Absolute Beauty & Quality!

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Nickeccles

Nickeccles

Member (SA)


Back in 1982 I saw one of these & fell in love!


The build & sound quality were (& Still are) second to none - Add to that a feature list to put many others to shame........Manual Record Level Controls, Dolby B, Metal tape etc! A absolutely rock solid cassette deck mechanism with just one huge flat belt, everything else is gear driven apart from the counter!! Full autostop, cue & review paired with a digital display for the tuner with plenty of lovely Led's to indicate just about everything that it's doing........


No surprise then that this 15 year old lad was hooked & really wanted one of these!


The tuner & tape door 'Glass' is actually green tinted acrylic & this add's real class to an already gorgeous looking stereo!


Fast forward to 2016 & my 1'st 3T18!! It was in simple terms farked!! The cassette deck had been seriously 'Got At' rendering it a write off along with the woofers which were so rotten they disintegrated on touch - Not seen that sort of rot before!!


The tuner worked - The display didn't
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so: into the spares cupboard until late last year when I bought another knowing that the cassette part was duff but the digital display was good!!


Halfway there? I was optimistic........


January 2018 I spotted another one lol & over priced at that, being dead & indeed, after posting in a box with nothing but screwed up wrapping paper, arrived smashed up badly
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BUT: the cassette deck was intact & after a new belt & clean up including a drop of fine oil down the capstan bearing & shaft, demagging & polishing the heads - We had a 100% working & stable reliable deck
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The woofers survived too & were just fine!!


So..........we have a dismantled 3T18 that works flawlessly, but what of the damaged dented & rusty woofer & tweeter grilles?? They looked terrible
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Some 20 years in the car trade repairing panels etc meant that making 4 grilles out of the 12 I now had wasn't too trying & 3 coats of silver metallic paint I sprayed them with resulted in..........well see for yourself
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The cassette decks on these are nothing short of stunning, very stable with tons of detail & a wide dynamic range delivered to the replaced speakers!


I will upload a challenging audio track tomorrow to demonstrate just how good the mechanism really is
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For now though, here's my beautiful Fergy today - I love this machine & if you can track down a minty one that works properly, just do yourself a favour & get it bought........these really are something special!

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A Few images of the various stages of repair starting 2 years ago:

https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1!29848&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1


https://youtu.be/IxKtuFmAH-0



 
Reli

Reli

Boomus Fidelis
stevenrob said:
Very nice ! It looks like Panasonic RX 5500 (knobs) and Universum Senator CTR2312M (door).
Click to expand...

That Universum is an AKA
Another AKA is the GE 3-5286
And the Salora Sky 820
And the Zenith R99
And the Realistic SCR-6
I'm assuming GE is the one who built all of them, since they are a real manufacturer while the others are just brand names.


The Ferguson and Salora both have digital tuners.....It's very impressive that so much effort would be taken to do that, when they could have just recycled the existing tuner from the GE.
 
Radio raheem

Radio raheem

Requiem Æternam
why do you keep buying rubbish Nick lol....i know the build quality is ok but the sound quality is dreadful lol
 
Jorge

Jorge

Member (SA)
it sounds horrible... compared to what? M90? Mark Levinson/Wilsons?
I like my hi-end stereo being fun, thus stuck with Naim Audio... but with bboxes I like 'em being pretty, and this is one handsome creature!! :-)
 
Lasonic TRC-920

Lasonic TRC-920

Moderator
Nice find Nick, I have the General Electric version, solid Loudness switch., classic design.

I have never seen this version of it. I love the blacked out tuner space and LEDs. Fine example and worth saving. Very Rare!
 
docs

docs

Member (SA)
Nice looking score! Perfect for carrying around the streets back in the day!
And a great cleanup, good job.
 
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