Just one more Crown, I promise, the Crown CRC-9800F. This one looks really tasty for the Kangaroo Collectors, I've never seen this before, maybe JDM only? Beware the FM band is JDM and the cassette player is most likely mono but this is super cool, I wish the photos were a little better. I think they called it a Super Crown because there is a Super Crown Briefcase Company. This has to be one of the first removable cassette units, while Olympus patented several modular microcassettes, most of them were add-ons without a base unit. Edit: This sold, sorry for not posting the link.
This is cool, a Maxell Robot Battery Display. I bet there aren't many of these around. https://www.ebay.com/itm/353490073367?
AIMOR AD-708 Compo, I've posted a few ads for this in the brochure section, I don't think any of them had the killer case with it. Of course the suitcase, travel case boomboxes are my favorite but I don't see a battery box for this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/265954921595? Feel free to post any stuff you see!
I bought a similar item from a charity shop. The BASF 9341. It's in great condition visually. Like new. It also has the original BASF microphone with the orange windbreaker (I think that's what they are called?). The radio is perfect, but the tape when it plays just has a screeching sound. No audio coming from the tape. If the radio is perfect, this means that the overall unit amplifier is fine but the tape circuitry could be faulty. The tape is running at normal speed, all the belts are fine. Does anybody have a schematic for this model so I can fault find it? Thanks.
I don't see the manual on the google over here, I usually search "BASF 9341 .pdf" and look in the images section. Is the tape screeching or the motors? Try the tape in another machine, if it still screeches the tape probably went bad, if it's the motors, some of the spindles (0r motors) might need a drop of oil. Cool deck, I have a soft spot for the 70's single speaker models.
Thanks. I think the BASF 9320 is identical from looks anyway. But can't find that either. I can find the circuit diagram of the 9320 but no PCB layout. The amplifier when the tape is playing is screeching and noisy. Statically and clicky. There is no noise whatsoever on the radio. Just pure high end audio. Incidentally it is the cleanest FM is have heard on a radio in a long time. Amazing quality. Huge bassy sound. There is no semblance of whatever tape audio I am playing whatsoever. Just noise. If I had the schematic and the position of the components, I would know where to start probing.
I don't know your skill level but have you tried cleaning the controls with contact cleaner? I'd start with the RADIO/CASS switch.
I am pretty good once I know where everything is. I cleaned the tape/Radio switch and that is fine. I checked with the multimeter.
The internal Record / Playback switch (usually on the PCB) is another part that often causes problems. If the contacts are dirty the head might not be being fed through to the amplifiers.
After looking at the recent Binatone Hip-Fi pictures I did a search on eBay. No Hip-Fis but I did spot this which made me think of @Mister X https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/tv-radio-cassette-recorder-combination-unit-by-binatone-/175479624861 An unusual screen size, maybe 9". I'm sure there would have been AKAs of this sold elsewhere in the world. The styling of the power button next to the Tuner is a give-away. In other markets that would have been for a VHF tuner, but there was no point in fitting that to a U.K. market product as from about 1970 all stations have been on UHF.
It's kind of homely but I wouldn't toss it, I love the Space 1999 looking screen surround. I just picked up a classic micro-TV, I'll be posting it soon, hopefully it works ok.
They were shooting themselves in the foot by taking out VHF for the UK market. The Republic of Ireland had the same PAL system but used mainly VHF. They had UHF transmitters as well, but mainly VHF. So, they eliminated one potential market in doing that. Even in Northern Ireland nobody would buy this device as 70%-80% of the NI population had a tendency to watch the Irish channels on VHF. The Unionists would never admit to watching RTE but they all did if they could get it. Especially if there was an exclusive movie or sports event on. A lot of people in Wales watched the Irish channels too.
Somebody needs to put together a documentary on TV channels, we had three "networks" on VHF and a few "independents" on UHF, over time more kept showing up on UHF and if you played with your antenna enough, and a storm was rolling through, you could get all kinds of channels over here.
Just watching the newest Techmoan, it looks like Audio-Technica has released a limited edition Sound Burger, unfortunately it's sold out... https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at-sb2022
I can imagine the complaints from people in Birmingham "VHF doesn't work as I can never receive anything" Actually until 1985 people would have got an unwatchable rolling 405 line picture like a negative. Regarding transmitters, in Bristol a friend lived on the top of a high hill (Dundry) and had a TV with a rotary tuner. Just using the loop antenna on the top we once tuned through the UHF band and got about five versions each of the same three stations, although none with a perfect picture due to interference from yet more transmitters. This site is interesting if you are in the U.K. https://tx.mb21.co.uk/
Another model that @Mister X might like. For the person who wants to be able to watch TV and copy tapes probably all with terrible quality, Again this is UHF only although the tuning dial looks as if it was wide enough to include UHF bands. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155004282624 I suspect this one is missing a speaker. That was probably the one someone managed to fit in their bin.
It must display better with the speaker upside down? I feel like a room of kids with LEDs and markers could design a better facia, why do the inexpensive players always look cheap?
I also love the way they highlight the 'features' on units like this, 'soft eject' 'high speed dubbing' as if they are unique to this product, when in reality, they are so short of worthwhile features they have to highlight the poor ones they do include!
Or "Stereo" or "Auto Stop" or "2-Way Speakers" (when one of those speakers is just a cheap piezo tweeter from a talking greeting card)
When I was 10, somebody gave me this Saisho stereo for Christmas. Junk, Garbage. The thing is I had about 20 pre-recorded cassettes. When I went from Play to Fast Forward, the permanent erase head would still be in play and would erase a bit of the pre-recorded tape. You had to press Stop before Fast Forward to avoid this. I ended up ruining three or four pre recorded cassettes before I realised why it was doing this.