I'll admit it - I'm a dumpster diver!
I found this very nice looking Denon DRM-700 in the skip. I took it home with me. It looks pretty good, but has some scratches on the case. The power cord had been chopped.
I wired in a temporary power cord and to my surprise, it powered right up! The VFD lit up nice and bright and displayed a VU meter, "00:00" and a few other things. The unit makes a soft hum as it seems a motor is always spinning(?)
Then I found a blank cassette, inserted it into the deck, pressed play and it wouldn't move the spindle but did make a loud whirring sound. I tapped it a few times and it started moving. It seems temperamental to get started, but otherwise works fine.
I did eventually find an audio cassette with something recorded on it. (I don't even have CDs here - everything is digitised.) The VU meters on it did react to the tape. Unfortunately, no amplifier yet, so can't test that, but I suspect that will be fine.
Any idea on why the deck might slip occasionally? I've been warned about the belt slipping - could this be the problem?
I found this very nice looking Denon DRM-700 in the skip. I took it home with me. It looks pretty good, but has some scratches on the case. The power cord had been chopped.
I wired in a temporary power cord and to my surprise, it powered right up! The VFD lit up nice and bright and displayed a VU meter, "00:00" and a few other things. The unit makes a soft hum as it seems a motor is always spinning(?)
Then I found a blank cassette, inserted it into the deck, pressed play and it wouldn't move the spindle but did make a loud whirring sound. I tapped it a few times and it started moving. It seems temperamental to get started, but otherwise works fine.
I did eventually find an audio cassette with something recorded on it. (I don't even have CDs here - everything is digitised.) The VU meters on it did react to the tape. Unfortunately, no amplifier yet, so can't test that, but I suspect that will be fine.
Any idea on why the deck might slip occasionally? I've been warned about the belt slipping - could this be the problem?