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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Fool's Errand

Well, in the tape mood, I went and bought 2 decks for very little money on Ebay.  One only cost me $12.  Yes, yes- they are Sonys.  A TC-RX79ES and a TC-RX606ES.  Let's not talk about the Sony part.  Why so cheap?  Neither work right.  I have had them open, and their belts are junk and they could use super-cleaning and re-lube.  That might do the trick.  Getting the belts replaced will take more than a bit of dismantling however.  I don't think either of these machines live up to the ES standard the way they should, but they have very nice features such as auto bias calibration, headphone jacks with volume, motorized cassette doors (a note about that- as they are both  advertised as three-motor machines, i believe the third motor is for the door.  In 1996 Sony was already going down the wrong path).  Cleaned up, they are in excellent cosmetic condition.  The 79ES even came with manual and remote- therefore it is the first one I will try to get up and running.  Right now it plays but very, very slowly.  I will also try to locate the dial for motor speed while poking around.  I'll take pictures- its 50/50 that i destroy them both!  Any volunteered advice would be MOST welcome.

3 comments:

  1. One advice could be: Go for an Akai...Their GX-heads have indeed proven to be indestructable after all those years, and their mechanics are not that bad.

    Dagobert

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  2. Thanks! That must be why they retain their value so well- I don't see too many going for $12! The real trick is to find a deck at the local Goodwill. I haven't been down there in quite some time.

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  3. In the local Goodwill (as you call it, we call it different here in The Netherlands) I see mostly Technics or Pioneer decks. Either the Akai or Sony decks didn't survive, or people can make more money with them elsewhere...

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