Repairing audio equipment (part 1)

Having a lot of data about music releases is cool, but we should not forget that in the end the most important thing is to actually listen to the music and to enjoy it. That means that you need to have decent equipment to listen to. And, like everything else, at some point it starts to break down. It is easy to just throw out the old broken stuff and to buy new equipment, but it might be worth looking at repairing instead of buying new.

This year I repaired an amplifier and a cassette recorder. For me this wasn't easy: I might be good with software, but debugging physical objects is not my forte (my former boss went as far as describing me as someone with two left hands, and ten thumbs). Nevertheless I decided to try as there was nothing to lose: the equipment was already no longer working and we had started to look at replacements (but not decided yet), so I wanted to give it a shot to see if I could give these devices a second life.

Sony CFS-W303L

The cassette recorder I repaired was an old double deck Sony CFS-W303L. First one side stopped playing, and then a few years later the other side stopped playing as well. I took it to the local "repair café", hoping that they could help me further. They told me that likely the belts had either snapped, or had worn down, as the motors itself still seemed to be working. What I learned is that these belts could also turn into a gooey mess.

The person at the repair café who helped me then made me immediately lose all faith in his capabilities (even though he was working at the audio repair shop of the recycling center we were at) by choosing the smallest Philips head screwdriver he could find and using a lot of force to try to unscrew it. I was glad that he gave up at one point. The reason is: the screws were JIS B 1012 screws (Japanese standard) and with cruficorm screws the screw will cam out if you use the wrong screwdriver the screw will cam out. If it is cammed out you will only get the screw out by drilling the screw, or by breaking the casing of the cassette player.

At home I took a much larger screwdriver, unscrewed it very easily, opened the casing, located the problem (one belt snapped, the other one turned to goo), and closed the device again. Then I ordered two replacement belts and waited a few days for them to arrive.

Then during an evening I sat down, opened the deck, replaced the belts after cleaning the inside of the deck as much as possible, tested the deck worked and put it back together (that's the short version, the long version involves significantly more swearing). We have been using it since.

Technics SU-C800U

Another device that we had that was in need of repairing was our Technics SU-C800U. For years it had been just standing there, as it was unusable: when selecting a certain mode (CD, tape, phono, etc.) it would jump to another mode, sometimes once an hour (in the beginning), sometimes multiple times per second (later on). It made it impossible to listen to music. When we moved (nearly 10 years ago) we didn't connect it in the new house.

Late last year I finally decided to look into it and it turned out that this is a very common problem with this model (and other models), and that the problem is in the rotary selector switch, where oxidation builds up. According to posts I found simply cleaning it should do the trick. I bought some sandpaper (very fine), opened the device, located the rotary switch and cleaned it a bit with the sandpaper, then put it back together. That already made it work a lot better (selector switch jumping a few times but not as frequently as before), but it wasn't perfect yet, so I took it apart again, applied some contact spray, waited for half an hour or an hour, and put it back together. It has been working perfectly for over half a year without any problem at all.

One difficulty that I encountered is that it was quite difficult to get the rotary switch out of the device and some small piece of metal holding it in place broke off, but this hasn't been a problem.

I think that now I could easily repair this in 30 minutes (plus some time for the contact cleaner to do its job).

Repairing: tips & tricks

I found repairing these two pieces of equipment very satisfying and totally worth it, not just because of the financial aspect (cassette players are quite expensive these days), but also because the repairs turned out to be very minor, and both devices have been working fantastically since. It has also given me more appreciation of the older devices and made me more curious about whether or not I could do some more complicated repairs, including soldering some bits and pieces, but at the moment that is a bridge too far (first I need to learn to solder properly).

I would totally advise trying to repair equipment but there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

Do your research

Before you start try to find if you bumped into a known problem. If so, it will be a lot easier to find information about repairs and you should read about it so you know what to expect.

Find a repair manual and take pictures

When you are taking apart a device you might feel confident that you can put a device back together, but trust me, once you actually have to put it back together you might wonder where a certain part needs to be: "where did this go again?". I have been there myself too many times, so if possible I try to find a repair manual or guide online, or make pictures so at least I know better how everything was before I started taking it apart.

Forget about equipment that is too new

Many of the current devices on the market are not designed with maintenance in mind and people are expected to buy a new device instead. There is some logic to this (there are increasingly more software components and chips in equipment), but to me it does not always feel right.

Start simple

Until recently I also had a Tandberg TD20A tape recorder. When I bought it at a charity sale more than 15 years ago I wasn't told it had a defect, and it wasn't until later that I found it. Someone tried to give repairing a shot, but failed, so it ended up in storage for a long time. After I had repaired the other devices I decided to take a look at this one, but very quickly found out that it required a lot more knowledge than I had. Even with the defects the device had I could sell it to someone who wanted to try to repair it and hopefully it has found a good home. For me it was simply too complicated and trying to repair this beast would have been another one of those plans that would continue to nag me for years.

Set realistic expectations

When trying to repair something you should keep in mind that it is already broken. I didn't actually expect to be able to fully repair the devices I successfully repaired and was prepared to buy replacements. I got them working, so it felt like success. If I had expected (or promised) that I would be able to repair it and then couldn't it would have been a failure. Normally I don't encourage this attitude ("prepare for the worst"), but in this case it actually was the right one for me.

Use the right screwdrivers

I already mentioned it earlier but make sure you use the right screwdriver. This sounds so obvious, but I have found that people, even people who should know better, still make this mistake (and until 15 years ago, so did I). With the cruciform screwdrivers it is very easy to pick the wrong screwdriver. First of all, there are various types of screws, but they are quite easy to tell apart.

A bigger problem is that people tend to use screwdrivers that are too small. The cruciform ones can look deceiving. My trick is: take the screwdriver that you think will be the right one, then put it back and take one that is two sizes bigger. With Philips head and Pozidriv you should not have to apply force and if you have to, stop and try a bigger screwdriver. If not you risk that the screw cams out.

Future repair work

I still have a few devices that I want to take a look at. First on my list is a Garrard SP25 Mk2 record player, which is suffering from the usual problems, and we need it to play some 78 RPM records to find out what's actually on it.