It's (usually) easy to fix a cassette player!

#walkman
#cassette
#repair

[chacker]

You. Are. My. Hero. I love my cassettes and I run through players like they're candy. Now I can at least attempt to fix them. Much appreciated tutorial and humor!

[brycet]

Found an old cassette from my childhood that I can’t find the songs on YouTube or anywhere. This is a Hail Mary attempt for fixing an old Walkman to listen to it. Thank you!

[karennelson]

So glad to find this! Thanks a million for going ahead and posting...apparently, I hope, without hassle by those who don't understand the value in finding something that's so detailed to actually repair old technology instead of tossing it into the 'useless' heap. Kudos to you.

[EB]

And 8 track players. I've been restoring those since 1989. It was my hobby in my younger years. I also play cassette Walkmans regularly. I prefer those over the compressed audio of CDs. I'm currently going to restore the belt on my 1980s Emmerson cassette recorder/ AM-FM radio. The original belt has deteriorated that the tape is massively slow-sounding. I mean so bad off you can't tell what song is being played. So, I'm off to search for belts for my almost *new* pre-owned Emmerson, which I love. I had one brand new in '89 and wore it out entirely by 1991. It lasted three years even with routine capstan/ pinch roller cleaning using cassette tape deck cleaning solutions and clean q tips. I was extremely fortunate that my parents had a bit of recording equipment and taught me how to clean my Walkman and cassette tape recorders. The restoration of the 8 track players (machines and cartridge tapes) was my self taught hobby when I was in the 5th grade. I absolutely enjoyed the sound quality on 8 track. It has more depth, more 'punch' and clarity in my opinion. Cassette tapes in my eyes (and ears) were equal in sound quality. Cds less sound and too much compression. 😊🙂🎶🎧

[AlcasistNetwork]

Awesome! For avoiding demonetisation due to copyrighted music, maybe see if you can record a cassette player with some game music on it. A fantastic sound test - especially for stereo/mono testing - would be "Go Straight" from Streets of Rage 2. It's high energy with sounds at the very start that alternate between the left and right ears.

[twistedpuppetOG]

What about cassette player belts from Amazon? I found some on there. I'm about to try fixing an Aiwa tx388.
Update: The belts from Amazon worked. Found one just the right size. Cassette player works like a dream now.

[Jul-]

I have/use one of those models. Used to listen to TV on it; the weather still works. Good to know there are instructions on belt replacement, in case I ever need it.

[JeanRodo]

I found the exact Walkman a few months ago for 8 bucks. It worked fine for me but the battery cover tab is broken and I haven’t figured out how to remove it. Glad I found this vid tho since I will need to replace the belt in the future!

[irmamag]

Thank you so much for this! I bought a really cheaply made cassette player, it just recently stopped working. Although I could buy a better quality one I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could trouble shoot and fix it myself. I was able to do just that with this video thank you so much😭

[rile_up]

Replaced the belt recently on my 30ish year old Aiwa tape player. The damn thing was just fine still.

[elizabethduval]

This was the most enjoyable tutorial i ever remember watching. But...i think i will return my non functioning overpriced cassette walkman to the Ebay vendor i bought it from rather than risk opening it, damaging it further while i try to find a belt, replacement, etc. Sigh. But great tutorial. Thank you!

[anielrivera]

Great to see because i have the same model

[Mathildouille]

If your here in 2024 you cool you cool!

[bill]

im a 80s vintage freak.If i manage to fix some walkmans and cassete olayer that i have with your help....i will get back to you....crowling!😁

[UnderEu]

You know what’s funny? I just fixed my old Aiwa TX366 after I dropped it and let it disabled for, not kidding, 15 YEARS! - Not the belts, the control mechanism itself. Fortunately, it was just a matter of disassembling, remounting everything in its original position et... voilá!

Now I need something to record cassettes, once my device does playback only and I have no other capable systems around the house. Open to suggestions 😉

[DJedwardyang]

thank you mr geek therapy radio podcast

[shoxtrminator]

Hahah @1:42 "...and grandmas..." - yeah I caught that! I miss the humble cassette though the hiss sound I tended to get on my cheap players really got annoying quick when compared to CD. Not like the warmth of record players and vinyl in my opinion :)

[GeekTherapyRadio]

No grandmothers were hurt during production of this video. I cannot say about afterwards however.

[duplinee]

Enjoyed the video, thank you. Still not sure about my problem though. The thing is the stem spins the cassette is not moving after one turn on play mode. Like it kinda stuck. But it works perfectly fine on FF or RW mode. So the belt works but it doesn’t work😂 otherwise pinch roller is working and I can listen my cassettes till some of the tape is out because of that 😄

[chaseedwardsedwards]

Yes it is very hard now to source a belt because most of the time the belt is too" thick" and either it will slow down the speed of the motor or it wouldn't play at all
I get plenty problems with that
Unlike a big boombox, the motor has enough torque to drive the belt
So it is not as difficult as the walkman because the motor is smaller and works on 3 sometimes
1.5v in some models