show your newest vintage electronic entry !

Sorry to be a thread hijacker extraordinaire but while I have the attention of a few of you in regards to this player I'm having a tricky time rectifying the opening and immediately closing CD tray issue.
I had wrongly assumed that it would be a single position sensor/sender as in 'most' CD players but then I should have realsied that Nakamichi don't do like 'most' other manufacturers and hence, on removing the top panel for a butcher's inside that the CD assembly uses 2 contact switches fore and aft, triggered by the tray stopping position at either end of the travel.
The position sensor at the ejected position is obscured by the top of the tray assembly that looks like an absolute chew to remove. The manual talks about taping various parts in position before removal of other parts, presumably to maintain a datum position or such. What a faff.
In any case, that's the sort of procedure I know I'll make a total ballsup of so I'm not going to attempt it just to clean the contacts...just to find out the problem will most probably be something totally different.

Any ideas? Or do I just bite the bullet and go for the upper assembly removal?
I suppose it's character building type stuff - diving into the unknown. God knows I've had to do that with various cars over the years so it won't be an entirely new experience.


Alternatively, I could just learn to live with it and use Granville's technique with grabbing the change from Arkwrights cash register -I have about 2 seconds to either take a CD out or put one in. With concentration and dexterity I could possibly manage it. LOL


Position sensors arrowed red

Close up of the topside aft sensor

Removing the top of the tray assembly. Yay or nay?

CD insertion/removal would go something like this:

 

That is an awkward design. I had the problem you describe with a Denon drawer loading cassette deck, and the position sensing switch contacts were easily accessible on the side of the mechanism. It took longer to take the lid off than to clean them and restore normal operation.

In your case have you tried a quality contact cleaner like Electrolube or Deoxit? They usually come with long tubes to reach hard to get at places. Looking at your photos you might want to position the deck upside down or on its side so it drips into the contacts rather than onto other parts.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. However I would need to get to the top-side of the forward sensor to clean the switch contact surfaces effectively. Squirting from underneath won't be effective and it's not ideal anyway.
It's not even possible to use a long straw to squirt in contact cleaner as it is totally obscured by the black plastic tray.
I use Kontakt PRF 6-68 and 7-78 usually.
I will live with the issue for now and maybe I'll eventually get around to addressing it.
I noticed when cleaning the case with IPA that there was tar stains on the cloth afterwards but the unit doesn't have that usual smoker's stench. It's actually not even an unpleasant odour that's been left behind so I'm assuming the previous owner was burning joss sticks or something. Idk what the oil/tar content of those things is but they definitely left a light residue over everything and I presume this is what may be casuing the tray issue.
I gave the laser lens a clean and lens assy rails a good clean/lube for good measure. Otherwise it's a pretty clean deck. No scrtches or gauges which is nice.

 

nice ELAC, i do have one exactly the same

and now back to the off-topic (TDA analog converter):

yes, the TDA1541 has due to 16 bits the higher dynamic range . however, increasing it beyond the range necessary for music playback has no effect on detail fidelity or balanced playback. this is due to the complexity of the converter's internal shift register, which is 40% higher in the TDA1540. this results in the more detailed midrange and the more balanced proportion of the entire playback area. with more than sufficient dynamic reserve and thanks to the double-mono design with consistent channel separation, the TDA1540 is the right analog converter. besides quite a few other players, the OMS-5/7 have two of those - the later OMS-5/7 II do have 2x 16-bit Burr-Brown PCM 54 KP.

enough smartass now

 

my newest entry not old but a playstation 5, can't wait for a 75" tv to go with it

 

got this beauty from local ebay: ca. 1975 Sony HMK-70

tt was fooked - platter-bearing, a friend made me a new one and off course needed a belt, headshell was missing.
funny the tapedeck is working. amp too, as well as the radio part:

 

Nice. That would have been a middle managers pride and joy back in 1975.
I have seen similar Sonys fitted with Garrard decks.
https://picclick.co.uk/Vintage-Sony-HMP-40-Music-Centre-Garrard-MkIV-Record-124485497492.html
The way the deck fits into the cabinet it would be very easy for them to change to a locally sourced one, depending on what the import taxes etc were for a particular market.

p.s I just looked in the 1975 Dixons catalogue and I found

The equivalent of about £830 in 2021 money.
Yours looks to have a nicer cassette deck so could have been over £1000 inflation adjusted.

 

Beautiful @autoreverser seeing it from your photos makes it much better than from my small catalog

 

Very nice all-in-one unit, autoreverser!

I picked up an Actron PE-304 at my local thrift store in as-is condition for $20. Disassembled it, lubed the linkage for the BSR record changer, cleaned all of the tape path for the 8-track deck and ordered a new stylus for the cartridge. Once that was done, I gave the exterior some cleaning. I bought some inexpensive speaker adapters for the RCA connections on the back, too.











And a video of it playing a record:



Nando.

 

it‘s a beauty - after all it will burn longer than my Sony

 

it‘s not an idler-drive, it‘s a belt-drive. in fact, the tt is a Sony PS-5100

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/sony/ps-5100.shtml

 

Proof that such systems made it to North America. I was going to comment on the 8 track, but know they were far more popular there. In Europe they were going out of fashion by the mid 1970s.

Your internal photos show how manufacturers could buy bits in (like the record deck and cassette deck) and stick them in a case to make a system. From being the latest thing at the start of the 1970s they were going out of fashion here by the start of the 1980s. A teenage friend bought one of these (the tuner amp) and built his own system.

Of course it didn't end up looking as good as a bought one but cost him about half the price. An important point was that systems like the ones you have shown hadn't really started appearing on the second hand market back then. In contrast, you could hardly give Radiograms away, but most were so big you would have had difficulty transporting one in the cars most people had those days.

 

In contrast to Executive Music Centres, here is the sort of thing they might have bought their kids.

At £15 I definitely overpaid for this in a local charity shop, although the money will end up going to a worthwhile cause, plus it looks absolutely new complete with box, polys, and instructions. Testing it I have just discovered why. Extremely weak audio with background motor noise. I will need to investigate. It wouldn't surprise me if a wire has fallen off the head or a capacitor has dried out.

p.s. It is slightly older than I thought and seems to have a Commodore connection

 

Finally, I made a video about the JVC GD-DVL9000.