1994 RCA CD/cassette bookshelf stereo system repair

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on the bookshelf tonight is this neat little  RCA stereo system featuring a CD player a   radio tuner an amplifier and a cassette deck I  got it for $9.99 at the thrift store it did not   come with the original speakers but I happen  to have these RCA speakers which are a perfect   match for it and are probably a lot better than  what it originally came with because these are   rated at 40 watts per channel and this thing is  definitely not putting out that kind of power "maybe you can't travel all around the world but   on new sounds we do the next best  thing bringing you music from near and far there's a whole world of music out there  and new sounds explores it every night   I'm John Schaefer join me tonight  at 11 on 93.9 FM or at wnyc.org" that's obviously the FM radio  tuner it has a red FM stereo   indicator and if I put it in mono mode it goes out so the FM tuner works fine now let's try AM it sounds pretty good on AM too  now let's try a cassette tape nice soft eject it   has a space boost feature let me try that out seems like it boosts both the treble and the bass now let me try a CD it lights up CD in the little  display there it's only two   digits so it doesn't display time  it only displays the track number the drawer does open i'll put in my disc oh it's not closing all the way  so maybe it needs a new belt   I can hear a motor running so it's probably  slipping on that belt that opens and closes   the drawer typical problem with older CD  players so that's going to need repair the CD player is very basic but it does  have shuffle and repeat features it   has a typical analog tuning dial for AM and  FM function selector for CD tape and tuner   band selector for AM FM and FM stereo a bass  boost feature volume tuning power switch for   power indicator LED and down here is the headphone  jack and the single cassette deck which advertises   automatic recording level control auto stop and  cushion eject yes it does have a nice soft eject it has your standard mechanical piano key controls   it definitely could use a cleaning in there I  noticed it has a permanent magnet erase head   so that's a little bit of a letdown but it does  have full auto stop including in fast forward   and then rewind but I noticed the auto stop  on rewind works when there's no tape in there   but when you do put a tape in there and try to  rewind it it does not auto stop so that could   be a sign that the belts are getting weak and  when it reaches the end it just slipping on the   pulley so it looks like this stereo system could  be fully working if I just replace a couple belts the door is removable to give you  better access to clean the heads although now that I see it there's almost no point  to removing it because it doesn't really give you   that much better access it does open up some room  to adjust the azimuth of the head if you need to the cabinet is all plastic which is a bit cheap on the back we have spring terminals for the  speakers which is a little bit unexpected for   such a low end stereo system plus it's made by  RCA so you would think it would have RCA speaker   jacks but there are no RCA jacks anywhere on this  because it does not have an aux input which is   one let down of this system although there are  ways around that which I'll demonstrate later it also has a permanently attached FM antenna it's  difficult to read this text that's embossed into   the plastic but it's rated for 8 ohm speakers  it was manufactured in December 1994 and it's   the RCA model RP-8520A which I can't really  find any information about except that for   some reason QVC still has it listed on their web  site although obviously it's no longer available it's a bit overkill but this is the only  screwdriver I have that's long enough to   reach those deeply recessed screws  that are holding this thing together there it is cracked open and one of the first  things I noticed is that instead of using a   tuning dial string the radio tuner is run  by these plastic gears and the tuning dial   indicator is driven by this long piece  of plastic which has gear teeth on it   and the whole thing is slathered in grease   so I guess it works but it just looks kind of  cheap and sooner or later all this grease is   going to get sticky and need to be cleaned out and  replaced but at least for now it's still working and there you can see the built-in ferrite  bar loopstick antenna for AM and the FM wire   antenna attaches here otherwise nothing  too special of the radio tuner circuitry here's the cassette tape mechanism and as you can  see from the sticker with their logo on it it's a   genuine tanashin mechanism it has a metal flywheel  and it has a genuine mabuchi motor so this thing   could have pretty decent quality at least compared  to the cheap knockoffs they're making these days there is the recording circuitry for the cassette  deck and that's the AC bias oscillator coil so   even though it has a permanent magnet erase head  it does have AC bias recording and this belt   definitely looks a bit loose here's what happens  when I rewind the tape and it reaches the end   you can see it's slipping so  it definitely needs a new belt here's the belt which opens  and closes the CD drawer and   it's definitely slipping as well  because that motor is still running   see I just stalled it so that belt needs to  be replaced the question is how do I get to   it I think this thing should unclip yeah that  side unclipped and what about the other side aha I think I managed to pop the whole thing off   they put the belt under a protective clear plastic  window question is can I pop that off as well now the question is do I have access to replace  that belt because it has to go on top of this gear   I think there's latches you can release to  totally remove the door so let me try that okay the door is off the tray I should say but does that improve anything in terms of  replacing that belt this thing is in the way   ah well that helps but we still don't quite  have access to that belt but I think I should   be able to just pry up this gear enough to  slip the belt underneath it but there's still   this how this post here is going to get in the  way of that okay I managed to pop off that gear so now question is do I have enough  wiggle room to get this thing out of here   yep and there's the belt now good luck getting  that all back together when I put the new belt on   okay well some prying I was able to get that  gear back on with a new belt attached to it I   didn't get it on camera because my fingers would  have just been in the way the whole time anyway   now I just need to hook it on the motor pulley and hopefully that's all going to work I'm not  going to bother reinstalling this   clear plastic thing I don't see the point of it I managed to reinstall the tray you  can't forget to put this thing back on now the moment of truth will this thing play a CD   I don't have any speakers hooked up  at the moment but I can at least see if it tries to work so close the drawer it's spinning up now it says track one track two how many tracks are on this CD there are  12 tracks track three four five six seven eight seems to be working and that's returning to track one and that's stop and that's eject so I believe I fixed  the CD player now we can finally listen   to this thing play a CD and I'll give you a  direct hookup sample of what that sounds like thankfully replacing the belts on  the cassette mechanism is going to   be a lot more straightforward you  just have to remove this one screw   holding the motor in place and then  you'll have easy access to the belts   the new belts are installed and now the  auto stop works properly when rewinding the wow & flutter is pretty much what I expected  around 0.12 to 0.13 percent WRMS and hovering   around 0.2 percent peak and the speed is close  enough to correct I wouldn't bother adjusting it  

it's around 3011 to 3012. it's supposed  to be 3000 so that's within about half a   percent that's close enough to the correct  speed you wouldn't notice any difference now I'm ready to put this thing back  together there are plastic guides in   the case to help you align the circuit  board with where it's supposed to go now it's properly aligned and now it fits together I just gotta screw it  back together with that extra long screwdriver   it's now all back together and sounding great "it's important to inhale through your mouth   to make sure that enough oxygen  reaches your hard-working muscles" "...took her tape recorder from  that hospital and traveled all   over the world recording parents as they  talked to their very little babies and it   didn't matter whether the parents spoke  a romance language or a tone language   everywhere she went below the words she  heard consistently the same melodies" "oh yeah I'll tell you something I think  you'll understand for the sake of sanitation   you better wash your hands you better wash  your hands you better wash your hands" I was really impressed with this thing's quality  when recording from CD to cassette the automatic   level control seems to do a very good job and even  with that permanent magnet erase head it doesn't   have too much background hiss so I'll give you  a direct hookup sample of what that sounds like "The Great Gatsby is the brilliant and  strongly symbolic work of F Scott Fitzgerald   in this great work of art F eloquently  depicts the opulent lifestyle of upper   class America during the Roaring Twenties how  great is the Great Gatsby judge for yourself" "Daisy and her husband Tom who are both very  rich and invite Daisy's cousin Nick who's not   so rich over to East Egg and everyone has a  drink the next day Tom is tired of counting   his money so Tom and Nick drive to George's  garage to pick up George's wife Myrtle who   was also Tom's mistress so they can all go  to New York for a party but Tom gets into a   fight with Myrtle Myrtle steps out of line  Tom breaks her nose everybody has a drink   then Gatsby the racketeering romantic with  a sensational smile who is amassed amazing   amounts of cash in the hopes of winning  back his darling Daisy says old sport let's   have some drinks at my place next Nick arranges a  meeting between Daisy and Gatsby Daisy arrives in   a white car she wears a white dress she sees all  the white flowers she sees gets me who's wearing   white she's overcome she says what my favorite  color let's have a drink before you know what days   in Gatsby spending many lazy hungover afternoons  together next it's time for another mindless   dinner party everyone is Rich everyone is bored  so they drive to New York time drives Gatsby's   car Gatsby drives time car time goes a bottle  of whiskey and they go to The Plaza Hotel they   have some drinks guess because everyone will  support the whole gang gets splits on the way home   Daisy drives Gatsby's guard Daisy does 100 and  runs over Myrtle George one tree fence so George   gets out his gun he walks around all night looking  for the car that mashed Myrtle George walks back   to West State finds the card gets these big white  house walks up the big white stairs sees Gatsby   in the big white pool and he pulls the trigger  and that's the very last for Mr. Jay Gatsby" I promise to show you how you can add an aux  input to this stereo system and here it is a   car cassette adapter you may have a little bit  of trouble sneaking the cable out of the door   but otherwise there's no reason why you can't  use this with any other kind of cassette player   you just put it in the cassette player hit  play and then you're ready to connect it   to any line level audio source such  as the pre-amp output of a turntable the disadvantage of using one of these is  that it's using your cassette deck so if   you want to record your vinyl to tape you're  out of luck unless you use one of these an FM   radio transmitter such as this sound feeder  sf-120 it runs on a single AA battery it   has a line level audio input a tuning dial  a couple different tuning ranges selectable   you just plug in your audio source adjust  the tuning to the spot on the doll you want   and pull out this little antenna and then you can  put in a tape and recorded the tape from the radio in case you can't tell I really like this  little stereo system once I got those belts   for the CD player and cassette recorder sorted  out its performance has exceeded my expectations   it's a really neat little system for listening  to the radio playing tapes and playing CDs   be perfect for a bedroom or your workshop  or whatever it's proof that you don't need   to have a big fancy expensive stereo system  to have fun listening to and recording music "you are about to experience  samples of three-dimensional   living sound first you will hear  sound effects demonstrating how   this new technology transports you  into seemingly real environments you will now hear this 3D living sound  technology applied to a program of nature   sounds that is available to you to help you  create a more favorable sleep environment"

2022-10-17

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