Philips D8644 Stereo Radio Recorder - January 2018

Been a while since I bought anything let alone posted..................

This arrived just after Xmas in a right state (dirty) but complete nonetheless

Stripdown took place soon after arrival - tape deck belt was very slack, easy fix so I thought!

Noticing that there was no gear damage, I changed the one drive belt & one counter belt......

So good so far - In fact, I got as far as achieving a nice working deck (still out of the stereo) & as I stopped the tape after adjusting azimuth & speed (Always both out on Philips machines) there was a catastrophic failure of the head block loading gear (Orange)

I forgot to take any images of the deck when split for belt change & when I took a peek at the gears after the ratchet noise!! lol

I will find another deck as it's a common mechanism used in many stereo's of the time - So if any of you in the UK have one I can buy for parts, that would be awesome!!

I will fix this as these things are f**king party machines

Reno has been on at me over the phone to get it up on the forums, curious as I was to hear this huge boomer & it doesn't disappoint! In fact this is the first one to completely overload my Samsung S7 Edge's stereo microphone limiter such is the power & depth of the bass response

The tuner & amp work perfectly as do the speakers - I can't wait to get the cassette deck going even if I have to buy another machine with the same deck!!

In short: The sound is really good, very powerful & forget the video audio quality, it sounds so sweet with crazy but well rounded bass & sparkling highs, way more than I expected & it just affirms that this needs a donor deck to make 1 that works properly!!

I quite like working on Philips stuff & am often left wondering how did this thing ever work???

Truth is, when a Philips does work correctly they can sound so good & often do!!

I know some don't care much for them but I have always a soft spot for Philips!!

I cut my teeth on servicing Philips Vcr's in the late 80's & early 90's that used the 'Charley' deck - an absolute nightmare until you understand how to repair them!! I kid you not, I made a small fortune for a few years as no one else locally would touch them! Could do at least 3 or 4 a day if needed & the local repair shops kept them coming Happy days they were!!

Here she is anyway: The Mighty D8644 Boomer

 

Hope you fix it. I wonder if the VCR repairs you refer to were the infamous Philips "Lego" all plastic deck was sometimes mentioned in Television magazine. If so it looks as if this uses a similar construction.
Some memories for you https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=85058

Looking back to 1985 Argos it was the most expensive boombox they sold by some margin, the next most expensive being the twin cassette Sharp QT77.


Quite an investment back then (BoE inflation calculator shows £556 in todays money).

p.s. Didn't it come with the Party Popper and Cocktail glass

 

Yeah those are the decks mentioned in television magazine, in fact I learnt how to do em armed with only a copy of the mag - when you done one the others get easier & easier

 

Classy looking old Phil fella, Nick, speakers' square design remind me of my those in my fav Sharp WF-939/940..

 

Never knew it was a soft touch deck, cool It sounds pretty good.

 

That was a really good sounding boombox I remember.

I know where I can get those speakers in good condition but are they worth anything without the machine itself ?

 

To answer my own question...
Yes I couldn’t resist them and wow they actually sound surprisingly good,
at least one of them
The other one needs to be opened up to fix a lost connection.
Do you happen to know how to do it? and if so what can I expect inside?
What’s the Philips woofer and tweeter model numbers inside?

 

I have no idea at all........I would suggest that the front comes off to service/repair!
I can't get to mine at the moment - boom room is being prepped for shelving & painting & the 8644 is right at the bottom of the pile!!

 

Ok thanks for your reply
I managed to open it without any severe damage but found out that the two units are mounted from the inside

 

Its a bit unusual to see that MADE IN AUSTRIA "country of origin" tag (currently peeling away) on the rear panel of this Philips D8644 -- or, heck, on the rear panel of any radio that wasn't made before I was born (or right after I stopped being in diapers SMH). You know: that "back in the day." (Shrug) Unusual also is the layout of the cassette-deck keys, including "WIND" denoting "FAST FORWARD" or "CUE."

Stating MADE IN AUSTRIA, in spite of the fact that the uncluttered, relatively angular looks of this ten-batteries, three-piece unit make this stereo look very "contemporary" Japanese in both design and build. ("Very 'contemporary Japanese'" in influence, anyway.)

The 68-watt power consumption, while not room-shuddering, should definitely be party-ready. (Complete with techno vocals that sound a bit like the late Donna Summer, I shrug to say.)

Well, enjoy good sounds with your vintage finds ('til you're God-smacked).

 

I've never liked Philips, their engineers seem to have had an overly anal desire to make everything as lightweight as possible. Not only by using plastic decks (with plastic gears that often crack), but also plastic speaker baskets in many models!! And they often used cheap piezo tweeters or wizzer cones instead of proper cone tweeters. In addition, the speaker boxes were usually thin, brittle plastic which introduced boxy sound artifacts into the audio (especially with the D8734, D8718, and D8554). When you open up the speakers of those models, you will laugh.

But THIS model looks the business, with particle-board speakers, 11 kg weight, and 85cm long. Other members have reported that it's damn powerful and loud. I'd be interested to learn what model amp chips it uses.

 

It is powerful & bass heavy - However the line in on Philips units were never much good, even my D-8614 phono type line in jacks are at a pitiful low level just like this model! The key is getting the cassette deck fixed (I now have new gears for it) & I can pretty much guarantee that the tape deck will really deliver the goods.........We shall see soonish!

 

Just got a D8644 with a defective cassettedeck. 3 gears are broken. I like to know if the gears are still available. I can only find one type of gear instead of the three different kinds I need. I hope somebody can help me.

 

Quite common issue for Philips machines - thoswe gears' material couldn't stand all those years.

Trying to find them in similar models, 3D printing or easier ways of gears remodelling can help here:

http://square-2.com/philips-d-8444-resurrection/

 

You can buy all three here:
Gear wheels (3pcs) for PHILIPS D8443, GRUNDIG RR700, MAGNAVOX D8443 +others
description says:
Fits for mechanism RT15 :
GRUNDIG RR700, RR710
PHILIPS D6260, D6530, D6600, D6650, D7030, D7140, D7240, D8007, D8050, D8060, D8087, D8088, D8234, D8334, D8443, D8444, D8534, D8543, D8644, CTR745, AQ5190
Magnavox D8443, D8444

 

This is now a work in progress - gears & deck rebuilt, now waiting till I have the patience to solder all the wires that do an 'Auto Drop Off' as you move the deck around! Took loads of images & I know where they all go anyway! deck now functions as it should so hopefully not long now...........

 

Auto Drop Off -

These last few weeks I am dealing with the same ‘auto-f***-up” of Sony D-7 Discman: flipped the mainboard to get to laser adjustment pots, but the board landed on metal surround and shorted everything there is to short there! Once finally out of my limited desk space I will get to The Elephant that St Nick sent my way

 

Let us know the code number printed on the amp chip(s)....I want to know how powerful this thing is!

 

According to the servicemanual, the Philips D8644 uses an AN7166 chip in bridged mode per channel.
The AN7166 outputs 2x5.5 W in 4 Ohms. In bridged mode this should be something like 10W?

 

So it has two of those chips, right?