Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I recently acquired some vintage audio equipment from a friend that I work with. He lives in the Detroit area and I’m in Chicagoland so we met up in South Bend Indiana last weekend for lunch. All of it is an excellent condition and had an interesting story behind it. I find that the history, handoff between owners, and backstory is something to preserve. This is one of the pieces, a Teac reel to reel.
My 14 year old son and I stayed up late to work on this last weekend.
Upon initial testing, the left channel input was heavily distorted and lower than the right channel.
Performed some troubleshooting and determined that one of the transistors went bad, a 693. Replaced both channels with a 2SC1845, which is the Swiss Army knife replacement for many bad audio circuit transistors including this one. Also replaced six capacitors in each channel on the bias/EQ board.
Next, rubber restore was applied to all belts and rubberized parts - most were very dry, but not cracked or damaged.
Finally, removed old grease in a number of spots which had hardened and replaced with new silicon lubricant throughout. Also I nstalled a new tape counter belt.
Unit is working really well but the supply reel needs a little bit of a brake adjustment as it’s too tight. Also need to get out a calibration tape to adjust the EQ and bias. Right now the recording is a little overly brilliant when compared to the source, however it sounds great. An excellent piece to have in my collection!
On deck from the same grouping of equipment:
Yamaha CR-1000 receiver
Sansui AU-555A amplifier
Sansui QS-1 quad preamp
Advent cassette recorder (3M clone from early 1970s)
Pair of smaller speakers that appear to have been sold in the Detroit market at a small stereo shop chain in the early 70s.
I’m on vacation from work for a week and planning to catch up with a number of different things so I’ll be posting more.
I recently acquired some vintage audio equipment from a friend that I work with. He lives in the Detroit area and I’m in Chicagoland so we met up in South Bend Indiana last weekend for lunch. All of it is an excellent condition and had an interesting story behind it. I find that the history, handoff between owners, and backstory is something to preserve. This is one of the pieces, a Teac reel to reel.
My 14 year old son and I stayed up late to work on this last weekend.
Upon initial testing, the left channel input was heavily distorted and lower than the right channel.
Performed some troubleshooting and determined that one of the transistors went bad, a 693. Replaced both channels with a 2SC1845, which is the Swiss Army knife replacement for many bad audio circuit transistors including this one. Also replaced six capacitors in each channel on the bias/EQ board.
Next, rubber restore was applied to all belts and rubberized parts - most were very dry, but not cracked or damaged.
Finally, removed old grease in a number of spots which had hardened and replaced with new silicon lubricant throughout. Also I nstalled a new tape counter belt.
Unit is working really well but the supply reel needs a little bit of a brake adjustment as it’s too tight. Also need to get out a calibration tape to adjust the EQ and bias. Right now the recording is a little overly brilliant when compared to the source, however it sounds great. An excellent piece to have in my collection!
On deck from the same grouping of equipment:
Yamaha CR-1000 receiver
Sansui AU-555A amplifier
Sansui QS-1 quad preamp
Advent cassette recorder (3M clone from early 1970s)
Pair of smaller speakers that appear to have been sold in the Detroit market at a small stereo shop chain in the early 70s.
I’m on vacation from work for a week and planning to catch up with a number of different things so I’ll be posting more.
