Well, as I said in my presentation post, I have acquired a Harvard LMR-1. It was sold with the original packaging, headphones, case at give or take £20. The owner told me that it wasn't working really well, but having read a lot about cassette players, I knew that it might simply need a cleaning and a pair of new belts. So I bought it in a shot, changed the belt, cleaned it, and here it is, fully functional. Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 8, 2019 at 6:17 PM Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:34 PM Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:34 PM Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:34 PM Harvard LMR-1 with case and headphones by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:35 PM Harvard LMR-1 with case. by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:35 PM Harvard LMR-1's circuits by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:36 PM Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 11, 2019 at 1:33 PM
Great photos Mossback, those early clones are so interesting, new versions are popping up all of the time. I like the internals, they actually look kind of heavy duty.
Thanks! From what I understood, those models go all the way back to 1981. I wasn't aware at first of the craze around the 1st Sony Walkman (TPS-L2 I believe), and I was simply really interested in having the "window" where you can see the cassette play. I love having this visual/physical relationship with the music I listen to, but most personal cassette players I came across seemed to be windowless... Anyway, I'm happy of my first cassette player purchase and I look forwards to get my hand on more of them (I am really interested in the Sony WM-10 and WM-24). It was kind of a pain to change the second, smaller belt as I couldn't raise the chip more than what you see on the picture, but I managed, somehow... haha.
Are you missing a pulley. In the last photo closest to the bottom the belt seems to be riding directly over a metal bracket.
Oh no ^^ Those were the old belts. I put it this way in order to access more easily the tyres to clean them.
I had one of these in 1981 brand new from Argos! £27.00 it cost me & after junking the dreadful headphones & buying some Audio Technica walkman style style phones it sounded amazing for a cloney (Very well built by Orion) & I loved mine!
Harvard is exactly the type of company you would expect to sell a Cloneman via Argos. However, I suspect their most profitable yearwas when they sold the Bush and Alba brand names (which until they bought them had been genuine manufacturers) TO Argos for £15.25 million. p.s. our local Argos closed down during the pandemic and is now a sort of Bric-a Brac market. The type of place that will sell you bead curtains and a Hogwart's School or Albert Square sign. They are using the entire shop including the rear and upstairs stockrooms so it was interesting to see how big they were. I'm sure I spent far more in that Argos than I will ever spend in there. In the entire large shop the only interesting things I spotted were a Philips record player and a 1970s Commodore Calculator.
