A referesher on vinyl disc manufacturing.
Category: Tech
Cheer for Gear
I’ve been offline for a while because of a Verizon FiOS upgrade that went wrong, combined with my enduring commitment to flip-phones. Which prevented me from saying until now that I fixed my broken cassette deck.
Kudos to vintage-electronics.net for its tape drive belt kit and the installation tool for it. The tool helped to make the job a lot easier than I expected.
Webcamshaft
This ’98 Honda Civic died at 90,000 miles, which is less than half the expected lifetime for this car, and it happens to be the mileage when its timing belt is supposed to be replaced. But I’m giving away the exciting conclusion to an excellent example of effective troubleshooting.
Tightening My Belts Again
With the successful repair of my Sony CD 300-disc changer under my belt, I am now confronting the need to fix a broken mechanism in another piece of Sony audio gear. It’s a dual cassette deck I picked up a few years ago for ten bucks at a thrift store.
The TC-WE435 worked perfectly until a couple of days ago, when one of the drives started making a noise and an error message appeared on the LED display. I have taken the cover off and looked inside to see (no surprise) the same thing that the CD changer had — loose belts.
The guy who made this video had the same problem with the same cassette deck model. Let’s see what he did to fix it.
Okay, I watched the video and have ordered a set of four replacement belts for $30, including postage. I hope to have the repair done by this time next week. In the meantime the second drive is still working, but I’ll replace its belts too, of course.
Doing a Double Take
A Facebook group I enjoy is “At the Controls,” featuring vintage photos of control rooms and equipment. Radio station and recording studio photographs are particular favorites.
A picture posted in the group caught my attention immediately. You can see why by recalling my post about the original art for Bernie Krigstein’s “Master Race” being up for auction at Heritage.
Supertech!
Sometimes I think the best part of my post-college working life was seeing the incredible advances in technology from the inside of the high-tech industry. I marvel every day at what’s now available to consumers for next to nothing compared to 25 years ago, when I first accessed the Internet from home with a DOS/Windows 3.x computer that, with add-ons, cost $2000, which is equivalent to $3500 today.
For only $100 you can buy a 10-inch tablet with an HD screen, and for another twenty bucks add a Bluetooth keyboard and turn it into very workable desktop computer. 25 years ago that would translate into a measly $70. Some of the new keyboards even include a built-in bracket for holding the tablet, but I’m using an old wire book holder and, no, I still don’t have a smartphone. Those things are expensive!