So Today................. I decided to try & repair an identical generic walkman to the one I had as a 15 year old in 1981 I bought this 4 years ago for £10 & had been after one since I lost mine sometime back in 1982 Mine was from Argos (Of Course!!) & was badged as a Harvard LMR-1.......... This Unisef TU-1 Stereo Cassette Player is the same in every way & has been waiting to be repaired since I got it! The problems were minimal really - Belt had turned into a strange shape & the volume sliders were both seized solid!! Belt changing means lifting the Pcb being very careful not to snap any of the tiny wires from the board & other places they run to! Belt was quite easy to change - I don't like doing walkmans of any kind.......I am too old now & no longer have the steady hands/fingers needed for personal stereo repairs Anyway, belt on & I kept looking at it while I freed the volume sliders with Servisol along with the tiny leaf switch that turns the motor on, but I was very uncertain about the new belt being on correctly - it just didn't look right as you can see in the close up images I took! Strangely though - It WAS right & so was playbeck speed! Result Just a tweak on the azimuth adjustment to bring this little gem up to standard!! What can I say?? After carefully reassembling it, I put the headphones on & was astonished at the playback from such a lowly unit Thing is in 1981, the cheaper end of the market wasn't like from 1985 onwards - You still got a metal case, decent build quality & reliabilty! Also the finish is very nice - Like a Sony but without the 'Talk Line' & other features........Just a stereo cassette player sold in a time where you also got a powerful output chip!! This thing goes loud & effortlessly too!! The Sound?? I will say this: This machine has no right to sound as stunning as it does, neither did I expect excellent stabilty the tape transport provides Load a decent Chrome cassette recorded on my Technics deck & the sound is rich, full with lots of analogue warmth!! I had a good day today getting this repaired - Am delighted to own a childhood memory again & listen as we all did in wonder back then of stereo sound you could take with you!! As a footnote, I must add - In 81 when I bought the Harvard, the earphones went straight in the bin & I bought a pair of walkman style Audio Technica phones for £15 I remember which of course transformed the sound!! Wish I still had those too! They were stunning sounding headphones.................. Et Viola:
Congrats on finding and fixing this personal grail! Looks very proper with its carry case. Wow, that belt looks very weird, like it's going to fall off at any minute! But I suppose it's a common belt path for walkmans if the motor is mounted perpendicular to the pulleys?
wonder if original belt had round cross-section? when restoring Teac A-100 I substituted counter belt for the square one, and it constantly flipped making an annoying sound.
I will have to give you the benefit of doubt on this one Nick as both myself and Retromash are missing the Autumn 1981 catalogue In Spring 1981 the only personal stereo Argos offered was the Binatone Hip-Fi. By Spring 1982 the range had expanded to: 15 in 1981 - You are making me feel old I didn't get a personal stereo until a year or two later but that was because 1981 was an expensive year for me buying my: First Computer (ZX81) First Car (Ford Escort 1100L) A car radio A car cassette player and finally a CB radio.
The Sony WM-2 and TPS-L2 have a very similar belt path. I saw this unit come up for sale a lot locally, but have never picked one up. Being a cheaper unit, the metal case seems to get more easily corroded than your better Sonys, Aiwas and the such. Most I found are quite in a sorry looking... Internally, I never though these were that type of motor. That's quite interesting to see.
Nice unit to get restored, memories of days gone by can be triggered by a unitvlike this. Great job as usual.
Was definitely Argos but I too have had no luck hunting the Harvard LMR-1 down ☹ was perhaps not stocked for long at all? The Binatone Hip-Fi was the same era no question!
WM-2 and TPS-L2 have different belt path. The walkman that Nick placed here has a look of TPS-L2 but the belt path looks like WM-2
Perhaps I generalized too much... Yeah, it's almost identical to the WM-2. The TPS-L2's motor is on the opposite side, and the pulley is much smaller, but overall it has a similarly twisted belt path due to the motor being perpendicular to the capstan.
Whoa! And I thought only the Chevy Corvair ever dared to make a drive-belt do such contortions. It's good you were able to replace the belt on it... Some units I've opened case on unbelievably easy--like my Crown SZ-11--while others are impossible, like my Ampex open-reel 2176. One look and I was like "Uh... no."
