"Me too" R2R's

[Techman]

Originally Posted by stuarth

Anyone remember the Magnavox 363 deck?

Stuart

Yes, I've got one.

They're a waste of time. It's as WD40 says, there's an idler drive directly on the motor shaft which destroys itself from heat conducted up said shaft. The idler itself also turns to goo and there's been others reported on here with exactly the same problem. It's a shame, as they're a nice looking deck and otherwise seem well made. I did manage to make something up to get mine working, but it still wasn't good. Mine was fitted in what turned out to be a 'Sound' branded tape recorder, although no actual makers name was on it. It's been up in the loft for a decade now and it really ought to be dug out and scrapped as it's never going to be any good. I seem to remember that it's got a rather nice amplifier and power supply, so probably worth pulling to bits for parts.

[wd40addict]

In this thread apparently a 363 had an aluminium idler on the motor! Was this someone's repair I wonder?

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=103812

[ben]

Originally Posted by Techman

They're a waste of time. It's as WD40 says, there's an idler drive directly on the motor shaft which destroys itself from heat conducted up said shaft. The idler itself also turns to goo and there's been others reported on here with exactly the same problem. It's a shame, as they're a nice looking deck and otherwise seem well made. I did manage to make something up to get mine working, but it still wasn't good. Mine was fitted in what turned out to be a 'Sound' branded tape recorder, although no actual makers name was on it. It's been up in the loft for a decade now and it really ought to be dug out and scrapped as it's never going to be any good. I seem to remember that it's got a rather nice amplifier and power supply, so probably worth pulling to bits for parts.

Years ago, I got hold of a few of these 363s, which had been fitted into a then-defunct language lab as student recorders. As you say, under the plastic top lay some very solid metal parts, indestructible! The 3-key mech was a nice touch. 3-speed and 7" reel capacity too.

That was around 1987 and I have not had one pass through my hands since. I do not recall the rubber problem, but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, so I imagine by now they're all u/s after 35 more years! One day I intend to get one for old times' sake, to experiment with.

[Michael Maurice]

My first tape recorder, actually my fathers was the Korting MT157. it was very advanced with 3 heads, stereo and sound on sound or off tape monitoring (in mono).

It was used and abused, then when eBay started up, I managed to get a few examples and serviced them to replicate what we had as a child.

When it broke in 1970, I started using cassettes on an EL3302 but the quality was quite naff.

In 1973 I bought an Akai 4000DS but it was plagued with problems from the start.

So in 1976 I bought a Revox A77 with Dolby. I still have it. I also have a B77 next to the A77 in the living room and two A700’s in my office.

[llama]

Not exactly "me-too_s"!
Graham