I remember reading on one of the boombox forums recently that someone commented that they quite liked a boombox "Battle Scarred" as long as it's all complete.............I now understand what he meant!! Now most folk know that I like a minty boombox - Who doesn't? So back to April & I bought this big & heavy Panasonic harking from around 1979/1980 - I remember it well from the Panny brochures back then, just another stereo simply couldn't have afforded back then (Or for a long time to come it transpired) The listing said it had a couple of problems......No Shit! lol this poor old soldier had been worked hard for many years no question & as well as a fair few dings & marks on it's casing, it had some major issues internally too!! I chose to buy it for just £20 as I just love working on this era of Panny's - They were built to a ridiculously high standard using components of such high quality & even the cabinets, loudspeakers & power supplies were top notch - I think we just didn't know how good we had it back in 1980........... So, what do we have here?? A tuner that worked in mono & only on FM & a tape mechanism that had at some point completely seized up making any push buttons impossible to move - they were solidly locked where they were & the tape mechanism was, of course half stuck in play mode......... All the audio sliders were very poorly & gummed up with an unknown substance making them difficult to slide in either direction........ It was clear that this wasn't going to be easy sailing at all & in fact, I was looking at a completely different fish in the kettle to what I first anticipated.......... I decided that the whole shooting game would have to be dismantled & at that point wondered will I ever overtake the even keels with this poor patient!! Some time later the same day, I had the complete cassette deck in front of me - & what an amazing engineering feat it is......... I was able to determine two "Key" areas that were causing the "Core" problems with this beautiful deck - Dried grease on all of the steel plates that are meant to move sideways with ease & dried to the point of seizure........... The second problem was a small copper "Spring" that returns all the plates to their correct positions had just about "Petered Out" & was no longer doing it's job, it wasn't broken though which I thought was a godsend as I couldn't of repaired it! Time for the degreaser & surgical spirit treatment (Don't get either of these on the silver cabinet finish - they both strip paint in seconds) By the end of the afternoon, we had a completely clean set of plates ready to re-grease without removing any of them from the mechanism..............Did I say earlier that I love working on this era of Panny?? What was I thinking.......... I used a fine blade to slip a generous amount of grease between each plate & spread it as best I could! Now it was time to remove that pesky copper return tensioner & gently reform it's shape! Amazing! this component hadn't lost any of it's strengh & a careful few minutes saw this part restored with plenty of tension which was great news.......... So time to refit the tensioner & test the operation of the transport keys manually - It took a few run throughs of all modes to get the plates moving freely again, but all this trouble was worth it!! So we now have a working transport mechanism, just belts & pinch roller to replace & a drop of machine oil on the capstan shaft - A doodle on these decks, one flat belt is all it uses & a counter belt which as so often happens was in perfect shape & a nice brand new pinch roller completed the deck restore! The rest was pretty mundane & straightforward - clean every switch pot & contact over & over until they all moving with ease - I just hoped & prayed that the sound board sliders were not as worn out as my ex-wife - I wouldn't know until the reassembly process......... Now this model is not the easiest to put back together, add to that a ton of wiring & very well made reusable cable clamps that must be in the correct place before you can close the case up fully & of course the selector & mode switches that protrude through the top edge of the case! Add to that the many pluggable connectors that must go in the right place to avoid certain disaster & damage to the stero & it's quite a balacing act to achieve :O I write this up today as I have had so much else to deal with lately, not least a very naughty little Orange Cat! I have to keep stopping typing & keep him entertained fed & watered etc - He is so naughty but who cares? I adore him This afternoon was the time to conclude the restore & about time too! By now I was completely caught up with the tentyhooks as I hadn't tested anything stage by stage at all!! Cue: "All Gleaming Horns & Trumpets" Everything was spot on with no further adjustments or bits to do - Everything works & it sings once again & every single function works as it should!! Now I don't know if you're aware of this, but this stereo is LOUD!!! Lots of real power on tap & even at low volumes, it's loud!! Look at the two volume sliders to the right of the bass & treble ones - in the three videos, this beast was overloading my 4K camera's A.l.c. circuits & knocking the audio limiter hard!! & it's really in yer face loud! :O :O But remember: These Panasonics were really like that in the golden age & thank f**k we had such beasts back then! It goes without saying that this goes deafeningly loud should you wish it to!! A very happy owner here - An outstandingly stable cassette deck with decent heads feed a rich powerful amplifier & very heavy spokers - Did I mention that the tuner now works on all four bands & in stereo on FM! My Battle scarred but still very nice to own......... Just a few images here - Both forums seem to have stopped multiple uploads & I am not going to upload them one at a time!! Link to Hi-Res Images Below!! Et Viola: https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1!33254&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1 Hi-Res Images: https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1!33254&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1
Good going again there, Mr Eccles. The Panasonic RX-5300LE might not be a portable unit that springs to mind if I were to think of “Prettiest Boombox” contenders, but there’s an undeniable quality to its build. (A reminder of the “quality over prettiness” emphasis that electronics firms often placed “back in the day.”) Your large, clear photos of the repair process and its fruits – that handsomely restored, FM/MW/SW/LW single-deck Panny – certainly recommend browsing this topic. The 23 watts that the ‘5300LE runs on edge out the 21 watts that my Aiwa CS-600U draws from plugged-in (“mains”) use. As to the music, I didn’t recognize that “techno”-sounding, Eighties jam in the first clip. But the male vocalist’s refrain “It’s the look, it’s the look / The look of love” in the second clip was definitely remembered. A quick Google check shows that the song is “The Look Of Love,” one of the hit songs by the English band ABC on their reputedly excellent 1982 LP The Lexicon Of Love. What about clip number 3? Is that song also an ABC hit from The Lexicon Of Love? I only clearly noticed in that third clip that the formerly blank audiocassette you recorded the songs with has “ABC + Depeche” written on its label. But surely the vocals of Depéche Môde frontman Dave Gahan are too deep to be easily mistaken for those of ABC’s lead singer Martin Fry? (I looked those gentlemen up.) Other Stereo2Go members must be nodding their approval and maybe even suggesting a sale (to them, naturally ). Again, nicely done.
Depeche track is Photographic from their debut album Speak & Spell (1981) Side B Track 1 on the viynl LP! The other ABC track is All Of My Heart from Lexicon! Love the lush strings in the second verse - that's a magical sound from 1982
Nice Panasonic and it doesn't look too "Battle Scarred". I haven't seen one of these for decades but remember seeing them in a catalogue back when they were on sale and thinking how similar the styling, with tuner scale behind the controls on the top panel, was to the Sony CFS45 which I bought new back then. Regarding the synth tracks Speak & Spell was the only Depeche Mode album to have Vince Clark (who went on the form Yazoo then Erasure) as the songwriter. Back then Depeche Mode used the type of synths you could buy at your local music shop. In contrast the strings on The Lexicon of Love were from a Fairlight which back then was famous for costing more than the average house, so you would expect it to sound good.
Yes you can tell it's Vince Clark's production on S & S - What really impressed me (& Unknown to me at the time) was Vince left to do other things as we know well now..........So the boys had to get song writing pretty quickly!! The first song I heard after the departure of Clark was "Leave In Silence" which both then & now is astonishingly complex for the remaining band members to come up with & to this day, for me - The track is a masterpiece especially the 12" version! It's a dark gloomy track which always makes me feel it had a message in it somewhere, the scene set is very dark for sure!! I went off Depeche during the 90's only to realise much later how far they had progressed & released some outstsnding albums & singles! Gore's drug addiction produced some incredible songwriting (Doesn't it always!) 1989's "Leave In Silence" was a welcome return to their early 80's roots yet it is so well produced you kind of knew they were maturing! Iconic band no question.........As for S & S, I love Clark's sequencer melodies like in the track playing on the Panny - Second verse even more melodic delights...........I love music
Very nice, I like the Sony Style Radio Dial and the English Spelling. Did you get the wall wart with it? I noticed it has 13.2 volts, just like the Marantz Micro System.
