Sony TC136SD cassette deck

[martin.m]

I bought this new in 1977 after it got a good review in one of Angus MacKenzie's guide books. After buying a CD player in the late 1980s the Sony was wrapped up and taken out of service, until yesterday. Much to my surprise everything worked fine and I was able to listen to home recorded cassettes that hadn't seen the light of day for over 30 years. Does anyone remember the blank cassettes that were on sale in the late 1970s? New old stock "vintage" Chrome types can sell for big money these days. Are there any more old cassette decks out there still in active service?

[Uncle Bulgaria]

That's a fine looking machine you have there!

Yes - I buy new music on cassette (there are a few labels where it is their only offering, and even some that only use floppy disks!) and have a few decks.

I am fixing up a Uher CR240 at the moment to mount under the glove compartment in my car. While I replaced the broken Radiomate cassette deck in there with a CD radio, I wanted the tape functionality too as I have a number of audiobooks for long journeys on tape. And cassettes are just fun and less likely to get broken or scratched like a CD in the car...

A shop in the market sells new cassettes of all types including IVs, and not expensively.

[whiskas]

Nice deck, Martin. =)
I have a similar Sony TC-134SD - boxed and in almost as new condition.
It needs some TLC - dried out rubber belts etc - hopefully one day I'll get round to doing it.
[I have an Aiwa deck which is technically better, so the idea of fixing the Sony has taken the back seat for many years.]
Cassettes are a better medium than many think if you have a great deck and quality tapes.
And, they are great retro enjoyment to use, bringing back many fond memories...

[captainpugwash]

Good morning Martin,
Up to a week ago when it suffered another mechanical breakdown I have been using a Goodmans SCD100 which I think is a rebadged Nakamichi 500-how bizarre is that.
The deck has performed faultlessly and still makes great recordings.It was bought yours ago when decks were ten a penny.
Yes, halcyon days when you spent hours making compilation tapes for the car rather than the 27 seconds (bit of an exaggeration I know) it now takes to make a cd compilation.
Coincidentally I bought some new Sony chrome tapes at the boot sale at Rosemount last Friday.
Kind regards,
David

[TIMTAPE]

I'm surprised the deck still works well after all that time. There's an idler wheel pivot bearing which notoriously seizes up due to the original grease going hard, and I would have expected the main belt to have stretched, perished or even broken long ago.

[Nickthedentist]

I have one of these, from Studio263 on this site. Lovely machine and works well.

I bought it because it reminded me of the TC-131 which was the first stereo machine I bought as a young teenager, from a jumble sale for about £1. Fond memories.

N.

[martin.m]

I can remember spending hours compiling mix tapes to play in the car. If your music is on computer it's easy to make up a playlist and then transfer it to tape. MP3 tracks can be at different volume levels so I use a free program called MP3 Gain to equalise them first. As you say Whiskas, cassettes can give very good sound quality and using them brings back so many memories. Are new cassettes still being manufactured?

[Refugee]

An Aiwa followed me home today.
It is missing the clear dust cover and mains lead but is is otherwise in good low mileage condition with all the knobs still there.
I am hoping that it does not have goo belts

[martin.m]

Lovely machine. No one makes equipment like this anymore.

[Refugee]

Originally Posted by martin.m

Lovely machine. No one makes equipment like this anymore.

I will do a new thread when I take the back off.

[dave walsh]

I have quite a few machines left, Martin, that I use for playing back the archive but unlike a number of Forum members, I don't use them for recording anymore [although they still function]. I made my first cassette recordings circa 1977, when I realised the quality could actually now be rather good. The C90 and C30 lengths etc also fitted nicely with BBC Radio programmes. I seem to have continued until as late as May 2006 [there are some from 2010 though]. It could be that other options might not have always been available or I was doing multiple recordings at the same time. My rough listings suggest that 20 pages [1977-Nov 84]=965 cassettes. Dec 84-Feb 99 is 28 pages and Nov 98-Feb 06 40 pages

In the early days, a primary usage was transferring [especially new] vinyl to cassette [as 45 minutes=both sides of an LP]. [I hoped to rescue my vinyl from repeated use]. As I have said before, my biggest regret is that I felt a bit overwhelmed at one point and dumped a number of items that it seemed could not be repaired, including high end automatic reverse cassette recorders. Unfortunately, it was quite some time later before I discovered the Forum-ah well

Dave W

[Edward Huggins]

As with the Vinyl revival, most major brands, especially. those from Japan, have re-introduced mid range turntables - so I wonder if this will ever happen to cassette decks?
Yamaha and Sony continued to make cassette decks into the early 2000s, but I am not aware of any new re-introductions during 2019.
Some years back I bought a large quantity of Reel-to-Reel (Quantegy) and Cassette (TDK SA-90) blank tapes to future-proof myself against shortages of this media and I'm glad I did.

[Mooly]

I had a TC136SD as a youngster to partner my newly built 'Harversonic' (was it ?) germanium amp kit that was advertised in PW etc around the mid 70's. It was a very capable deck as a I recall, one that I clocked up a high millage on.

[ajs37]

I built a Linsley Hood cassette deck (kit from Hart Electronics) in the late 1970's - the design featured in WW - I also built the WW Dolby noise reducer from a kit (Integrex) and the WW Nelson Jones varicap tuner. I used these for over 10 years with a Sinclair Project 60, Sugden Connoisseur BD1 / SAU2 / M75 - I even built my own speakers, using polystyrene flat panels and contiboard!
I still have most of this stuff wrapped up in my water-tight garage - and although I gave away most of my tapes when CDs came along, I kept a few favouries and use them on a macine in my study. I remember, like others, making mix tapes to listen to in the car - some of which I stiil have, (no car cassette player though!). Great fun!

[Richard_FM]

I remember my Uncle had a tape recorder like this one, possibly an earlier model.

The stop button was like a space bar & there was a tape pilot which was a strange orange glowing thing that used to baffle me & my cousin.