Problems With My eBay-Purchased Aiwa CS-600U

I won an auction for an Aiwa CS-600U on eBay in late August 2016. The opening bid was for all of ninety-nine cents and ended up being driven up -- by me and, I often suspected, by the seller -- well past a hundred American dollars. As the seller promised in the eBay ad' for the Aiwa, the product would be well-packaged before being shipped. Five days later, the item had arrived from Indiana, showing up in my home here in the southeastern United States.

As the seller had promised, the item was well-packaged. It took quite a while to cut and peel my way through all that bubble-wrap, sticky tape and green Styrofoam "peanuts"! The seller was honest in stating that the tape deck doesn't work, but suggested that the CS-600U only needed new tape-deck belts. I half-wish that was the case!

The truth is that the tape-deck bay of the Aiwa wouldn't even admit ("fit") a relatively new-condition Fuji DR-I 90-minute normal-bias audiocassette that had been in new condition until some months ago when I unwrapped it. I had used the audiocassette to record 90 minutes of music from late-night FM radio with another boombox -- an eBay-purchased JVC RC-M50JW -- over several nights. An examination of the audiocassette deck of the Aiwa CS-600U revealed that the tape-heads mechanism was jammed in the PLAY position or another position. This seems to be a scarier problem than the tape deck simply needing new tape-deck belts. The Aiwa's tape-deck motor might have since burned out in trying to play an obviously absent audiocassette months or years ago. That is what I fear, although there is no burnt smell; there probably wouldn't be after all this time.

The JVC RC-M50JW was serviced – amid strange events and repeated failures – by a distant. well-regarded electronics-repair shop, as was another portable stereo that I took to them: a Helix HX-4633N. But taking the Aiwa CS-600U to the repair shop has been in vain. I admit here -- just as I admitted elsewhere -- that I didn't fully pay the repair shop for the several hours that they spent working on the JVC RC-M50JW and on another portable stereo of mine, a Helix HX-4633N. I was worried – indeed, suspicious – about practically sabotage-like failure of the seemingly repaired tape-deck mechanisms persisting after spending hundreds of dollars.

My shirking my customer obligations has apparently made the repair-shop owner fed-up with boomboxes -- if not fed-up with me. The repair-shop owner has ordered me to pick up the Aiwa or they will get rid of it. All those long e-mail messages and those after-hours voicemail messages telling them to pretty please give portable-stereo repair -- to give me -- another chance were in vain.

I don't recall ever opening a portable radio cassette-recorder. Certainly not to fix one, at any rate. (Shrug) I'm no Mr Fix-It, a "techie" or whatever you call those skillful people. I admit that it is largely -- if not entirely -- my fault that the repair shop will no longer work on portable stereos. I am in quite a pickle, since I cannot find another vintage-audio repair shop in or near this huge city that we live in. I have anxiously looked online, to no avail. Despite being urged and ribbed on another boombox-fan website to be brave and start tinkering with the stereo, I have no wish to try to open up any audio electronics of even moderate value. Don't want to panic at the sight of the highly wired, electromechanical intricacies and just give up, you know. I wonder if anyone here on Boomboxery.com lives in or near northeastern Florida, or if they will be passing through the area on their way to or from some other place. I also don't have much money. Can anyone stop by my neck of the woods and help me for – ahem – very little cash?

The play heads can easily be reset. You just open up the boombox and rotate the big metal flywheel by hand, until the tape heads go back down. See this thread:

https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/25594-rx-5150-heads-stuck-in-engaged-position/

Keep in mind that the reason the heads got stuck is because the belts were slipping. So you will need to replace them. There's really no point in resetting the tape heads without replacing the belts, unless your sole purpose is to insert a tape just for show.

The only way you are going to get the unit restored is probably shipping it off cuz I doubt anyone can do it any other way


Bad Boy Bill

Search your yellow pages for "VCR" to see if there's anyone who still repairs VCR players. A lot of those guys used to repair cassette decks.

Or a vintage hifi shop. Typically those guys will claim they won't work on boomboxes, because they assume nobody would be willing to pay more than $20-30 to fix a boombox. But they repair home hi-fi tape decks all the time. So they could easily repair a boombox tape deck......for the right amount of money. It's all in the way you approach them. Tell them you're a collector.

But try the old VCR & pawnshop guys first, they'll do it cheaper than the hi-fi guys will.

The Aiwa with its logic controls is often found with its heads in the up position, as Reli said all it needs is the flywheel wound a little to lower them. They are a cracking box when working however and are easy to work on. They have a flat belt for the flywheel/motor plus a secondary belt. Both are easily accessible.

If i was near you i would fix this for you in an evening but unfortunately wrong continent. I suspect as BBB has suggested you will need to ship it. I still feel it would be easy for you to fix, and learn a little about your box along the way but if you really can't then shipping is you only option Easthelp.

Do it yourself. Honestly, its not rocket surgery. Take your time, take a picture of each step, make a template out of paper or card which resembles the layout of the boombox. Use can use tape to stick the screws to the template to help you remember where they came from.

Achieving a simple repair and saving $$$ is very satisfying ! Good luck.

And the heads just need winding down with the flywheel, as stated above.

markoneswift said:

Do it yourself. Honestly, its not rocket surgery. Take your time, take a picture of each step, make a template out of paper or card which resembles the layout of the boombox. Use can use tape to stick the screws to the template to help you remember where they came from.

Achieving a simple repair and saving $$$ is very satisfying ! Good luck.

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^^ This.

Frankly, you are lucky you still have those other boomboxes after shafting the repair shops on the bill. Usually, they will hold your item hostage until you pay up. I don't blame them for not wanting anything to do with your boombox, or you for that matter. I understand you said you apologize and asked for another chance, but you never said whether or not you came clean and paid up on your bill. If you did not, consider this: it's your actions that are important, not empty promises. After all, if they give in and spend a few more hours on your next boombox, and you once again don't pay up or pay fully and they end up with the shaft, who's going to pay for their rent, or their daughter's school lunch? Repair shops don't do this for fun, they do this to put bread on the table. It sounds like you hijacked several hours of their time, time that they could have spent fixing up something for an actual paying customer.

As Reli said, most boomboxes are what electronics repair shops consider "not-economical-to-repair", a fancy way of saying that the repair costs more than the item is worth. So.... not worth fixing. Whey they typically don't accept such jobs is because customers frequently ask for a diagnosis and after investing time to figure out the problem and give a quote, customers then decide they don't want to perform the job. However the diagnostic fee is still due, repaired or not. It is at this time that the customer typically no longer show up to retrieve the item where it sits. The only way for a shop to recover their time cost is to sell the item off. Unfortunately, if the item is not worth much, they lose out on the diagnostic service. This is why the "value" of the item being repaired is a heavy consideration when choosing whether or not to accept an item for service. Now you can of course promise to pay upfront for the diagnostic fee or put a deposit on hand to show good faith intention of fully paying for the repair, but from what I gather based on what I've read about the experience you've shared, I don't think this is something you would do.

Now, luckily for you, you have found a resource here (and there) that helps do it yourselfers fix their own boomboxes that otherwise might not be cost effective to be professionally serviced. Most of us here do our own work. Sometimes we break stuff and it becomes junk, especially when we first try our hand at this. But these trials becomes lessons and we get better and more knowledgeable. This is the only way we can keep the hobby affordable. Otherwise it will just become an expensive hobby. Unfortunately, once again, you stated that you have no intention or desire to get your hands dirty. That means you either are going to have to get your devices serviced professionally, or you are going to have to rely on the generosity of people who will "come to you" and "do it for you for, ahem, little cash". However, because this is your third boombox already with the first 2 having been serviced without paying for it (dine and dash), I think anyone generous enough to take you up on this might find this relationship gets old very fast, especially when the 4th, 5th and 6th boombox shows up, also likely needing service.

My suggestion to you. If you are adamant that you don't want to lift a finger and take the time to learn a bit about fixing these simple things that afflicts about 95% of the boomboxes out there, and you don't want to pay reasonable shop fees, then stop buying boomboxes. This may come across as a bit harsh but frankly, I am not too impressed with folks that commissions a job and then shirk the bill on hard working folks. Now maybe there's more to it than this, and you are welcome to share more details if you wish so we can better understand why you didn't pay the bills.

Superduper said:

Frankly, you are lucky you still have those other boomboxes after shafting the repair shops on the bill. Usually, they will hold your item hostage until you pay up. I don't blame them for not wanting anything to do with your boombox, or you for that matter. I understand you said you apologize and asked for another chance, but you never said whether or not you came clean and paid up on your bill. If you did not, consider this: it's your actions that are important, not empty promises. After all, if they give in and spend a few more hours on your next boombox, and you once again don't pay up or pay fully and they end up with the shaft, who's going to pay for their rent, or their daughter's school lunch? Repair shops don't do this for fun, they do this to put bread on the table. It sounds like you hijacked several hours of their time, time that they could have spent fixing up something for an actual paying customer.

As Reli said, most boomboxes are what electronics repair shops consider "not-economical-to-repair", a fancy way of saying that the repair costs more than the item is worth. So.... not worth fixing. Whey they typically don't accept such jobs is because customers frequently ask for a diagnosis and after investing time to figure out the problem and give a quote, customers then decide they don't want to perform the job. However the diagnostic fee is still due, repaired or not. It is at this time that the customer typically no longer show up to retrieve the item where it sits. The only way for a shop to recover their time cost is to sell the item off. Unfortunately, if the item is not worth much, they lose out on the diagnostic service. This is why the "value" of the item being repaired is a heavy consideration when choosing whether or not to accept an item for service. Now you can of course promise to pay upfront for the diagnostic fee or put a deposit on hand to show good faith intention of fully paying for the repair, but from what I gather based on what I've read about the experience you've shared, I don't think this is something you would do.

Now, luckily for you, you have found a resource here (and there) that helps do it yourselfers fix their own boomboxes that otherwise might not be cost effective to be professionally serviced. Most of us here do our own work. Sometimes we break stuff and it becomes junk, especially when we first try our hand at this. But these trials becomes lessons and we get better and more knowledgeable. This is the only way we can keep the hobby affordable. Otherwise it will just become an expensive hobby. Unfortunately, once again, you stated that you have no intention or desire to get your hands dirty. That means you either are going to have to get your devices serviced professionally, or you are going to have to rely on the generosity of people who will "come to you" and "do it for you for, ahem, little cash". However, because this is your third boombox already with the first 2 having been serviced without paying for it (dine and dash), I think anyone generous enough to take you up on this might find this relationship gets old very fast, especially when the 4th, 5th and 6th boombox shows up, also likely needing service.

My suggestion to you. If you are adamant that you don't want to lift a finger and take the time to learn a bit about fixing these simple things that afflicts about 95% of the boomboxes out there, and you don't want to pay reasonable shop fees, then stop buying boomboxes. This may come across as a bit harsh but frankly, I am not too impressed with folks that commissions a job and then shirk the bill on hard working folks. Now maybe there's more to it than this, and you are welcome to share more details if you wish so we can better understand why you didn't pay the bills.

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That's an excellently written piece and I agree 100% with all of it. The OP should consider whether this is even a suitable hobby given the reliance on DIY.

Amen Superduper! I know it's not for everyone to fix their own boxes but you also can't expect to get the work done for free, even by friends. They charge by the 12 packs of beer!

Kel

You could also just forget about the tape deck and just enjoy everything else the boombox has to offer. I mean, how often were you going to play tapes anyway? What about Line In? It would surely sound better. Most boombox tape decks sound like crap compared to the other audio sources.

Also consider that a fully working Aiwa 600 would have cost a lot more.

Reli said:

You could also just forget about the tape deck and just enjoy everything else the boombox has to offer. I mean, how often were you going to play tapes anyway? What about Line In? It would surely sound better. Most boombox tape decks sound like crap compared to the other audio sources.

Also consider that a fully working Aiwa 600 would have cost a lot more.

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Again absolutely true. I fix decks because I don't like things that don't work, not because I have a zillion tapes to play on them. Enjoy FM and line in - get an FM transmitter and blast all your fave tunes through it

Ummmmm....

I have been reproved here, and I feel stung because I know much of it is true. Yet some clarification here on BoomBoxery.com is in order.

The last time that I spoke to the repair shop’s proprietor, I did offer to pay him for the work that he did on the boombox that he last serviced for me, the Helix HX-4633N. But, seated at the front desk of his business – a desk usually occupied by an assistant – he could tell that I had my doubts about the quality and durability of the work that his business had done on both tape decks of the stereo. And this was after I had tested both decks by playing the opening track of a relatively well-known 1990 R&B album on each deck in the shop in his presence. When he told me – in his consistently quiet manner, with his elbows on the desk and with his hands clasped near his face – to just take the boombox and go, I tried to protest: “You can’t run a business that way.” To which he replied: “Yes, I can.” So, probably unwisely feeling half-delighted that I was saving money (albeit underhandedly), I left.

He wouldn’t take the money from me – even after or especially after seeing me on my cellphone checking my VISA card’s balance (and causing the Helix to buzz in that ill-grounded manner each time the pre-2010 cellphone went near the plugged-in boombox, something over which he quietly admonished me). My not paying his shop for labour on my JVC RC-M50 earlier on didn’t inspire confidence, either. (Sigh)

Yes, there was some unscrupulousness on my part towards the hard-working electronics-repair personnel of that repair shop. Partly – if not entirely – due to my withholding fair payment for their labour, they have told me to hit the road. I’m not welcome back if it's ever again about portable radio cassette-recorders.

It's sad enough that I have made a mess for myself. But what about other customers? On the one hand, the lack of competent boombox-repair businesses gives braver collectors a chance to get their hands dirty -- to rephrase Superduper's paragraph three admonishment of me -- and learn how to service their own Seventies- and Eighties-era audio equipment, maybe while being coached and cheered on by website fans such as here on BoomBoxery.com.

On the other hand, what about some lad who starts out trying to open his portable stereo to at least look inside it but succeeds in setting his verandah on fire? That's the sort of person who needs electronics-repair expertise. But, bah! My subtly naughty and dishonourable shirking of my customer obligations has soured who were likely the best vintage-audio repairers against ever again handling the likes of an Aiwa CS-600U.

And, speaking of fire and various hot things, what if I do muster the nerve to open the Aiwa if I get it back from the fed-up team? Won't I have to resort to soldering or similar hot-stuff activity? I've never soldered, welded or whatever before. There is a somber chance that the tape-deck motor of the CS-600U has burned out by now. If that is the case, then that part of the stereo will have to be replaced -- again, if I get the grief-giving gadget back from the repair business. Even if I were to get hold of a replacement tape-deck motor -- and, by the way, tape-deck rubber belts -- that might be supplied by fans of this ‘site and/or another boombox-fan 'site, won't I need to have a part or two soldered? The last time that I tried to solder something -- or was it welding? -- I tried to use some red-and-black soldering pen that runs on "AA" batteries. I tried to reconnect the loose button-battery terminal of an inexpensive, lime-green Taylor timer. HA! All I succeeded in doing was making the tip of that gadget too hot to hold. The timer is still lying forlornly on my dresser in my bedroom. Now, I know that I didn't have the right bits of metal to melt them to do the soldering, but it just goes to show that I'm not brilliant at such things. (Sigh and shrug)

I pause in the self-deprecation and shake my head at the suggestion of Reli that I skate by on radio-tuning and LINE IN usage of the jammed-tape-deck Aiwa. The complete working condition of the portable -- or its apparent repairability -- is an obvious reason why someone would choose to buy it. As member markoneswift would say: "I don't like things that don't work." I have spent a number of hours in the past two months alone listening to music audiocassettes. I home-dubbed one of them from nighttime FM radio. I also dubbed part of a previous tape from FM radio and, to begin with, before that, I recorded music to that cassette from an audio-only cable-TV channel and then switched to FM-dubbing. As relatively long-term audiocassette-handlers will admit, there is some satisfaction in listening to music that one made a reasonable home recording of.

Well, after all this writing of mine, I am yet to bring the Aiwa stereo back from the repair shop -- unrepaired, paradoxically and frustratingly enough. Perhaps the last time that I set foot in that establishment ...

Like I said before your only way of getting unit restored is by shipping unit with some money to a trusted member 😉


Bad Boy Bill

Would someone please shoot this thread in the head?!.

Hello PostEnder, i´m owner of 2 Aiwa CS-600s, one CS-600E and one CS-600K. CS-600E was already refurbished for me when i got it, but with CS-600K i had to do it all by myself. Usually Aiwas are hard to access from inside, but CS-600 is very easy to access, screws off from the back, lot of space inside for playing around. Tape deck is little more niggly to get off, you have to slide it and wiggle it out from it´s place if you don´t want to take the whole motherboard out. I just wiggled it out and no damage was caused. Accessing a belt was hard for me because of few stuck screws, but managed to get it done. It takes one flat belt and one square belt, also check the counter belt, they also go bad. I´d recommend you taking the thing apart, one thing you should do is to mark the position of flywheel, once you´ve reset it and you put new belts on, they might get out from position and this might ruin the whole mech and timing on deck as this boomer has logic deck. Take the risk and crack it open, when you happen to fail, you lose nothing. When you have any questions or problems, PM me, i can be your guest. Repair shops don´t work for me, i can handle it all by myself mostly, but i took my M60 to repair tech who masters old audio devices, because this deck is very complex. Anyways, good luck with your CS-600 !

I couldn't say exactly that any better.

Go for it Easthelp/postender, but be careful when changing them belts. I'd advise a fire extinguisher nearby.