And Then There Were Three. The National RS-859U

[furui_suterioo]

Yeah, both of the tapes that I got new (ConvertaQuad) were both bad even though they were sealed. One had pads that were coming off and the other one broke at the splice when making a recording. I had to re-jigger my MacGyver fix on the motor. The mounts had dried off and broken, and I initially thought some food had gotten in there somehow. But it was the remnants of the motor mounts, RIP. This time I found some adhesive clear Velcro that was still really sticky and folded it in half and made a ring around the outside of the hole where the motor sits like a gasket. I pushed it down with a tiny scewdriver enough to hopefully allow the sticky tape to hold the weight of the motor securely in place. And then I used strips of duct tape to further hold it in place.

I think when the splice broke the tape wrapped around the capstan and put strain on the motor causing it to go off center just enough to slip the belt. I am going to keep doing fixes like this as I don’t want to have it repaired only to have the service tech tell me “the parts are unavailable for this model” which is what would happen.

Maybe I should had bought the Akai after-all like you did

I had one on the cheaper brand tapes snap while recording, I didn't even notice for a couple minutes when the song ended, the tape was wrapped around the capstan and I had to remove the top cover and turn the flywheel to get it all out, definitely don't like to be doing that.
For right price I would get either Q8 recorder, I had gotten an offer a green meter technics 858 for $500(down from $695), just didn't have the bread.

 

[doity]

Well I love the features of the National/Technics and it does sound great. These old machines and their software though are only for people with a penchant for large amounts of frustration. I am hoping that my fix holds and so far so good. I fell asleep with a tape playing last night and when I awoke it was still happily playing right along.

I found a great place that does 8 track tape “rehabs” for a very reasonable amount. I don’t have the patience to fix those little buggers and they are fast and cheap. If you are interested will give the company name but it is not like they are a secret or anything.

 

[surround.sound.enthusiast]

Yeah, both of the tapes that I got new (ConvertaQuad) were both bad even though they were sealed. One had pads that were coming off and the other one broke at the splice when making a recording. I had to re-jigger my MacGyver fix on the motor. The mounts had dried off and broken, and I initially thought some food had gotten in there somehow. But it was the remnants of the motor mounts, RIP. This time I found some adhesive clear Velcro that was still really sticky and folded it in half and made a ring around the outside of the hole where the motor sits like a gasket. I pushed it down with a tiny scewdriver enough to hopefully allow the sticky tape to hold the weight of the motor securely in place. And then I used strips of duct tape to further hold it in place.

I take it the motor mount was plastic of some sort, not metal? If both the motor mounts and where they broke off of the motor housing look relatively "intact" you may be able to bond them back on. The choice of adhesive will depend on the material of the motor casing. If it's plastic, it may have some molding information embossed on the inside, which could help identify it, such as "PA30GF" for example. Attempting to repair the brakes will require full removal of the motor though, so heads-up.

 

[doity]

I assumed the ‘pieces of food’ that I found was cork or something from the motor mount....that maybe there was a gasket underneath for vibrations or something? But come to think of it the deck did have that big hole cut out up top so it is quite likely that some food did get in there. Anyway, the schematic shows that is supposed to be secured with 3 rubber cushion and spacers and three screws but from my vantage point I can’t see that part of it. I am assuming that the whole thing is loose either way. If my ‘fix’ fails I will investegate further.

 

[quadsearcher]

They were possibly grommets, like turntable motor bushings. Voiceofmusic.com has those last I checked. That and some washers for spacers should get it in the ballpark.

 

[doity]

They were possibly grommets, like turntable motor bushings. Voiceofmusic.com has those last I checked. That and some washers for spacers should get it in the ballpark.

I think you are right. Today after figuring out how to access the top of the unit some more fell out. They are described as rubber in the service manual but these were dried to a crisp. The problem is that to access that area I need to get at so I can remove the cover, I have to loosen the top circuit board and associated wiring and other components. There are four screws that are hidden as opposed to being near the top for easy access. I could be wrong but probably not. Most tape decks getting the cover off is the easy part.....here it is the hardest.

I would hate going through all the motions only to discover that I got the wrong cushions. I should probably look for a whole new motor and hardware but I would have to deal with the fact that it is a 100 volt motor.

 

[silversurfer]

Wow! Wasn’t aware of that model by Panasonic. Not in the same ballpark, but I have the Panasonic National Plunger. MIB

 

[furui_suterioo]

Wow! Wasn’t aware of that model by Panasonic. Not in the same ballpark, but I have the Panasonic National Plunger. MIB

I've got the "Swiss Cheese" Panasonic player

 

[doity]

I've got the "Swiss Cheese" Panasonic player

Do the holes help disperse the sound better? They probably had some fancy pseudo-science that they were peddling as in “You will hear life-like concert hall sound in EVERY direction due to it’s circular sound projection.”

There are a couple of the National RS-858U tape decks up on Yahoo auctions now. One is being sold as “junk” and the seller claims that there are some loose objects rattling around. Could it be the dried up motor cushions? More than likely.

https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/en/auction/yahoo/input/l674696428/lgk-link_search

 

[furui_suterioo]

Do the holes help disperse the sound better? They probably had some fancy pseudo-science that they were peddling as in “You will hear life-like concert hall sound in EVERY direction due to it’s circular sound projection.”

There are a couple of the National RS-858U tape decks up on Yahoo auctions now. One is being sold as “junk” and the seller claims that there are some loose objects rattling around. Could it be the dried up motor cushions? More than likely.

https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/en/auction/yahoo/input/l674696428/lgk-link_search

It actually has good sound for being a portable, although lacking in treble.
There is also another clean currently Akai for action(leBay).

 

[furui_suterioo]

There is also another clean currently Akai for action(leBay).

Sold for $380
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193955609894

 

[doity]

She’s a beauty. I have finally got the National incorporated into my system (the RS-859u). I am really liking the white VU meters. They add a nice contrast to the black finish and dark wood panels. I have finally got my Tate Tetrasound boxed up and it is going to Inner Sound on Monday for a recap and once over. I tested it a couple days ago for the first time since buying it. I can’t believe how great it sounds. I much prefer it to my Fosgate model 4 and the SM that I used to own. A much more natural surround effect and I plan to use it to do some upmix recordings on my National deck.

 

[furui_suterioo]

She’s a beauty. I have finally got the National incorporated into my system (the RS-859u). I am really liking the white VU meters. They add a nice contrast to the black finish and dark wood panels. I have finally got my Tate Tetrasound boxed up and it is going to Inner Sound on Monday for a recap and once over. I tested it a couple days ago for the first time since buying it. I can’t believe how great it sounds. I much prefer it to my Fosgate model 4 and the SM that I used to own. A much more natural surround effect and I plan to use it to do some upmix recordings on my National deck.

I made an upmix mix tape of some early Funkadelic/Parliament just this afternoon, with my recently restored Sansui QSD-2 in synth surround mode. Also some Beatles in Synth surround, and a QS decoding of Uganda by Akira Ishikawa(sourced from the internet), although on notchless cartridges.
One problem is that my laptop emits a very faint feedback noise, only when the CPU is idle, so I always have to run a program/game while the music playing, in order to keep the CPU from going idle and emitting the feedback. I probably should get a new laptop, it is an HP 8440p that I bought refurbished about 10 years ago but it not a bad problem.

 

[doity]

I made an upmix mix tape of some early Funkadelic/Parliament just this afternoon, with my recently restored Sansui QSD-2 in synth surround mode. Also some Beatles in Synth surround, and a QS decoding of Uganda by Akira Ishikawa(sourced from the internet), although on notchless cartridges.
One problem is that my laptop emits a very faint feedback noise, only when the CPU is idle, so I always have to run a program/game while the music playing, in order to keep the CPU from going idle and emitting the feedback. I probably should get a new laptop, it is an HP 8440p that I bought refurbished about 10 years ago but it not a bad problem.

Couldn’t you just power down the laptop when you are “jamming?” I have a shortwave radio that had a horrible issue with electrical interference that I finally tracked down to the Dish hopper. If I want to listen to the radio I have to unplug the hopper. It is that bad.

 

[doity]

I made an upmix mix tape of some early Funkadelic/Parliament just this afternoon, with my recently restored Sansui QSD-2 in synth surround mode. Also some Beatles in Synth surround, and a QS decoding of Uganda by Akira Ishikawa(sourced from the internet), although on notchless cartridges.
One problem is that my laptop emits a very faint feedback noise, only when the CPU is idle, so I always have to run a program/game while the music playing, in order to keep the CPU from going idle and emitting the feedback. I probably should get a new laptop, it is an HP 8440p that I bought refurbished about 10 years ago but it not a bad problem.

I bet that the Funkadelic sounds great in Surround mode. There is so much going on with their music. I tried to use my Fosgate for the first Partridge Family album. Yeah, I know. There is so much reverb in the mix that it just sounded horrible. It sounded a bit better in the modes othan “Rock” but not much. Oh well, you can’t win them all .

 

[furui_suterioo]

Couldn’t you just power down the laptop when you are “jamming?”

The problem is that the feedback actually gets recorded onto tape, unless I keep the CPU constantly occupied(other than foobar), minor but strange.

 

[doity]

Here is the National 8 track deck in its new forever home. So many pretty, pretty lights that are kind of cool when I listen at night with lights off. l am easily amused I guess, or maybe just bored.

 

[dauQula]

Sold for $380
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193955609894View attachment 64841

Despite the ad, this was a Cr80d-ss. No power amp inside. By the way, this Akai model's volume controls only affect the record level, not playback. The Technics controls do both, but not the Akais. Playback volume is controlled by pre-amp board-mounted trimmer controls.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Despite the ad, this was a Cr80d-ss. No power amp inside. By the way, this Akai model's volume controls only affect the record level, not playback. The Technics controls do both, but not the Akais. Playback volume is controlled by pre-amp board-mounted trimmer controls.

I think that Akai included the same user manual for 80-SS, the 80D-SS is mentioned inside as the "deck only version", I suppose they didn't put a volume knob since unit requires seperate amp anyway. The actual 80-SS also has a tone control knob(which does not affect recording), seem they less common than the 80D-SS.

 

[LetsRecapVintageHIFI]

Here is the National 8 track deck in its new forever home. So many pretty, pretty lights that are kind of cool when I listen at night with lights off. l am easily amused I guess, or maybe just bored.


View attachment 64863

Nice Q8 and et al.
What is that Fosgate peice in the picture?
This has grabbed my attention and I need to know, thank you Ken