greenhorn
Well-Known Member
I got hands on this sony TC FX 170
On the face of it, apart from the piano key transport, it seemed like a decent deck. Manual Bias calibration, dolby C, DC Servo motor
All fancy features on the case.
Should have figured it was all fake when I saw that the whole circuit was AC coupled instead of Direct, as the text outside claimed
I opened it up, and was
Where is all the circuitry? Apparently everything was on the display board.
The problem was with the transport, which turned out to be more or less permanent. The take up reel friction drive had jammed up, which had in turn caused the drive gears to grind, and eventually the gears had just worn out. But what surprised me was the gears themselves. they were so puny, Compare them (the ones in the packet) to the gears of a late 70's deck (technics RS m6) (background). those gears could tear the skin off your fingers if they wanted to!
And finally the Motor and the flywheel. Just another run of the mill mabuchi DC CCW motor, hooked up via a puny square belt to a tiny plastic flywheel which had a small metal disc glued to it!
see for reference the flywheel of another late '70's deck (sansui d-95M) next to it. the wow and flutter in this deck was PATHETIC!
This just a small part of the massive compromises which appear to have been involved in the making of this deck. I'm not even sure why sony appeared to bother making such a pathetic component.
For those of you thinking about buying a new deck instead of an old one, thinking, how bad could it be, well, now you know! the parts I've shown for reference are not from high end vintage decks. both these were entry level decks in their day, and yet they were built to a standard that newer decks could not even aspire to!
On the face of it, apart from the piano key transport, it seemed like a decent deck. Manual Bias calibration, dolby C, DC Servo motor
All fancy features on the case.
Should have figured it was all fake when I saw that the whole circuit was AC coupled instead of Direct, as the text outside claimed
I opened it up, and was
Where is all the circuitry? Apparently everything was on the display board.
The problem was with the transport, which turned out to be more or less permanent. The take up reel friction drive had jammed up, which had in turn caused the drive gears to grind, and eventually the gears had just worn out. But what surprised me was the gears themselves. they were so puny, Compare them (the ones in the packet) to the gears of a late 70's deck (technics RS m6) (background). those gears could tear the skin off your fingers if they wanted to!
And finally the Motor and the flywheel. Just another run of the mill mabuchi DC CCW motor, hooked up via a puny square belt to a tiny plastic flywheel which had a small metal disc glued to it!
see for reference the flywheel of another late '70's deck (sansui d-95M) next to it. the wow and flutter in this deck was PATHETIC!
This just a small part of the massive compromises which appear to have been involved in the making of this deck. I'm not even sure why sony appeared to bother making such a pathetic component.
For those of you thinking about buying a new deck instead of an old one, thinking, how bad could it be, well, now you know! the parts I've shown for reference are not from high end vintage decks. both these were entry level decks in their day, and yet they were built to a standard that newer decks could not even aspire to!
