Pioneer CT-F900 Fluoroscan Cassette Deck Unboxing and Initial Diagnosis

Рет қаралды 10,830

6 ай бұрын

I recently scored two vintage Pioneer Fluoroscan cassette decks within days of each other. The second one showed up first, so let's dig in and see what it needs ahead of the initial service video. Which... could take a while, depending on what I need to get for it.
We'll also briefly go over the whole collection as it currently sits toward the end of this video, for those interested in how little sanity I have. If you watch to the very end, you might even see this big ol' Pioneer beast play something.
Facebook: / theweatherwolf
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Music: Cosmic Cycler - Happy Vaporwave (cosmiccycler.bandcamp.com)

Пікірлер: 41

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

Just a quick extra note on this unit - I believe I have found the cause of the unit not going into play mode properly, and parts are on order. As soon as they get here, we'll get back into this thing to see if I can make it play right. If it does, we'll go from there. This is a very old machine, made in the 70s, so we'll have to go step by step over several videos to make it work right. One vid for the play mode fix, one for transport service, one for reel motor service, one for... well, you get the idea. I absolutely LOVE the way this thing sounded when it played. It's worth saving, so I'll do my best!

@eleanorschrag4759 6 ай бұрын

Picture it…a little 3 year old boy in Kansas…mother discovers he’s taking apart the vacuum cleaner she was just using a few minutes ago! He was asked why he was doing that. Expecting to get the normal reply of “I don’t know” he replied “I wanted to see how it worked!” Same curiosity today with electronics! No wonder you always seemed bored as a child. 😂 His soon to be grandnephew was intrigued…watched for several minutes 😊

@marceldaalen6604 27 күн бұрын

Love to see all the video's about Pioneer cassettedeck.. Maybe I need to repair one for someone else. Downloaded the service manual already. I own a Pioneer CT-F7070 and I love it. It's the only Pioneer cassettedeck next to all my Sony TC-K serie (1A to 6) and the TC-229SD. Just fixed my DAT DTC-55ES. Thx again. Love from Amsterdam.

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

Ah, I see you got it basically working!, I should have watched to the end, but I had to go out. LOL Now I'm watching until the end. Cheers.

@asbcustom 6 ай бұрын

5.4K views in three days, way to go Jeremy!

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

Thanks! I'm not sure any of mine have ever done this well before. I could get used to this...

@3dsmaxrocks699 6 ай бұрын

Pioneer's 909 RTR deck prices on eBay are outta control! I bought one back in 2002 for 200 bucks. Now they go for at least 1K and usually way more. They're nice but not that nice. I miss the old Pioneer brochures we used to get from the local audio store back in the late 70's and early 80's What a glorious time it was for stereo equipment. Sony made stuff like tanks!

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

eBay prices in general are absolutely delusional. I wish I had a choice, but if I want cool stuff for the channel it has to come from there. There's no market locally.

@3dsmaxrocks699 6 ай бұрын

@@Oklawolf Unless you get lucky and find something at a yard sale or flea market. I found a Marantz Esotec ST-8 tuner at a flea market for 40 bucks. Oscilloscope and everything on it works perfect. Super super rare tuner. They didn't make many of them. (Instant subscriber BTW......didn't know your channel existed till 30 minutes ago.....gonna binge watch today)

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

Sometimes I find decent stuff for good prices but it usually takes a trip to Calgary (population 1.4 million) before I find good deals. That's quickly negated by the trip expenses, however. Most of the time I have to stick to Canadian eBay listings, otherwise shipping quickly gets out of hand. Buying from the US is almost as expensive as buying from Japan now. Which reminds me, 2024 is here and I need to move on my next Japanese import...

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'd re-cap the PSU and that logic board, just as a starter. That's a real nice deck you got there!

@Mihail_K. 6 ай бұрын

Man, having watched this and a few other of your videos I just wish I had your patience. And the thing about these old decks is that it's a little bit like a toxic relationship - no matter how much you love them, they'll always want more and more attention and will never love you back. But what can you do, they do look awsome and occasionally they even sound great too.

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

I know it's easy to say, but we have to apply mega patience with the half expectation that the job won't be successful. FWIW, I always begin with the PSU and transport - get them 'basically working' and we can at least move forward. Yep, several tens of hours of work await us!

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

Yes, your 'new' deck is worthing saving! I think you'll get there! ;o)

@tenminutetokyo2643 6 ай бұрын

That is nuts!

@SenileOtaku 6 ай бұрын

I shouldn't have scrapped my Akai deck. I bought it early/mid 80's, and from what I've seen on Techmoan's channel, it would have had a better tape transport than what I could get now. But of the units I've had (including a deck from the in-laws) I didn't have the information to diagnose them. (then again, if I didn't scrap or sell off things occasionally, I'd have even less space than I have now).

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

I feel the same way about a Noresco "consolette" stereo I used to have. Bought it for $5 thinking it was cheap junk. Turned out it was made by Rotel, rated at 60W per channel and quite capable of doing it. I miss that thing, but I had it for decades and it was literally falling apart by the end.

@THEtechknight 6 ай бұрын

Just discovered your channel, love it. Can you do a video on how to rebuild the motors on these? I have a CT-F900 ive owned for several years now and the motor is intermittent. It's speed is also intermittent.

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

There will be a video on that for sure. I think that motor may be sitting in a dead spot now and the belt is actually ok.

@THEtechknight 6 ай бұрын

@@OklawolfOh I can just about bet you its the motor, from the little research ive done, its a funky design that uses centrifugal switches and they foul up, along with tarnished connections and build up of brush dust.

@AudioGuyBrian 6 ай бұрын

One thing that sucks about the 900 is the fine bias only applies to Type I tapes. It uses a fixed Bias setting for anything other than Type 1. They fixed that in the 950. Oh, another thing that sucks is the plastic arms that go from buttons to switches way in the back of the board are super fragile these days and will break at any moment so push buttons as if they were rice paper thin.

@BillEyles 6 ай бұрын

I hope the display is nice and Brite because they go out or get dim no longer available and can't be fixed big problem whit thouse

@pierrejeanes 5 ай бұрын

sir in your oppinion what is the best cassete deck in terms of best head,sound fidelity?

@Oklawolf 5 ай бұрын

I can only go by the machines I actually own on that one, but if there’s anything out there that can beat one of the top Aiwa units it’s likely to cost a lot of money. Note that I haven’t tried any Nakamichi 3 head decks yet due to them being too expensive. Some people say that when modified, the XK-009 is unbeatable. If my XK-007 is any indication, that may actually be accurate.

@waltercarpenito1737 6 ай бұрын

these decks are a NIGHTMERE to fix i had 2 of them notice i said 2 --no more

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

There's a guy trying to sell his CT-F850 in the UK with a bit of a botched job regarding head replacement. Someone has put a cheapo single head to replace the compound head, and says the machine makes a 'hum' sound; well I'm not surprised! I was tempted to make an offer, but the thought crossed my mind as to the state of the head block. I can get hold of a compound head, and so I probs could get the deck running eventually, but the risk is in losing money if the previous 'repair' guy has screwed things up even more? I wonder why the old head was initially replaced??? Very strange, maybe an open circuit at the head, this does happen.

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

Ouch. I think that one would be a non starter for me. That was my primary fear with the Excelia - I knew it had major wear when I bought it, and it cost me $250 to get it shipped over here after paying $205 for it. I was just praying it had good heads on it. As it turned out the heads do have corrosion, but away from the tape path and that beast turned out to be an unstoppable monster for sound quality. I'm going to worry about that all over again with the next one, I just know it. Higher budget this time, more at stake.

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

@@Oklawolf Good news on that Excelia! What annoys me sometimes is that some sellers know a deck is a bit of a dead loss, but they persist in their asking price, hoping perhaps if some innocent party is going to take the bait? This guy has now decided to 'up' the asking price from the lower starting bid price. He'll be lucky! LOL

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

That CT-F850 with a duffer head has been sold in the UK!!!

@3dsmaxrocks699 6 ай бұрын

I've had RTR decks that wouldn't run and sometimes it's something simple like a pause switch "stuck" on pause. (motor always runs until pause un-engages everything) Some of those older ALPS brand switches are junk. Not sure what brand your deck has but they look similar. I would check all those switches 1st.

@akozaki827 6 ай бұрын

How about replace the belting first..

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

Wow, and I thought I was crazy, LOL ;o) I 'only' have 31 cassette decks! ha ha!

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

So you're saying I should buy more... ;)

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

I'm always looking at the second hand market for another deck, but part of me knows that I'll have to sell them off one day! I now only sniff after machines that are worth chasing - Nakamichis are out because they command a ridiculous asking price, so a well built Pioneer, Sony, AKAI, TEAC 1970s style etc is what I tend to look at etc. There is a Pioneer like yours on ebay (UK), but the head has been replaced with a single head!? That's the problem with 3-headed machines - hard to source replacement heads. No, don't do what I've done: 30+ machines and rising! :D

@fabiopedroso4690 6 ай бұрын

It's seems like a solenoid issue.

@dubdoodle7191 6 ай бұрын

Why waste time on cassette decks if you desire tape repro quality ? 1/4" tape is where those in the know use. Heck a Revox A77 outperforms a Dragon LoL !

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

Because I grew up with cassettes and enjoy working on these. My four SVHS Hi-Fi machines will outperform a Dragon too ;)

@dubdoodle7191 6 ай бұрын

@@OklawolfI grew up with up with spider man briefs and Travolta lunch box, don't mean I'd do it again today LoL

@JamesE707 6 ай бұрын

A curious mind enjoys intellectual stimulation, and so resurrecting old designs fits nicely into that category. And especially so if we grew up knowing about these machines in magazines and HiFi shops; they were very much part of our childhood/teenage years. Finally, getting hold of a machine that we could never afford back then is a big plus. If cassette were truly rubbish from the start, then I guess we'd all go elsewhere a long time ago.

@Oklawolf 6 ай бұрын

I never got to have a decent cassette deck (or even the boombox I wanted) when I was a kid in the 80s, so I'm just having an absolute blast playing around with this stuff. Haven't been this happy in years.

@dubdoodle7191 6 ай бұрын

@@Oklawolf BTW - rounded profile rings are not proper for idler tires. It must be square for better contact point and better grip. Too much pressure to compensate will cause drag.