I picked both of these up at an estate sale today. The Toshiba is a model 921 that I think works but I’m not really sure how to tell. Does anyone have any information on this model? Also what are my options for actually using it?
My wife found out about an estate sale having their final day sale about an hour away from us and talked me into going because she said she saw an “old TV” in one of the pictures. I whined the whole way there about how it was pointless because everything would already be gone. Well boy was I wrong. Not only were these two still hanging around, but the company was desperate to get rid of as much as possible so I wound up walking away with a 32” Phillips and a 9” Toshiba for $27. Fear not, because I’ll also be paying the price of my wife’s smugness for quite awhile.
The Toshiba seems to work great. Good sound and picture. S-Video and composite inputs, and it came with the original remote. I just recently got a 32” JVC that I love so I doubt this will replace it, and I may wind up selling it…after I drag my N64 down to the garage and test it…
I know nothing about the Toshiba, and I’m not finding much online. It turns on and has pretty static. But I don’t have an RF modulator to test anything else. Does anyone have any information on this thing. I’m imagining this one living on my kitchen counter, but I’ll need some ammo if I’m gonna have that battle with my wife lol.
This is my collection of rescued and repaired cassette players I’ve gathered in the last 6 months. There’s a couple more not pictured that are either still being worked on, or pulling garage duty. The prices I paid for each of these ranged from $6 to $40 and not a single one of them was fully functional when I got them. Every single one got new belts, and vigorous cleaning, some had connections resoldered, and none of them were taken apart any less than twice lol.
I’ve learned a lot the past few months. Most importantly I’ve learned that it’s faster to spend 30 minutes digging through the internet for a service manual than to just dig in thinking I’m smarter than a team of engineers. I learned that it is very frustrating to record a 90 minute tape that sounds great on the deck that recorded it only to find that it’s too fast or slow on every other deck. I learned that it’s worth $30-40 to get a test tape than to listen to the same song 17 times trying to calibrate tape speed by ear. And I’ve learned that when you buy a cassette player listed as “working” off the internet, that will never actually mean “working well”.
I love these things. I love the different aesthetics from the different times they were released and the way they each have their own unique sound even playing the same tape. I’ve made mixtapes with all of them and while the Sharp puts out the best recorded sound to my ears, they all produce listenable tapes with ease. I’ve rediscovered the art of making mixtapes and now I spend hours of my free time cueing up playlists for my son to play in his Walkman.
At this point it’s become a hobby/form of therapy to find an old broken Walkman or boombox and spend a few hours breathing new life into it. I have more than I need and I’m constantly trying to sell them but I hate flippers so I try to find a price that recoups my costs and deters flippers but still stays a reasonable price so that hopefully a kid looking to get into the hobby can get themselves a machine that is ready to use. Because I think it can be discouraging to a new listener to either pay an exorbitant amount of money to a company like retrospekt, buy a cheaply made new one that will probably break, or risk buying something that that fixing. Anyways, if my wife asks, I got all these for free and they’ll sell for thousands of dollars.
TL;DR: it records but doesn’t play on one side.
I saw this CFD767 at goodwill and fell in love. I tested it before I bought it, powered on, radio worked. CD tray was stuck closed and cassette decks wouldn’t turn but I could hear motors working for all 3. I brought it home and opened it up. CD tray gears were dry and cruddy but after cleaning them it opens and closes like new and plays any CD I throw at it. I got the service manual online and followed the instructions for disassembly to get the tape units out. Belts were snapped but not completely melted so I cleaned up the pulleys, re routed new belts of a slightly smaller size than the old stretched ones. Reassembled in reverse order, scrubbed the capstans, rollers, and heads with IPA until the qtips came off clean. I know it will probably need new rollers but for now they at least function.
Here’s my problem. Tape Deck A plays just fine. Speed is slightly off, but no W/F. FF/Rev work fine. Multiple pre recorded tapes have played through it just fine.
Tape Deck B which is the record side has no volume. Tapes turn, direction button changes direction, FF/Rev work. I get a hiss when I press play like a blank tape but no music.
I tried recording from A > B and when I play it back on another player I can hear the recording, maybe slightly quiet but I’m not sure. I don’t think the high speed dubbing button to go from A>B is working but that could be a speed calibration issue.
I took it back apart and lightly cleaned every connection I touched the first time. I have a volt meter but no knowledge of what I’m checking for. But every connection I could see to check had a few hundred ohms of resistance. Nothing looks broken or loose, and other than dust it’s pretty clean inside.
I really like this thing and would like it work, but I’m at a loss for what to check next.
Not a crazy deal or a grail find, but after testing this 32” JVC out I’m really impressed. It’s got S Video, Component, and Composite inputs as well as the original remote. I have been using a 27” Sharp X Flat which I love, but I think this might actually look better, and the speakers are also pretty impressive. Does anyone know where I can find a resource to help fine tune the picture settings? There’s a million options in the service menu and I don’t know what most of them mean.
I’ve been working on this off and on for almost a month, it’s been slow because I’m recovering from shoulder surgery. I needed something to help hold my ever growing movie collection. Not pictured are the 390 DVDs and 100+ VHS. I did most of the grunt work of getting my lumber sized with a table saw but all of the dados, dovetails, and bevels were done with hand tools. The dovetails are gappier than I would like and it’s not perfectly square. But only fairly tall or very short people will notice and it hold movies just right.
The Process: I bought the lumber before I could even really use my bad arm. I let it dry in my garage for about a week before I started anything. My first step was getting the boards cut to glue up the bases. I used my trusty Disston to get approximate length and a Stanley no 6 to clean up the edges. Once those were glued I ripped my other board down to make the posts. I started with the dovetails because that’s usually where my projects go from project to scrap. I’m normally a pin-first guy but with my design I realized I wouldn’t be able to accurately trace into the tails so I switched it up. I did one test piece to prove to myself I could make it work and then went to town. Two of the dovetails were gappy enough I almost scrapped the whole thing, but my wallet beat out my pride. Next I used a laser level to get my spacing for my shelves and used a tenon saw, chisels, and Stanley no 71 to route the dados. I ripped the shelves down and for the first time in my life used edge banding. I didn’t like the look of the fronts with edge banding so I used some leftover walnut and ripped off some fronts. I decided around then that I don’t want a 17x17 flat spot in my carpet every time my wife rearranges the room so I put some 3/4” ply strips on the bottom to act as feet. Once it was all assembled I hit the whole thing with shellac and then all the touchy-showy pieces with poly. Then I begged my wife to help me carry it inside and spent the next 2 hours reorganizing movies. This has since become my BluRay only storage/temporary VHS storage which is why it looks so empty. It will fill up don’t worry.
Details for those who care:
-carcass is made of Peruvian Walnut
-shelves are 1/2” oak ply
-Total height: 64 1/2”
-Base 17 1/2 x 17 1/2(ish)
-estimated movie capacity: 380
-swivel is some Amazon chair replacement part because I wanted something strong enough.
Some things I learned:
- get better at math: the center divider isn’t perfectly centered, which means the movies on one side aren’t as fully supported by the outside post. And also it just looks off.
- get better at math: one of my posts wound up being almost an 1/8th inch wider than the rest because I guess kerf width matters.
- get better at math: I accounted for about 10% extra lumber for waste when I was buying it…I think I’m a 20% kind of guy.
-get better at math: my original plan for mounting the base and bottom to the lazy Suzan didn’t survive because it was impossible to get an Allen wrench far enough back to tighten the unit to the base. So I wound up having to bolt it from the top which was a very sad garage day.
After some advice from this sub, a lot of thrifting and scouring marketplace, and a little budgeting I’ve got the best setup I think I’ve ever had. The market for towers around me is super tough if you’re looking to spend less than 4-500 a pair. I read mixed reviews on Klipsch but I took a chance on a pair of Icon WF-35s and I think they sound amazing. Currently I’m running my old Sharp tape deck and JVC CD player through a Kenwood VR255 out to a Polk sub and bi-wired to the icons. I think I will probably get some isolation pads for the sub so I can listen to music after the family has gone to sleep but overall I couldn’t be happier with my $320 set up. $400 if you count the speaker wire and the components I wound up not using.
Hey everyone! So very recently I reinvigorated my passion for physical media, specifically tape and CD. I have impulsively picked up a hodgepodge of media equipment off marketplace and goodwill. My goal is to be able to listen to my tapes and CDs in my living room at a reasonable volume. I’m looking for quality and little thump, but nothing crazy.
My current set up is a Sharp SC600 tape deck that feeds into a Kenwood VR255 that runs to a set of Sony TS81s. The Sonys were part of a 5.1 system that came with a passive sub. I cannot get the sub to run off the Kenwood and without it, the sound just feels…off.
I’ve already sunk about $150 into the set up and I would like to keep my budget about that much or less to complete my setup.
These are local and have received decent reviews on here. So I’m wondering if these are worth making an offer on?