is superb in my experience, even special, in some cases the likes of which wont be seen or made with as much attention to build and detail again.

BUT, as you've pointed out Andre, you are taking a risk if you don't know or have access to a competent tech, or are at least skilled and knowledgeable enough, in that regard, to know what to do your self - service etc.

Benefit is obviously, reliability, (you dont want a large 'exotic' doorstop), you'll hear it as it should be and experience what makes said vintage item so special and regarded, as well as have that sonic pleasure and joy of ownership, for a long time

[Made in 1968]

The most annoying habit people seem to have is buying really old stuff just plugging it in & then taking great pleasure in telling the world it sounds shit Yes ofc it does. Not only does vintage now cost quite a bit you must budget at least 2/3rd again for servicing, if you are competent that is fine but a service aint a quick lick of Grease & oil . So the moral of the story is vintage is not the cheap way to buy Hi-Fi as a lot think. Fully fettled & i mean fully fettled gear can easily wipe the floor with a lot of modern gear regardless of the price. I think a lot are beginning to realise this & probably a contributing factor to High used prices.

[RobbieGong]

The most annoying habit people seem to have is buying really old stuff just plugging it in & then taking great pleasure in telling the world it sounds shit Yes ofc it does. Not only does vintage now cost quite a bit you must budget at least 2/3rd again for servicing, if you are competent that is fine but a service aint a quick lick of Grease & oil . So the moral of the story is vintage is not the cheap way to buy Hi-Fi as a lot think. Fully fettled & i mean fully fettled gear can easily wipe the floor with a lot of modern gear regardless of the price. I think a lot are beginning to realise this & probably a contributing factor to High used prices.

Yep, particularly bit in bold - A bit like when someone buys a really good cart, bolts it on and says it's &hi7!. Not taken the time to set it up properly or read as much as pos about it, customer/user reviews etc, where there may be a common theme that it likes x or y or a negative rake or whatever. No, 'it's &hi7! - You're right and the abundance of untold positive reviews, from untold quaters and untold long time audiophiles are wrong!

[drrdf]

Yes I agree with all that is observed here. It needs a competent experienced Electronic Engineer to sort out vintage stuff, particularly because spare parts are usually no longer available and appropriate substitutes must thus be found, selected and obtained. That is why if you do buy anything vintage you should select an example which has already been properly and fully sorted and serviced by such a competent Engineer, if you do not have the skills necessary. It will usually cost you more initially, than one which needs attention, but in toto will cost you less. Vintage repairers are charging some £60 per hour for repairs to this stuff, and it can easily cost you up to £1000 for them to fully restore vintage items like cassette recorders.

[drrdf]

My complete message was deleted by this forum. I was offering to supply a circuit which I have designed to anyone who had similar problems to me with 8025 fluorescent displays; but I cannot now be bothered to type it all out again.

[Barry]

My complete message was deleted by this forum. I was offering to supply a circuit which I have designed to anyone who had similar problems to me with 8025 fluorescent displays; but I cannot now be bothered to type it all out again.

Did you tick the 'remember me' box before logging in?

[Pharos]

Various forums work differently, with their own foibles.

I usually copy before posting because often my posts take a long time to write, and if I lose them I can paste.

[Barry]

Various forums work differently, with their own foibles.

I usually copy before posting because often my posts take a long time to write, and if I lose them I can paste.

Good advice Dennis.

I sympathise with Ronald, as I too lost a lengthy post I had written to the Forum, shortly after I joined. I was advised by Admin, that one should always tick the 'Remember me' box at the top of the page just before you tick the 'log in' box.

If you don't do that you will still be able to read posts and surf the Forum, but your ability to reply or start a new thread will have timed-out.