Cassette deck help

[colinc1968]

Can anyone help I've a Yamaha K-340 deck and after about 3-5 minutes of playing a tape it starts to speed up then slow down and then completely stop...is it worth getting repaired or buying another one...new is out of my price range so it's got to be second hand....I've seen a technics rs-b40 is this a good reliable machine for its age....or can anyone recommend a decent second hand deck or website...any help would be much appreciated

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[Stuart83]

It's been my experience that commonly the belts and pinch rollers mainly wear or gum up causing mostly a slow down due to a consequence of slipping.
(Obviously you've tried a different tape to rule out the obvious)

A quick check by eye is looking at the rollers which should be a flat black, if shiny it's an instant indication of being worn out.

Both belts and rollers can be fiddly but you can replace them easily enough yourself after of course giving the mechanism a good clean, being a common generic problem YouTube has various tutorials to help you.

The speeding up can be more involving problem to repair but is well covered on the likes of the "tapeheads" website and if not wanting to repair by yourself then is possible by someone else that deals with them who can usually be found online.

It's always best to get it looked at first in view of cost to see if it's financially viable to repair or cheaper to just get something else.

All that said it's inexpensive to replace the most common issue of the belts and rollers yourself which might be the cause.

As far as a new deck comes in right now it's a good time in view of their market value being much lower for the lion share (I'm not talking rarities or collectables) of decks.

ebay using caution and PayPal is as good as any a place to start, recommendations should come from others but theres usually many a Yamaha in the KX range that offer good quality.
My last deck was a KX330 and lasted yrs until disappearing into the loft.
(There's one now there for 130 fully tested as working and serviced)

It reviewed well in its day and if I remember review as one of the best 2 head machines in its range.
I remember it was as good a player my 3- head aiwa at the time.

 

[ianrjones]

I have a TEAC 1050, It came in handy, when I was making mix tapes, and such for my Honda Civic, It had a radio/tape player.
But now my current car, plays CD's. Sometimes I would play some of those old tapes at home as I liked them.
Then the player started wowing, I could not stand the error, and simply stopped playing it. It is now under the bed.
I can't imagine dragging it out again, and repairing it. It's just history. All those TDK SA 90's are just junk.
But I am not disposing them, I am a chronic collecter. One day people will pay high prices for decent tapes.
Good luck,
IAN.

 

[good_enough]

I have had two good experiences on Ebay. the_hifi_guy sold me a yam 580se. It squealed. So why the recommendation? He took it back no questions asked and I got a refund. That's the sort of service that should be the norm.

classichifisrvcs sold me the nak I plumped for instead, which sounds peachy. He also does repairs.

I'd recommend either, if you decide to replace rather than repair, though as @Stuart83 says above, you've probably got all the instructions you need on tapeheads.net to replace belts and rollers as needed.

 

[Gray]

...All those TDK SA 90's are just junk.
But I am not disposing them, I am a chronic collecter.

A hoarder is what you are - it takes one to know one.
I still own just about every brand of blank tape, from Agfa to Yashima, including 52 year old Laskys ones.
Only ever recorded once on any tape - got hundreds including unopened blanks....plus a fair few brands of cassette decks 😜

 

[Rodolfo]

I'll guess it's a belt, and may be relatively easy and cheap to repair. Not that I've ever done it on any player I've owned.

I'll only reinforce your Technics interest. I have both a turntable and cassette player from the company. I have an RS-M240X that works fine for me. It sold originally in 1981 for $350 --equivalent to $1,215.43 today, remarkably enough. I was fortunate to see it listed locally for $40 last year and I jumped on it. It looks and works truly fine, so I'd say it is a "good reliable machine" indeed. The original owner had the original manual and included a de-magnetizing unit. A bargain indeed, though I haven't used it as much as I expected. Hope I don't have to open it up anytime soon.

I have a fully-functioning cassette player in my older car --along with a nice 6-CD in-dash player. I'm more likely to have some SA-90s or pre-recorded cassettes in the glovebox than CDs, though it's mostly for show and because I can. (In there is Rod Stewart's Vagabond Heart which was a gift way back then and is still a favorite in any format.) I mostly just Bluetooth to my nice stereo system through my older Samsung phone which connects automatically on ignition. I only have to press play or shuffle and launch.

Good luck recovering your cassette enjoyment.