A Reel Person said:
Dr ZEE, do u think you could completely refurbish a Roberts 990 and an Akai whatever-model, or would it be fodder for some of your "frankenstereo" projects??
Yeah... grrrrrrrr I wish I was professionally trained in the field.
..especially when it comes to tubes ... I'm like doing something and triple-check every step and every move , looking over my shoulder... so not to get killed ...heh heh , and I only wish to ACTUALLY clearly know what the hell I am doing.
Dave, I can't really say what the machines like this clearly are good for. I love this stuff... but we are talking here about something that is really hard to reason with... all based on subjective matters, imho
You, know, I've mentioned it somewhere in the past... I used to have solid-state roberts machine very similar (if not exactly the same) as the akai in your post with ear-plates
and 8-track... You know what I did to it... I simply trashed it as it was ... and it was in perfect working order. Arghhhh.... that was the time when the very first sony mini-disc decks got out ...and I've got myself one... (and was it like 600 bux or so???? something like that
) I thought I was ahead of the time :... why keepping a "piece of useless junk"??? - What a bone-head!!!!!...
Anyway, Dave.. as I can tell, restoring machines like this is only justifiable if you really enjoy doing it for a moment. Cleaning and shining is sort of easy ... if you have time of course..., but when it comes to actually fixing electronics and do some more sophisticated sh*t ... that's a different story. It's hard for me, because I have to search every singly piece of info ... too much headache, really
I'm working on ampex tube little machine project at the moment. What for? - Good question. I've got that thing in half working condition and with no-body(case)... cleaned it up, got the mechanics running ok, had to replace play head... then tested it and found out that it IS actually amazing piece of equipment
...well, for specific tasks, I guess. But it sounds great and has some sort of character to it (if I may use this kind of rhetoric here)... and most interesting part for me is, that it can be used as two chnl mic tube pre/line pre or even 4-chnl tube mixer (sort of). The damn thing got no one single transitor in it, you know
... that's COOL in my book
...so I've got my nose into and have decided to build something out of it. Bassically I've made the case, added all needed in/out(s) as front panel, added motor on/off "function" ..so I can use it just as preamp, some other smaller mods around. At the moment it's in its mid stage. Mostly all the electrical parts done and assembled.... will work on cosmetics, wood finishing and what ever may hit my brain in the process... maybe will add couple of big VUs ...gotta have them
I've made bunch of pics on the way... maybe some day I'll set the pages at website with some details etc... I have some working photos/charts on the server already... but nothing is organized yet...
here is:
wiring mods and front in/outs panel assembling shots
play head replacement shots
I have case building photos and more... but it'll take time when I get it all organized on the server...
I'll attach a small photo here as the machine is at the moment.
/later
