Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Yeah that’s pretty much how I imagined it as I considered whether I should put it out in the garden while it’s pissing down.

I was thinking about a tape cassette player for my eldest and my folks have this old Sanyo Slim 5(?). With the issues outlined by my dad below.

What's my best approach with this? Anyone know any good resources for information or spares?

... the heads turn but do not feed so build up around the left hand head last photo.... The sound grumbled out but stopped because of the winding mechanism. Perhaps could be serviced. The electric motor and keys work, I blew out dust & wiped the outside. So problem is heads & playing.

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Christmas in Aberdeen this year?

Is Sanyo Scottish slang for something?

Watch some Techmoan videos of him fixing tape mechanisms, that should give you an idea. Can’t see it’s worth paying someone to mend it.

Found this. Will hunt down Techmoan. https://youtu.be/onFTs_Dt2ac?si=-H-2vM1OVST7cROk

Agreed on not paying someone.

Those rubber wheels are called capstans and they pull the tape along. They can dry out or wear out and you have a choice of replacing them or cleaning with a special compound.

The heads don't turn - they just push onto the running tape and read. Grab a cotton swab and clean the heads with isopropyl alcohol. I normally clean heads every few days (if playing cassettes).

Cheers. I'll give that a go to start.

I even had a dream that I found a tape to use.

I'm hoping my folks bring a tape, as the only tape I have is an ancient hop mix tape with sentimental value that has been cut and taped back together and transplanted into a screw together case. I still haven't noted down the tracks and build a Spotify Playlist from it due to the lack of a player.

I guess now with shazam what would have once been a faff is actually ridiculously easy.

Also @hugo7 for this extensive video
https://youtu.be/4ylOWFczexc

If you’re after tapes, I have around a hundred or so. Almost certainly filled with some Irish folk recorded off RTÉ by my dad about 20 years ago. Happy to send a couple your way for few quid to cover postage.

I’ve also restored similar analogue devices, VCRs and reel-to-reel, so not quite as fiddly as cassette but I might be able to answer questions if you do open it up to fix.

Shazam is good, but useless if the DJ touched the pitch.

Cheers. I should probably double check if I've got another.

At this stage they would be sacrificial.

LOL, got the terms wrong - pinch rollers are the rubber wheels :-)
When I was young - the cassette hiss always annoyed me - I can hardly hear it now...

Am I right in thinking that the hiss is added in the recording, then filtered out by Dolby B?

Am I right

No.

The hiss which Dolby noise reduction mitigates is natural noise inherent in the physical recording medium, due to the heterogeneous nature of the magnetic domains. Dolby compresses the input to move low amplitude signals further above this noise floor, then expands the output to reverse the effect.

The high frequency signal deliberately added to make tape recording work with any kind of acceptable dynamic range is bias. It can be removed from the output with a simple low pass filter, but as it's both inaudible and beyond the reproduction range of most speakers, it doesn't have to be.

Anyone got any recommendations for a passive monitor controller sub £200? My Behringer studio m is an absolute pos.

well, if recorded with dolby, yes

the hiss that dolby adds can be easily heard. record without dolby, with dolby b and with dolby c and play without dolby - you'll hear the particular hiss associated with dolby

A pair of these have come up on my local forum for £200 - look good condition, but aware they’re potentially ~10 years old;
https://www.qacoustics.co.uk/products/q-acoustics-3050-floorstanding-speakers
Would be for my living room, which is essentially a concrete box, with a Cambridge AXR100 amp. Reviews from the time are all to glowing, and seem to go for £300 on eBay. Having a sense check on here; Anyone got experience of them, worth it?

How big is the room? If it’s small and square they might be a bit boomy, they are easy to drive though.

20sqm with open split-level stairwell, fair bit of textiles around the room. …definitely not a cranked-up basshead (although there is one on the block) just looking for a budget upgrade. Think I’ll give ‘em a go.

£200 seems a decent price - likely that you'll be able to move them on if they don't suit for whatever reason.

edit - 10 years old is more or less new in my view of speakers.

play without dolby

If you play back Dolby recordings without Dolby, you'll be listening to a compressed version. Any hiss hasn't been "added" by Dolby, it's noise in the original source which has been increased in amplitude along with any low amplitude signal in the same frequency bands.

Keen to hear a review if you get them, 3050i on my shortlist.

I had some Q Acoustic Concept 20’s a while back, they were great. Only got rid as I wanted something less modern looking when I moved to different house.

Anybody want a broken one of these . Was quoted £100 to fix but in truth do not need all the fancy ness. Original issue was would not boot up , something about a power supply issue and then the cd stopped working . Free to collect in se20 , or better still swap for an old cd player as having one of those would be handy.

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