https://fixyouraudio.com/ - Ive bought belts off these guys.
https://www.ebay.ie/str/wsp - Ive bought belts off this guy too really helpful man.
https://speakerrepairshop.nl/index.php?action=home&lang=EN#.XAwtHnWeSV4 - Ivew used these guys for speaker repair.
I love that the Amulets video made an appearance in this thread. I’ve honestly lost count of the number of people I’ve directed towards that YouTube clip!
Fun fact: Amulets got his inspiration from Alessandro Cortini when he saw this video from Sonic State: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMXEvNUjgCg (look at the top comment on that video for more info)
Ah, that’s amazing - I love Alessandro! The video where Nick B visits his studio is incredible. Such an inspiring guy
Has anyone ever owned or used a Teac A-6300 reel to reel? About to buy one tomorrow and starting to have second thoughts. It’s apparently fully serviced and looks very clean. $450. Thoughts?
I got it and so far it’s pretty amazing! The quality is better than I was expecting. I almost want to master my tracks with it.
I have one question for you though. When you play your tapes in reverse are you hearing full volume sound? I expected this to be the case but I can hardly hear anything when I play in reverse. Same for fast reverse. It’s not a necessity for me but when I say that reverse button I thought it would be a great option to have.
I just picked up a tascam portaone ministudio! excited to mess around with it. I also need to find tapes to use with it, is ebay my only bet?
https://www.duplication.ca/ is a source for new cassettes of various types (and some lines folks have had releases produced by them, too).
Did anyone tried to modify Tascam 414 to play at normal speed? I love this machine but even better if it can plays normal cassette albums.
I’ve modified a Fostex XR-5 to play at normal speed, and I’d suspect it’s a similar concept for controlling the motor speed: https://medium.com/@iainx/circuit-bending-a-fostex-4-track-698d9ba04794
Basically, I’d look for 2 resistors connected to the A and B terminals on the motor and short them out, see what happens
https://tapeline.info/v2/ british eccentric tape company. I’ve ordered blank media with no problems + very fast shipping, have heard mixed good + bad things about duplication tho never used them for that myself
good for weird NOS finds and some crazy cheap deals… i still have 100s of C15 computer data tapes i bought on a whim years back 
What are people using these days to listen to cassettes on? I have a couple old portable cassette recorders that I use for recording but I’m thinking they could damage/wear out faster new releases because they are older?
I’ve had a Technics twin unit for about 25 years now. Sounds as good as it did when I first took it out of the box… or, if it doesn’t, my ears have degraded at the same rate as the tape deck
I’m no expert, but from what I’ve heard age has little bearing on quality when it comes to cassette players. The belts wear away over time but are easy to replace most of the time.
umm, are you referring to equipment you’ve heard, or to people’s opinions? From what i’ve seen inside various tape decks I’ve wrecked over the years (and some i’ve repaired), many components, mostly analogue and mechanical ones, have life spans - for instance electrolytic capacitors degrade, laminated magnetic cores on transformers loosen, tape heads wear out, graphite pots become noisy, etc.
Some internal photos from a fix over the weekend.
I bought a Porta 02 that I was going to give as a gift, but realized the drive belt was having issues as well as no audio was coming from the tape when it was playing. I eventually learned that the 10v capacitors were most likely blown out as it takes a 12v power supply and plugging in an incorrect power supply would fry them (planned obsolescence?). I replaced them with 16v caps and cleaned the belts, now everything works like a charm.
People’s opinions. When I said “I’m no expert” what I really meant was “I don’t know the first thing”. I fixed up an old higher end Aiwa walkman once just by reading about how to online and sure enough the only thing that was wrong was that the belts had melted away to goo, but perhaps it’s more complicated than I realise.
I do not own one any longer, and unfortunately do not remember that.A friend of mine purchased it from me and I will reach out and ask him
Help! I’ve tried to make a few tape loops and I’ve even bought a 60 second endless tape off ebay, but no matter what I try I always have a split second “gap” of audio where the two ends of the tape are spliced together (even the professionally manufactured tape I purchased has 2(!) audio gaps that I can count.)
I messaged Amulets on IG to see if he had any tips or advice but never heard back, so I’m curious if any of you have the same issue, and if so how did you remove the slight gap? Any thoughts on how to get a truly endless tape sound without the gap in the audio?
Thanks for the help!
