Pioneer CT-S550S cassette deck repairs
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- čas přidán 12. 12. 2020
- This cassette deck was turned on 24/7 for many years, and running a good part of that time. These countless hours have caused multiple problems. Let's fix them, or at least find some workarounds!
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Saving history one cassette deck at a time. Nice work!
Exactly!
Thank you :)
Teac and Kenwood tape decks of the same time used the same mechanisms made by Alps. However, time has proofed that these mechanisms are suprisingly good, because most of them return to good working condition after a basic maintenance. It is completely different from other brands, such as Technics, whose mecanisms are constantly damaged beyond repair. Speaking as a technician that repair these decks in a daily basis, despite the cost cutting, I still prefer Pioneer then other brands of the same period. Majority of these equipments are capable of returning to life.
I've had the same issue with the guide coming off & having to glue it back in place. In my case the plastic parts of the erase head were still hanging on, so I was able to glue them back in place as well. Whenever cleaning plastic erase heads ALWAYS be gentle around the guide.
Great channel, great videos....
Keep up with more videos about cassette decks...✌️
Thank you :)
Дуже сподобалось це відео! Жалкую, що не натрапив раніше, коли робив те ж саме. Дякую!
Thank you so much for your video - I just serviced one I bought for 80 USD still working good, though bit slower in speed. Changed pinch roller / belt, unmounted motor / capstan and lubrificated - time now to adjust speed.
I think in this case, the adhesive inside a cassette tape that binds the "leader" tape to the actual magnetic tape came off and got stuck on the heads. This happens if the cassette tapes are of low quality or not manufactured correctly. Once that sicky adhesive get on the head, the oxide will then build very quickly.
The dirt stuck to the record head very likely were deposits of tape binder, that is the glue that holds the magnetic particles to the plastic tape substrate. On bad tapes it can happen that the binder makes its way to the tape surface. It then sticks to the head, and it sticks very very well.
Nice deck. I'm a proud owner of a CT-676 and works perfectly so far.
Very nice video.
I own this machine and some of the issues mentioned in the video are well known to me. Problem with open door detection. The display is dim, but not as much as in your video.
Wov / Flutter are good, but after one hour of operation the speed starts to fluctuate strongly.
I don't like the construction, dolby S does not have double circuits, so during recording it is possible to listen only with dolby B.
When I got it, I had to adjust the value of the bias trimmers on the motherboard. Otherwise I was not happy with the heights. Now the sound with BLE XD is very good on most cassettes. I use it to test different cartridges. If a tape records badly on one of my main machines (Sony, Akai), I will use this Pioneer for recording and it works well.
To clean the heads and pinch roller, it is advisable to remove the lower plastic bar. I am afraid of damaging the plastic teeth on the bar during frequent removal.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for confirming the tape speed fluctuations. I am thinking about replacing the capstan motor.
@@DrCassette I haven't fixed it yet. I was thinking of power supply fluctuations. Or a poor regulator directly in the motor. With a little caution, the engine would open.
I have no experience with this, it is conjecture. I will watch your channel if you can fix it.
Greetings from Slovakia.
@@EZ647 The speed regulator inside the motor should be able to deal with fluctuations in the power supply voltage. The regulator probably just isn't very good, but I don't thank that could be fixed. I would try to replace the entire motor with a better quality one.
There's still a little life left in the old beast, after all! Shame about that VFD, but you've done all you can with a high hours deck. To coin a popular phrase 'flogging a dead horse' ;)
Yes, this deck probably was not really worth all the effort, but on the last video most people wanted to see this one get repaired first :)
Educational video. Nice deck too. Many hours on the counter but still good enough for many more hours. You get used to the fact that the display gives little light. It works!!
Looks like thee Dr. has saved the patient. Well done sir. 👍👍
Thank you :)
@@DrCassette i think you have a lot of patience, i restored a deck from pioneer in 1997 and it took me almost all year to do it it was a CT-9000S, like the CT-979 but with dolby S
I don't blame the previous owner of putting so many hours on that deck. I'd run that 3 head deck into the ground till it died. She sure lived a great life!
You should investigate the high voltage supply source for florescent display, bad caps there can cause dimming effect because it is a voltage doubler or tripler supply
I have not tested the high voltage supply yet, indeed I should do that.
I love Pioneers, but this generation is horrible. A simple CT-676 far supersedes it in every way. The dim display is probably because of the standby mode (soft OFF). Most likely the VFD filaments are always powered when the device plugged in. The mechanism is not too bad, Sony TC-K500, 600ES (
the 676 with ble from1990 was a surprise for me it played and recorded with a high quality sound, but had a resistant mechanism in the first month the owner who had the first more quality deck ,recorded like 80 cassettes and today with new belts it works perfect after 10 years stored in a dry place
use the flex while playing a cassete,i bought one and it recorded fantastic. Having a CT-959 ,i used to play old recordings in it with flex function they become again more dynamic as the ones made recentelly in the CT-959, i used to press the spots that are pressed by a cassette and press play to clean the heads and the pinch rollers and the rubber wheels ,this after taking carefully out the tape cover ,this because it was well mounted so as not to come out,but with it turned off so it doesn´t close i took the casing off,and the second time i did it ,i left it without the cover of the cassette ,it didn´t do nothing to the position where the cassette stands , but looking better that was more recent than mine. The one i own still had eject and automatic BLE ,that one says xd ble
I don't like the FLEX system, it adds too much treble. Cassettes sound harsh to my ears with FLEX turned on.
the late 70s to the 80s were the best years for pioneer super great quality metal though out well made cass mechs by the late 80s to 90s they begin to go downhill on quality....
Sign of the times back then as pretty much all the major manufacturers were doing the same. 1996 - 2000 was an interesting period, as I'm sure MiniDisc was becoming a popular choice for home recording. CD-R/ RW a little later..
If scratched up, the plastic windows can be poished by fine automotive polish. Not wax, but polish. Its designed to eliminate the scratches in clearcoat, and it will work well for plastic windows too. It obviously won't work if the plastic itself is cloudy all the way through.
Certainly a very nice pioneer 3 head stereo cassette deck u have restored,,,it sounds just as loud and clear on the tape recording,,,from source input,,,to tape playback during recording.
I've only rarely seen a adjustable erase head on such cassette machines I've repaired in the past,,,and just recently I had repaired a Panasonic stereo tuner amplifier and double cassette mechanism,,,that had a bad pinch roller on the recording deck,,,which I managed to change over from another stereo unit the same model,,,but unreliable with no power to display panel for sound to any input,,,and also found the small guide clip that had come off the erase head,,,but the retainer holder was still in place on erase head,,,simply pushed the guide clip back into place,,, and cassette player played back as it should,,,loud and clear,,,guide clip stayed in place.
I bought one new in 1999. Very very capable piece of kit.
On a Sony of mine I had to replace the capstan motor. It would play pre recorded albums fine as they're generally no more than 25 minutes per half. The problem came with C90s as @ 30 mins or so, the slowing of the tape speed became noticeable. Changing the motor for a NOS 35 year old motor solved this problem.
It seems like the capstan motor in this Pioneer has a similar problem, somehow the speed regulator does not maintain a constant speed. I might try replacing the motor with a better one too.
@@DrCassette behind the motor's cap there is a PCB with one or two electrolytic caps, you should check them if you constantly loosing speed. Most likely awfull leeky ELNA caps. Most of the electronics in that era use that brand caps and all of them failed due to bad caps. They used broken formula to make them and when they failed, leak badly and corode PCB like etchant and smell like fish oil.
OMG I have a Pioneer 6 cd changer from the same era and its driving me insane!
Amazingly good video.
Thank you :)
I noticed the flat/ribbon style drive belt and all-metal capstan in that Pioneer - a few early '80s model Sharp decks used those. Generally reliable.
Most cassette decks have flat belts to drive the capstan. Not sure what you mean by all-metal capstan. I have never seen a capstan that was not all-metal...
@@DrCassette I have - in some cheap Goldstar decks. Metal shaft /flywheel + plastic belt pulley.
Thanks for an interesting video. I have just serviced my NAD 616 that seems to have a variant of the same mecha (did you mention it was produced by ALPS?). Unfortunately in my case lubricating the motor did not help to cure the flutter (I am sure it is the motor as I swapped the motors between from Deck to DeckB to see the difference and it confirmed my idea). I had Pioneer CT-S550S long ago and the problem with their displays is very common. I think it happens because the display always stays ON in standby mode and after long hours it is burned.
i think the same i had the first deck with this disposition and the CTS-550 if it doesn´t fail me in the dozens number ,the one with what we called a christmas tree while doing the BLE(it showed some moving graphics to the bias then level and equalization ,so a christmas tree wich was very acurate not filled with high-frequencies, i trade it for a BMW2002 from 1974 all restored but with a strike above the right wheel, the owner stoped it and liked my deck and we trade the deck (that only had 6 monthes) for a bmw light metalized blue in perfect condition, than a year or two after i bought other a CTS-630S with a tendencie to make the lights be almost not noticeable,but still appear all the display with some faded lights, i have a deck of this type that i tried to record and the recording sounded great in my old CT-959 not as good as the ones made in it but with nice sound a CTS-420S ,dolby S but i stoped a long ago to record with dolby because it cut´s the lowest sounds or it assumes that is noise about the hiss,if the original recording doesn´t have it not even putting the sound very high i notice any hiss, i have a ACiko from 76 that one has hiss and a reel to reel deck from akai from 1970 that records with great sound today,regards
I have restored a CT-S820S and it has a way better drive unit than this, what really surprises me, because the 550 was the last of the „best“. Thanks for showing.
Hey, is there such a thing as a "reset" of power on this model? I'm trying to fix it right now.
Hi DrC,
At @5:52 is very similar to the NAD 613 cassette deck if I'm not mistaken? Also, the erase head assembly where you can adjust the azimuth can be found on my Sony TC-K45 which I've recently restored.
Regards.
Hi, I bought one Pioneer CT-S550S for 10€ with squeaking motor. The nasty sound showed after some minutes of usage. Tried first to oil the bearing, but this delayed the squeaking just for some minutes. I solder out the motor like in this video and used some "multiglide" spray, until the sound disappeared. Then removed the remaining of the spray. Assembled everything again, and now it seems to work nice again. At least for around 20 minutes no squeaking.
When oiling the bearing fixes noise only temporarily, that often indicates that the motor bearings are bad. The motors they used in these Pioneer decks don't seem to be very good, the speed of the motor in my deck drifts a lot.
Would love to see a nak 700 repair I have one that needs to be fixed asap and I love it so much but nobody wants to take up the task
Very well explained.
Thank you :)
I had a Pioneer DVL-909 Laserdisc/DVD player from the late 90's that I bought new. It's the same vintage as your cassette deck. The florescent display got very dim after only a few yesrs of light use.
That's very unfortunate... I have had other Pioneer equipment with dim display, so it seems Pioneer got their VFDs from a rather bad manufacturer...
Nice job. The display wasn't repairable or replaceble?
Did you measure the voltages to the VFD? I have had bad PSU capacitors cause dim displays. Another last ditch effort is temporarily upping the heater voltage and running it for a moment (to eliminate cathode poisoning?)
I have checked the filament voltage, and it's okay, I have not yet measured the high voltage. That is on the to do list.
@@DrCassette Ich habe die Serviceunterlagen noch nicht da. Welche Spannung muß das Display bekommen? Und was meinst du mit high voltage?
Man i have a CT-W205R from 96 and i always thought it could be one of the latest manufactured dedicated cassette decks because from the 2000 and on you didnt saw a lot of them around
impressive
You will be surprised to hear you can still get HiFi component cassette decks today. Of course they are nowhere near as good as the older decks, but they do still exist.
Hello. In have the same deck,but the drive belt is melted...can you tell me wich is right size belt to replace.
Thank you 🎵
Well done, it's alive again :-)
It's a shame that the vfd has worn out, they are so nice to look at.
Having the flywheel mounted on one side is bad engineering :-(
I have never seen an erase head with a set screw, how very odd.
hello my PIONEER CT-W803 RS cassette deck has broken dolby S circuit the 2 connection tabs are broken do you have a solution to repair or find a used circuit thank you for your reponse
I had problems with These mehanics, I lubricated everything, changed the Pinch ROLER, and It still strech the tape, leaving scratches
I’m glad you were able to save this deck. Curious to hear how well the Dolby S works, since that was quite novel.
I have to say I have not yet tried the Dolby S, but I will at some point. I couldn't use Dolby S for the test recording in this video, because one limitation of this cassette deck is that it only has two Dolby S circuits that are used for both recording and playback. So if you record with Dolby S, both circuits are occupied and for monitoring the recorded signal the deck applies just Dolby B, so that would not give a good demonstration of the system.
@@DrCassette Wow, that’s some unfortunate cost-cutting.
@@sunspot42 The next model up from this one had the full four Dolby S circuits, otherwisely it was identical. So there was an option for proper Dolby S monitoring available, it just cost a bit more.
@@DrCassette Interesting. Is there anything that can be done to rehab the faded VFD? I don’t really understand how those work. Are they like fluorescent bulbs? Have the phosphors just faded with time and use?
The VFD basically works like an electron tube, like a triode, by emission of electrons from a kathode. The anode has all the display elements printed on it with phosphor. In between is a control grid that determines which element lights and which doesn't by screening electrons from the inactive elements. The active elements are hit by the electrons, which causes the phosphor to light up. In a faded VFD there is either something wrong with the emission of electrons, or with the phosphor. In this case, the heater voltage is fine, maybe even a little on the high side, so the emission of electrons should be fine. So there must be something wrong with the phosphor. This can't be fixed unfortunately.
Where did you get the belts from? I've got the same deck in my system. It plays slow at the start and speeds up later.
Great work on this one. I think vwestlife also made a video about this or a similar deck.
So there's no solution to bringing the display back to its original brightness except source another display?
I checked the display filament voltage and it's fine. The other option would be a bad high voltage supply. I have not checked the high voltage yet. But if that turns out to be okay, there is nothing that could be done to revive that display. I am not going to try to source a replacement. It will just have to stay as it is then...
@@DrCassette OK, thank you for responding!
I got the CT-S410, probably a bit earlier version, it has the same Alps mechanics but the door is removable ;-) and not motorised. The BLE system is indeed not XD, and a bit quicker (and simpler I guess), it seems to check only 1 EQ level. Otherwise it looks very similar, I though it was more or less repair friendly, much better at least than my YAMAHA KX-W900 Twin Deck!
I've got a ct-s 420 which is a bit later than your 410 I believe, and it's all the same as you wrote with one exclusion - the door wasn't made removable already. The mechanism is quite noisy in mine - I can clearly hear the motors humming, and I'm curious if it is normal for these Alps mechanisms, or it's the sign that mine is going to die soon...
Hello,
Although it is high hours deck, you should check the vfd filament voltage which should be 3v AC any lower than that might cause dim display.
Good job.
Thank you :)
I have checked the VFD filament voltage, and it actually is higher than I expected, about 4.5 V AC, so the dim display is not because of a low filament voltage.
this was a great video, many 'tubers could take lessons from you. I don't need to see you remove four screws before you get to work on the mechanism. I prefer the metal and wood of 1970's cassette decks but that auto-bias feature is sure nice.
Thank you :)
I try to keep my videos relatively short. My target used to be 10 min, but it seems people actually prefer longer videos with more details, so now the target is to keep the video under 20 min. This often requires lots of editing. Everything that's uninteresting or redundant is cut out. This video was about 24 min long when I started editing, now it is just under 18 min. Unfortunately a lot of people don't edit their videos at all, or only do the most basic edits, basically just splicing video files together. These videos can be quite frustrating to watch. Only a few people are able to make good videos without any editing at all.
If the display is dim, it was in my case a bad capacitor, have had this before a few times, I wonder if it is in this cassette deck also. Did you check them all?
Checked power supply i my deck, everything ok, its looks like VFD lamp is low quality and it is getting bad
I have not checked the high voltage supply for the display yet, I will do that eventually. I only checked the capacitors in the vicinity of the power supply.
Thanks for the video. Do you have any plans for an Aiwa XK-009 Excelia cassette deck repairs video in a near future? (replacing the belts, replacing the idler tires, etc...)
I have not come across this model yet, so there won't be a repair project any time soon.
@@DrCassette ok thanks anyway, i will keep watching your videos. Thank you so much for your work :)
Hopefully the Dolby S circuitry works. My CTS-820S shows horrible mistracking on one of the subbands in the left channel.
I have not tried the Dolby S yet to be honest. I just don't use Dolby for my recordings. But if I ever come across some cassettes that were recorded with Dolby S, this deck will come in handy.
@@DrCassette Dolby S is amazing when properly calibrated. I would have never thought that a cassette deck can give a DAT deck a run for its money but Dolby S and a good Type IV make that possible. And even lowly Type I tapes can really shine with this NR system.
Hi, bei einem CT-S 630S musste ich das Display nur mehrere Stunden (10-12) lang anlassen, dann kam es langsam wieder und leuchtet nun wieder fast wie am ersten Tag. Bei deinem Deck kann es natürlich auch ganz anders sein... sehr coole Videos- weiter so! Grüße aus Münster
Danke!
So lange hatte ich das Deck noch nicht ununterbrochen eingeschaltet. Wenn nichts anderes hilft, dann wäre das aber sicher auch einen Versuch wert.
Oh, das muß ich gleich mal testen. Danke für den Tipp!
Nicely done. If the VFD is really dark, you could try to increase the heater voltage slightly to increase the brightness. This will probably decrease its lifetime even further, which may or may not be worth it.
I really don't think it would be worth it, the display is already so dim that some parts don't seem to light up anymore at all, an even further reduced lifetime would probably bring it to a point at which important indicators no longer work at all.
@@DrCassette Do not touch the heater voltage, just check the caps on HV supply it is voltage doubler or tripler and it depends on caps to provide the correct voltage. You can't increase heater voltage because it comes directly from transformer's secondary winding, even if you can it won't help, it will just make it worse.
Great video and enjoyed watching..I have the Pioneer cts-830s which I absolutely love and it sounds awesome but just recently the cassette door won't shut..opens ok but struggles to close at all, so can't play anything..do you think it's a loose belt? Thx.
Yes, seems like there is a bad belt. You can manually help the door when it is struggling to close, that won't harm anything.
100%.
Hello. I have Pioneer CTS550s and I have such a problem. After pressing "Play" the drive spins but very quickly. Of course, this causes the casette not to play and noise is heard in the speakers. What could have happened?
It seems like the head bridge is failing to fully engage. This may be due to a bad belt, or due to lubrication issues.
Hello and thanks for your interesting channel which I found as I have a CT-S520, very similar to yours, that has a dimming display. Overall the deck works fine but I wonder if you managed to solve the display issue in some way. Mine should need also to have the command switches (play, ff, rew and also other small buttons for settings) cleaned as they don't work properly, play button doesn't even work at all, I have to use the remote. To do so I think I have to disassembly the front panel, is it correct? Also, is it easy or hard to do in your opinion? The service manual is not clear at all for the disassembling procedure of the panel. Thank you very much for your help, if you can. Merry Xmas and a very happy new year! Enrico
Thank you! I ended up parting out this deck to salvage parts for other projects. The dim display can not be fixed as far as I know.
@@DrCassette Thanks for your reply. I managed to clean the switches removing the boards from the front panel and without removing it. The display is so much better now because either the outside window or the window on the display itself were extremely dirty, so I cleaned them and now they are like new. Regards. Enrico
@@enricoonori Sometimes cleaning displays can make a major difference. Nice that it all worked out well for you :)
I am looking for any suggestions to repair a Pioneer CT1280WR dual cassette deck from 1987 that will not play. It will fast forward and it will rewind but it will not play?
just change the belt
Hi there, great video. Would you help me out with my deck please? I've got a CTS 540s and the reel motor would not move. No play, no FFWD no REW. The capstan motor works. I connected a battery to the motor and it spins both ways without issue. I am happy to listen to any help. Thanks a lot.
Bad motor drive transistors or fault in the logic IC maybe? Check the voltage going to the motor and for logic signals at the outputs of the IC going to the motor drive stage.
Any plans to do further work to fix the dull VFD? Thanks for upload.
Check the voltages at the VFD, I have had quite a few that were low, once the voltage is correct the display should be fine in most cases, a quick & dirty fix is to increase filament voltage to improve brightness in a tired display.
I have checked the VFD filament voltage, and it actually is higher than I expected, about 4.5 V AC, so the dim display is not because of a low filament voltage. I don't want to increase the filament voltage, because that would reduce the lifetime of the display even further. It is so weak already, some parts don't seem to light up anymore at all.
@@markpirateuk Why you all messing with heater voltage? The problem isn't there but in HV supply, it has to be between 22V and 37V depending on VFD, most of the cases 22-27V on electronics of that era. The heater is not light bulb and its voltage is critically in range, it can't vary because it comes directly from one of the secondary windings of main transformer, but HV can be problematic.
nice video, ive got question, where can i get the motor but not capstan as there are available everywhere but this the cantre one for revinding, ive got old Denon DRM-540, which has exactly the same mechanizm and same motor but i cant find it? any sugestions? my motor is a bit noisy, i did cleaning but i think is end of life. i want to get new one or something similar.
I have no idea where you could get a new one of these motors. I would try to salvage one out of a similar cassette deck.
Look around for motor with code printed on the sticker. I've got absolutely new not very long time ago. It even had new design red Pioneer logo on it. Unfortunately display becomes really dim due to age and plastic transparency degradation.
@DrCassette i have found the problem, it wasn’t motor, it was the gear, i have replace the gear (centre white one) and all back to normal and very silent. so happy that this mechanism was used by denon, yamaha, pioneer, technics and many more from 1985 till 2000 even and some models till end of cassette decks, simple, quiet, reliable mechanism.
Dr. Cassette, I have used this video as a reference for repairing a Pioneer CT530. Mechanically is identical with this one, without Dolby S. the strange issue is that while there was no aparent wear after 40-50 recorded cassettes (I listen them at work on a walkman) I noticed sudden wow. Changing belt, same thing. Lubricating everything as per service manual no improvement. I have even changed the the pinch roller. The capstan has absolutely no scoring marks and no play as wear mark. Finally after, trying to lube the motor (you cannot reassembly it without touching the brushings) I gave up and used the motor from a Pioneer CTs 656. Problem solved...until noticed on the long instrumental parts that it is not what it should be. Should I declare this deck dead or could you suggest other thing to check. Also, forgot, the supplied belt was very fine sanded while spinning on the deck with 600, 800 and 1000 gritand after it everything cleaned with IPA and oiled (these belts are awful). Thank you for any suggestions.
You have already tried everything that I can think of. Unfortunately the mechanism in these cassette decks is not the best, I would assume something in your mechanism is just slightly worn out, but due to the bad design of the mechanism that is already enough to cause the high W&F. At this point it's probably better to look for a different cassette deck. You certainly already put more work into your deck than I would have.
@@DrCassette many thanks for the reply. I really appreciate it.
Which cleaner worked well for a door switch ? IPA alcohol or something stronger?
I used my usual Kontakt Chemie Tuner 600 contact cleaner.
Have a look at the capacitors next to the FL display. One of them might have gone bad.
Thanks for the info, I checked the capacitors in the power supply on the mainboard, I did not expect there would be any relevant capacitors on the display board...
Interesting, my CT-S820S has the same display and is a bit dimmed, but not as strong as this. Please let me know if that helped. Another fix i heard about is to light up the cathode until they glow red, with an adjustable powersupply, adjust the Amperage slowly up but not too far, otherwise the display will be destroyed. I believe this is why I have never found a CZcams video using this technique successfully.
@@DrCassette if you don't have a service manual around you might could use a similar display board as a reference from another device.
To my knowledge a capacitor dryed up by aging or went leaky. I believe it is the former symptome.
Good luck.
Bought a pioneer cts605 circa 1989 from ebay and was wondering if the unit I bought can play audio out loud or is it only for headphones?
The Pioneer CT-S605 is a cassette deck that is designed to be connected to a separate amplifier or receiver that powers a set of speakers. If the deck has a headphone output, you can always connect headphones there.
@@DrCassette It's worrying how so many people do not understand component systems.
i miss the old good time
Grate vid. Where can i find the wow and flutter meter software you are using?
www.ant-audio.co.uk/index.php?cat=post&qry=library
@@DrCassette Thank you!
Hi! I would also like to ask whether the pioneer ct-s550s plays the 60-minute tape but does not play the 90-minute tape. What could be wrong? Engine, belt, pressure roller? I await your reply.
It could be the belts. Make sure the rollers and capstans are also clean.
usually it does play, but very slowly, you can even hear the capstan strain at times if theres too much tape on one spool. Def the belts.
I missed the part in the video where you adjust the speed of the motor..??? Can you give a clue where to look for the speedometer? Thanks! 🙂
The speed adjustment is built into the motor. There is a small hole in the back of the motor, that is covered with rubber foam from the inside. You have to poke an insulated screwdriver into there to access the speed adjustment.
What happen if you add little more voltage this screen? Bright or burn?
You can brighten VFDs by applying more filament voltage, but this also shortens their lifetime. And given that the remaining lifetime of this display already is so low, I don't think increasing the filament voltage would be a good idea.
Power supply usualy is not designed to 'regulate' this VFD voltage. And we had 220v in europe, now we have 230-240 and problem persists.
The most interesting part of this repair video is your analytic approach to the decline in manufacturing quality of cassette decks after 90´ and until the end of the production. However, it is especially interesting for another reason.
While many declines in production of technical goods are natural process due to the cost cutting in production of those, before the closure of production here we have another phenomenon. When technology reach its peak the new arises as the necessity to continue the development. Then the new technology becomes the novelty and very expensive and old technology stops its development and starts slowing the production. While the new technology is still very expensive the old technology production cuts the cost everywhere to make the most profit of the old one (to milk the cow to the last drop).
However, in cassette decks era, the cost cutting started in 90s before the CD market was developed. Yet the development and perfecting the old technology kept going forward in parallel with the production quality decline. This is why a 3 head decks were so common after 90s and the new Dolby S emerged and BLE getting improved and features list kept growing yet the overall quality was going down the drain.
This is the first time I have seen someone paid attention to this phenomenon in his repair videos. Well pointed out (most) cost cutting in this model (I am sure there are some in electronic circuit too) and showing them openly without any bias towards the well established brand. I had trouble explaining to many people how, for example, this model is much worst than lets say top model in early 80s with half the features this one has. Even the same brand.
So thank you for your video upload and your approach to it and enlightening many of those thinking of buying these second hand old timers for the first time to join the retro trend growing in almost forgotten cassette technology. Cassettes may be over run by the new technology but so much amazingly good engineering went into them and just for that reason alone it is worth to keep them alive at least among the enthusiasts of that era...
Wie lange ist dass wohl gelaufen um dass Display so in Mitleidenschaft zu ziehen?
Onkyo taw100 dual cassette deck has the exact same clip holding on the capstan and flywheel and no back plate.
This was apparently a common mechanism made by Alps that various different manufacturers used in their cassette decks.
Hi! what did you clean it with to make it so shiny? Thanks.
Usually I clean equipment with an alcohol-based window cleaner.
Von vorne sieht das Laufwerk sehr ähnlich aus wie das vom Grundig CF-35 (und ähnlichen). Aber die Zahnräder sind nicht aus diesem zerbröckelnden Plastik... ein Kumpel hat mir Ersatzteile ausgedruckt... macht Lärm, aber funktioniert.
Das Display hat nur 4 Stellen... "DONE" würde hier viel mehr Sinn machen als "TUNE"... Zeit für ein Firmware Update.
The BLE system is very similar to the ATC system used by Technics??
All manufacturers eventually had some sort of tape calibration system in their cassette decks. They all did mostly the same, bias, level, equalization...
I don't know if BLE is similar to ATC, but I think.
I do own a Technics Micro Component Stereo for my basement and the cassette deck in this system also has a computer calibration-feature called "CCRT" and when you activate it, it will show things like "CCRT BIAS", "CCRT LVL" and "CCRT EQ" on the screen. I assume that this cal.-system is similar to Technics' ATC and so it will be similar to BLE.
Baked!
Servus,
wie immer ein interessantes Video.
Was hast du, bzw. wirst du mit dem Display machen?
Ersatz gibts es doch sicher nichtmehr, da wird doch der einzige Weg ein Ausschlachtgerät sein. Oder wirst du den Farbfilter immer heruntenlassen und dich damit zufriedengeben, dass man das Display nur im Dunkeln ablesen kann?
Ich will nochmal schauen, ob vielleicht etwas mit der Hochspannungsversorgung für das Display nicht in Ordnung ist. Die Heizspannung ist okay. Wenn auch die Hochspannung richtig ist, dann wird es eben so sein, dass das Cassettendeck nur ohne Farbfilter und im Schatten benutzbar ist. Ein Ersatzdisplay ist das Gerät nicht wert, wahrscheinlich wäre da das Ausschlachtgerät in besserem Zustand als dieses :D
@@DrCassette Da hast du auch wieder recht :D
Naja, ich musste gerade die Erfahrung machen, dass ich wohl eine späte SONY UX-S (Made in Mexiko offenbar) habe, die mir quasi Löcher in den Tonkopf frisst. Bei anderen Leuten im Internet tat die UX-S oder auch CD-It II das schon nach 1 Durchlauf :/ Hatte sie glücklicherweise nur für ca. 1 Minute im Hauptdeck.
Komisch... ich hatte über die Jahre einige der späten UX-S, die in dem dunkelblauen Plastikgehäuse, mit denen hatte ich nie Probleme. Ich habe eigentlich nur deswegen überwiegend TDK SA verwendet, weil in den UX-S das Band so schlecht zu sehen war durch das dunkelblaue Plastik.
@@DrCassette Ich teste die UX-S noch weiter. Mal sehen, ob die Krater wirklich davon kommen.
Ja deinen Thread aus den späten 00ern im HiFi-Forum um SA und UX-S kenne ich glaube ich.
Hatten deine UX-S auch vollständig weiße Beschriftung und Wickelkerne?
Ach ja stimmt, da gab es ja ganz zum Ende noch einen Unterschied. Von den komplett weiß bedruckten hatte ich nicht viele, da kann ich also nicht so viel zu sagen.
Woher weißt du denn, dass ich mal im HiFi Forum aktiv war? Ich habe das alles schon ziemlich komplett vergessen, ich weiß auch gar nicht, welchen SA/UX-S Thread du meinst?
Thanks to your video I will ignore any second hand Pioneer CT-S550S decks. That flywheel/capstan assembly is exceptionally badly designed.
Capstans are always a little difficult to remove - not surprising really when we consider the minute circular gap involved.
(Edited x 1)
How did you test the ESR of the bad capacitors? Did you have to remove them?
For the first time I tried the in-circuit capacitance/ESR measurement function of my old component tester. It worked very well, and gave accurate results. I first measured all capacitors in and around the power supply in circuit, unsoldered the suspicious ones and then measured again. The results in circuit and out of circuit were pretty much the same.
@@DrCassette Which component tester did you use?
I have videos about two Chinese made electronic component testers on my channel. I used the older one of the two, the big one with small display.
@@DrCassette Thank you, I've watched that video and ordered the newer model for myself based on your review.
@@tonysavor5232 But you are aware that the newer model no longer has the in-circuit capacitance/ESR measurement function?
Dann wurde das Deck mit der kleinsten Hoffnung doch als erstes repariert! Ich mag diese Pioneer decks eigentlich sehr, weil mein CT-S430S (Pioneers highest end 2 Kopf Deck in 1994) immer perfekt aufnimmt. Nach diesem Video habe ich allerdings gesehen was Pionner zu der Zeit falsch gemacht hat. Ich finde die Situation mit dem Kassettenfach aber einfach nur nervig. Viel zu kleines Fenster und man kommt einfach nicht gut an die Köpfe.
Was wird eigentlich mit reparierten Geräten gemacht?
Tatsächlich habe ich als erstes den Sony CDP-710 repariert, aber dazu habe ich kein Video gemacht. Die Reparatur vom Pioneer war in den Kommentaren die am meisten gewünschte, deswegen habe ich das dann doch gemacht. Das Pioneer wird in meiner Sammlung verbleiben, denn ein Deck mit totem Display und abgenommenen Gehäuseteilen will natürlich niemand haben.
Was war mit dem Sony CD player falsch?
Freut mich aber trotzdem das es repariert wurde!
Ich kenne eigentlich jemanden der in einem solchen Deck Interesse hätte, allerdings hat diese Person letzte Woche schon ein Deck gekauft, was eigentlich auch schon längst überflüssig war ;-)
In dem Sony CD-Player habe ich die Linse vom Laser gereinigt, die Audioausgangsbuchsen wieder angelötet, den An-/Ausschalter nachgelötet und ein paar Teile des Mechanismus neu gefettet. Hat nur einen Abend gedauert.
schönes Video , was allerdings fehlt ist als alternative ein durchsichtige Fenster beim Display & beim Kassetten Fach , da hätte ich ein dünnes Hobbyglas zurecht geschnitten & mit ein unauffälligen Kleber dann befestigt ;-) ich frage mich eh was dieses dunkle dimm zeug überhaupt bringen soll ;-)
Der Farbfilter wandelt das grünliche Licht des Vakuumfluoreszenzdisplays in die Farbe, die der Hersteller für sein Produktdesign haben möchte, im Fall von diesem Pioneer-Deck wäre das weiß gewesen. Außerdem erhöht der Filter den Kontrast des Displays, leuchtende Displaysegmente sind sichtbar, inaktive Segmente nicht. Ein VF-Display ohne Farbfilter ist eher schlecht lesbar, das erkennt man glaube ich auch in diesem Video ganz gut.
@@DrCassette , ah Ok , Danke :-)
@@Alvin-Seville_NBG Das Display ist ja nur so dunkel geworden im Laufe der Jahre. Weil die Geräte im Standby liefen und nicht komplett abgeschaltet wurden. Dadurch bekommt das Display immer etwas Strom und altert dadurch. Habe hier auch so einen Kandidaten. Suche auch noch Display Ersatz. Ein Schrottdeck wo das Display richtig geht. Abgesehn davon sind auch die Beschriftungen der Geräte extrem schlecht zu erkennen da zu klein und zu blass. Habe hier noch 2 Stück CT-S410 da ist das westenlich besser. Und die Displays noch wie am ersten Tag. Klingen tut das Deck gut. Läuft bei mir auch etwas zu langsam. Warte noch auf meine Testkassetten. Dann wird das Teil gecheckt. Hatte mir das Teil besorgt weil mich die Flex funktion interressiert hat und wegen dem AutoBLE-XD. Werde aber doch eher zu Yamaha KX-670 wechseln.
I'm surprised it did not need a head alignment after glueing back the tape guide on the erase head. Azimuth is very sensitive to small variation of the tape path. In my opinion, if you had replaced the erase head, a mirror cassette would have been enough to adjust the tape guide properly. Another (very expensive) way is to use an alignment gauge like this one thegreatbear.net/audio-tape/information-terminals-m-300-cassette-tape-transport-alignment-gauge/
I made sure the tape was not mistracking after reinstalling the tape guide. Since the tape guide was there originally, putting it back into place should not have upset anything. I don't have a mirror cassette, so carefully looking at the tape and checking how it behaved when the heads first touch it when coming up had to do.
I didn't see if you you washed out the hole where the capstan pin sits with alcohol or some other cleaner! From experience, if you don't clean out the old grease, it affects the wow and flutter...
As for the dim display, there's still some other component that is out of tolerance!!! Either a resistor has drifted off in value or there's a bad capacitor or two that needs to be replaced!
I heard you say that you replaced some Capacitors due to high ESR, but a capacitor with low EPR (Equivalent Parallel Resistance) will have very low ESR but would measure a higher capacity! A Capacitors capacity doesn't get better with age... If it a 100uf capacitor but it measures 150uf or higher, it means that it has low EPR and it's leaking DC which will cause a transistor or resistor to be incorrectly biased and making it run hot or actually destroy it...
I believe that there's nothing wrong with the actual screen, there's something else that is causing the problem...
The dark spots on the PCB indicate that the regulator's have been working to hard, and again it's usually a capacitor with low EPR.. in the case of Capacitors in the power supply, a low EPR means that they are either have begun to short to ground or are actually shorting...
Another simple test that can be done is to plug the unit into a wattmeter and check it's power consumption, if it's been sitting around not used for awhile, bad components will cause the power consumption to rise above it's ratings usually printed on the back...
This pioneer can be brought back into life like it was New...
I've come across several pioneer units from this area and all of them had dim displays.
I don't think I have ever seen any Pioneer equipment from the 90s with vacuum fluorescent displays that still looked 100% fine.
@@DrCassette Early 90ties pioneers were ok, then they change VFD line. CT-S540 - also bad display (1993-1994), CT-S530 ok (old model)
@@jacekschneider4686 CT-S410 is ok.
Wow that is cheap inside. Sad how quickly it all fell apart for pioneer. This is about as simple as you can get.
It's not quite as simple as a cassette deck can get, but it is indeed rather sad when compared to older Pioneer equipment.
You do not need to be complicated or expensive to be good. I can only agree to the guy who said once that this CT-S550S actually is one of the greatest decks ever made for that price. It sounds very well (I'd say - superb), auto tape calibration (BLE) with XD is really good. Would it have Reference mechanism from decks built earlier, this machine would be a real Dragon and 95 slayer. I've consulted few guys who specialize on refurbishment and they can tell only a disappointing thing - VFD can not be repaired. Permanent on during standby wears it out but Pioneer did this so as then you can power on deck from remote control. But in the same time I have Pioneer CD player from the same generation and it does not have any issues with display, so most probably there is a manufacturing flaw for that particular display model.
It was so bad dowsing after all if it was playing for years non stop. Or wasn't playing but idle not in standby mode
How about film the actual restorations?
The resulting videos would be too long. Also I can't concentrate on the work I'm doing if there is a camera recording.
Aiwa is the champion in cost cutting in 90s along with Pioneer. The most disgusting decks I've ever met are Aiwa AD-F300 and Sony TC-FX110 - this is total abhorrence.
You have to keep in mind in the 90s Aiwa was taken over by Sony and from that point onwards was only allowed to make products that didn't compete with Sony's products. In other words, products that were worse than most Sony products. Still Aiwa remained innovative, they would have made the first ever LCD TV, had Sony not forced them to cancel that project.
@@DrCassette oh, right, that explains a lot then. Thanks for the answer, totally agree with that.
😆 - your description of them being “disgusting”
@@samuelfellows6923🙂 that's just because I opened those decks and I've got around of hundred different ones to compare and I swear I didn't see anything cheaper as those parodies for decks. Really, it's a shame for the brands' names. My kind advice is - if anybody has even the smallest possible drop of self-esteem inside, try to avoid them as far as possible)). Even if you're given them as a gift, politely decline. And if you're insisted on taking them as gift, pay them money not to take it). If unluckily you take those decks, never open that Pandora box.
@@romanserdyuk9965 I can understand the disgusting deck scenario. Been there, done that with many of them. If the failure isn't a plastic part breaking, with springs and clips flying off, it might be something electronic that burns up as soon as any kind of power is applied (even if the rated operating voltage is correct). Inferior low quality components are often used.
Das Laufwerk sieht aus wie ein Haufen Schrott! Echt traurig 😢 und noch viel schlimmer ist das es bei Pioneer schon Anfang der 90er ab ging mit der Qualität ! Mein CT-S 510 hatte das gleiche "arme Leute Laufwerk " das habe ich auch nicht lange gehabt. Kein Vergleich zu einem SONY TC-K750 ES oder dem JVC KD-VR5 ... bei letzterem ist eine Schwungmasse schon doppelt so dick wie bei diesem Pioneer Laufwerk 😄
Naja, du musst auch immer die Zeit und die Preisklasse bedenken. Das Sony aus der ES-Serie wird ganz erheblich viel mehr gekostet haben, als das Pioneer, und das JVC kommt aus der Mitte der 80er Jahre, ist also 10 Jahre älter, da waren die Cassettenlaufwerke allgemein noch besser gebaut. Aber wie gesagt, Pioneer hat die Kosten einfach am falschen Ende reduziert, und das macht sie einfach unsympathisch.
Ist mir definitiv auch eher unsympathisch. Das mit der absinkenden Geschwindigkeit habe ich bei dem 510er auch gehabt, war nur mit einem Ersatz des Capstan Motors in den Griff zu bekommen 😯 ist ein recht günstiger einfacher Motor.
@@danieldusenglied8072 Einen passenden Ersatzmotor müsste ich in meinem Fundus da haben, vielleicht propiere ich das mal aus, wenn ich wieder Lust habe, mich mit diesem Deck zu befassen...
@@DrCassette ich hatte zufällig auch einen entsprechenden Motor liegen. Da gibt es einmal CW und einmal CCW. In diesem Laufwerk war clock counter wise glaube ich richtig... sonst gibt es diesen Motor typ für wenige Euro neu auf eBay. Müsste ein Mabuchi Motor sein.
Ich habe einen recht großen Vorrat an verschiedensten Ersatzmotoren, die ich über die Jahre aus billigen oder irreparablen Geräten ausgebaut habe. Da sollte ich etwas passendes da haben.