Hello friends!
I caught the bug a few years ago. I've loved electronics and taking things apart since forever. In high school I wanted to be an engineer but ended up a graphic designer.
Realistic SCR-8 1
I picked this one up from an estate sale. It was crusty and crackly but I was determined to bring it back to life. After deoxit and replacing the belts it worked great for a few days and then when trying running music from my phone via the line in it popped and smoked. Taking it apart it was easy to see that the amp chip was fried since it had a hole melted in it. I found a replacement on ebay and soldered it back in and it came back to life, though one channel had no sound. I wasn't prepared at the time to dig deeper but I found a suitably cheap parts box on ebay and swapped in the main board. These boxes are nice because all the components have connectors that make interchangin easy except for the fact that my parts box for some reason used different connectors. So I had to frankenstein a mishmash of the two connectors together to get the appropriate compents to match up. After all this I powered it up and still no sound on one of the channels, very strange. Tested the speakers and one was blown. New speaker from parts box and I've been happily listening to this box for almost 3 years. My favorite box I have right now.
SCR-8 2
I was recently thinking about the parts box I had and thought I should reconnect all those components and see if I can get it working also. I ordered some cheapish 4ohm 6.5" speakers and got everything back together and it works! (sort of) the one channel still plays no sound, not to the speaker or the tweeter. Keep in mind this is the main board in which I swapped in a new amplifier chip. I was hoping that it had just been the blown speaker giving problems but it must be something more. I've also noticed that powered on for a few minutes the amp chip heat sink gets really hot. I'm sure its meant to get hot else whats it there for but this seems like too much. I've been reading as much as I can about how to trace the issue, but my knowledge level is pretty low. If anyone has a working replacement board to sell let me know.
Marantz PMS 3040
I bought this one for my 5 year old for christmas. It was working but just needed pots cleaned and the audio was slow from the tape deck. New belt fixed that and it worked great for a long time. The box feels super quality which is good and bad, opening it up the boards and components are packed in like sardines. The main issue with this box was the hard ejecting of the tape door. After about 6 months of my son swapping in his tapes 2 of the plastic guide and stop clips broke and tapes kinda need the door to hold them in position against the head. Tried jb weld which worked for about a week. So this one has been relegated to radio only duty on the patio but I really love this box and keep my eye out for a replacement door.
Magnavox D8443 1 and 2
I have 2 of these boxes. I love the look of them even though they don't sound great. 1 is in my sons room as replacemnt for the Marantz. They both needed new belts and both had the infamous gummy bear gears. I swapped in those great 3d printed gears (I think made by a forum member?) One of the boxes had another gear made of the same gummy plastic and found an oversees maker of a replacement for that one. Haven't had any issues with these since fixing those parts though one has a much better sounding cassette deck.
Lasonic TRC-931
Latest box. I've wanted a jumbo box and an m90 feels finanically out of reach so this will have to do for now. It feels pretty cheap to me but it sounds surprisingly good. When I picked it up audio on the B deck was kinda garbled and slow but a new belt and head cleaning and it sounds much better. The real star is the Tape A push in deck. When I went to look at it I honesty thought it was broken because it didn't want to take the tape but when I got it home I tried again and pushed the tape in just a bit further and it drew it in and started playing and sounded so clear. This was great because looking at that deck from the inside I was completely unsure how I could work on it. The Tape B door is cracked so if anyone has a spare to sell hit me up.
All in all I really enjoy taking something that looks (and sounds) broken, cleaning it up and making it do what it was made to do. Looking forward to being part of this community.
Jamie
I caught the bug a few years ago. I've loved electronics and taking things apart since forever. In high school I wanted to be an engineer but ended up a graphic designer.
Realistic SCR-8 1
I picked this one up from an estate sale. It was crusty and crackly but I was determined to bring it back to life. After deoxit and replacing the belts it worked great for a few days and then when trying running music from my phone via the line in it popped and smoked. Taking it apart it was easy to see that the amp chip was fried since it had a hole melted in it. I found a replacement on ebay and soldered it back in and it came back to life, though one channel had no sound. I wasn't prepared at the time to dig deeper but I found a suitably cheap parts box on ebay and swapped in the main board. These boxes are nice because all the components have connectors that make interchangin easy except for the fact that my parts box for some reason used different connectors. So I had to frankenstein a mishmash of the two connectors together to get the appropriate compents to match up. After all this I powered it up and still no sound on one of the channels, very strange. Tested the speakers and one was blown. New speaker from parts box and I've been happily listening to this box for almost 3 years. My favorite box I have right now.
SCR-8 2
I was recently thinking about the parts box I had and thought I should reconnect all those components and see if I can get it working also. I ordered some cheapish 4ohm 6.5" speakers and got everything back together and it works! (sort of) the one channel still plays no sound, not to the speaker or the tweeter. Keep in mind this is the main board in which I swapped in a new amplifier chip. I was hoping that it had just been the blown speaker giving problems but it must be something more. I've also noticed that powered on for a few minutes the amp chip heat sink gets really hot. I'm sure its meant to get hot else whats it there for but this seems like too much. I've been reading as much as I can about how to trace the issue, but my knowledge level is pretty low. If anyone has a working replacement board to sell let me know.
Marantz PMS 3040
I bought this one for my 5 year old for christmas. It was working but just needed pots cleaned and the audio was slow from the tape deck. New belt fixed that and it worked great for a long time. The box feels super quality which is good and bad, opening it up the boards and components are packed in like sardines. The main issue with this box was the hard ejecting of the tape door. After about 6 months of my son swapping in his tapes 2 of the plastic guide and stop clips broke and tapes kinda need the door to hold them in position against the head. Tried jb weld which worked for about a week. So this one has been relegated to radio only duty on the patio but I really love this box and keep my eye out for a replacement door.
Magnavox D8443 1 and 2
I have 2 of these boxes. I love the look of them even though they don't sound great. 1 is in my sons room as replacemnt for the Marantz. They both needed new belts and both had the infamous gummy bear gears. I swapped in those great 3d printed gears (I think made by a forum member?) One of the boxes had another gear made of the same gummy plastic and found an oversees maker of a replacement for that one. Haven't had any issues with these since fixing those parts though one has a much better sounding cassette deck.
Lasonic TRC-931
Latest box. I've wanted a jumbo box and an m90 feels finanically out of reach so this will have to do for now. It feels pretty cheap to me but it sounds surprisingly good. When I picked it up audio on the B deck was kinda garbled and slow but a new belt and head cleaning and it sounds much better. The real star is the Tape A push in deck. When I went to look at it I honesty thought it was broken because it didn't want to take the tape but when I got it home I tried again and pushed the tape in just a bit further and it drew it in and started playing and sounded so clear. This was great because looking at that deck from the inside I was completely unsure how I could work on it. The Tape B door is cracked so if anyone has a spare to sell hit me up.
All in all I really enjoy taking something that looks (and sounds) broken, cleaning it up and making it do what it was made to do. Looking forward to being part of this community.
Jamie
to the forum. Thank you for the detailed description of the boomboxes in your collection.