My Lasonic TRC-909s arrived yesterday. 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT
Things that were immediately wrong:
1. Plenty of dirt/dust
2. Static in most of the switches.
3. Cassette is funny 'cause sometimes it plays like it should, other times the sound is up and down (good to somewhat muffled and good to... ).
4. FF didn't work... Actually, the FF works 'cause the spindle does move but the belt is so bad, it won't spin a cassette.
5. RW works when it wants to work or with some coaxing.
6. Takes some playing around to get the FM light to stay on.
7. There was a big-ass hole in the back of the case where the right side of the handle lays. I could hear plastic rattling around inside the box.
8. 2 of the flat plastic switch covers were missing.
9. Noticed that there was a supposed to be piece of metal trim running along the bottom of the box similar to the trim under the tuner section. The trim that's still on is loose on the right side.
10. The VU meters are funny on most functions... In radio mode, the right meter goes straight to the red when a station is tuned in and the left meter stays in the red when the box is plugged in or the batteries are full (I assume it drops off when they're running out of juice). There's no way to turn the meters off so that they'll move to music in radio mode.
What I did to correct what was wrong:
1. A rag, water, Q-Tips and some toothpicks... Yeah, I don't play around when it comes to detailing a box - especially for a photo shoot.
2. Deoxit Gold.
3. Nothing 'cause I can't really see too many situations where I'm gonna use cassettes in this box.
4. Ditto.
5. Ditto again.
6. Deoxit Gold didn't cure it so I'm not sweating it. Besides, turning the box off and then on again seems to fix it...
7. Luckily, when I opened the box, I found the plastic in one piece instead of bits and pieces. Took it out and glued it back into place. Now you can hardly tell that the box was damaged back there.
8. Found the pieces inside... I tried getting to the switches to do some custom replacements, but because everything's packed so tight and the tuner string runs the length of the box and on 2 separate boards, I didn't wanna risk pulling those boards and catching hell putting 'em back in... Knowing me, I'll mess around and pop that string.
9. I was gonna glue the remaining trim back in place but decided to leave it alone... Maybe I can take the box somewhere and get that trim duplicated or replace both of 'em with new trim... I'm open to suggestions.
10. Nothing 'cause I just figured out that's probably the way it's supposed to be. Besides, in tape mode, the meters move to the music. Hopefully, I'll get the same result when my DIN cable for line-in arrives from the UK.
As for the sound (on radio and tape), the 909s is a very good sounding box and very loud for its size! It's also got a nice little kick when it comes to bass! Like most boxes, the 909s is louder on radio than it is on cassette. Don't know what the line-in sounds like because the DIN cable hasn't arrived yet. Does a good job of tuning in stations... I can't complain about much of anything.
Oh, and that crack that the seller described in the auction wasn't a crack at all... Turned out that the seam between the front and back cases on the bottom of the box weren't lined up correctly. I suspect that the box was dropped and instead of opening it up straightening it out, the owner left it like it was. There was nothing wrong with the bottom.
Chris and I were speculating...
When I opened up the box, the manufacture date code sticker fell out... November 29, 1982.
All that said, here's the box:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:ITThings that were immediately wrong:
1. Plenty of dirt/dust
2. Static in most of the switches.
3. Cassette is funny 'cause sometimes it plays like it should, other times the sound is up and down (good to somewhat muffled and good to... ).
4. FF didn't work... Actually, the FF works 'cause the spindle does move but the belt is so bad, it won't spin a cassette.
5. RW works when it wants to work or with some coaxing.
6. Takes some playing around to get the FM light to stay on.
7. There was a big-ass hole in the back of the case where the right side of the handle lays. I could hear plastic rattling around inside the box.
8. 2 of the flat plastic switch covers were missing.
9. Noticed that there was a supposed to be piece of metal trim running along the bottom of the box similar to the trim under the tuner section. The trim that's still on is loose on the right side.
10. The VU meters are funny on most functions... In radio mode, the right meter goes straight to the red when a station is tuned in and the left meter stays in the red when the box is plugged in or the batteries are full (I assume it drops off when they're running out of juice). There's no way to turn the meters off so that they'll move to music in radio mode.
What I did to correct what was wrong:
1. A rag, water, Q-Tips and some toothpicks... Yeah, I don't play around when it comes to detailing a box - especially for a photo shoot.
2. Deoxit Gold.
3. Nothing 'cause I can't really see too many situations where I'm gonna use cassettes in this box.
4. Ditto.
5. Ditto again.
6. Deoxit Gold didn't cure it so I'm not sweating it. Besides, turning the box off and then on again seems to fix it...
7. Luckily, when I opened the box, I found the plastic in one piece instead of bits and pieces. Took it out and glued it back into place. Now you can hardly tell that the box was damaged back there.
8. Found the pieces inside... I tried getting to the switches to do some custom replacements, but because everything's packed so tight and the tuner string runs the length of the box and on 2 separate boards, I didn't wanna risk pulling those boards and catching hell putting 'em back in... Knowing me, I'll mess around and pop that string.
9. I was gonna glue the remaining trim back in place but decided to leave it alone... Maybe I can take the box somewhere and get that trim duplicated or replace both of 'em with new trim... I'm open to suggestions.
10. Nothing 'cause I just figured out that's probably the way it's supposed to be. Besides, in tape mode, the meters move to the music. Hopefully, I'll get the same result when my DIN cable for line-in arrives from the UK.
As for the sound (on radio and tape), the 909s is a very good sounding box and very loud for its size! It's also got a nice little kick when it comes to bass! Like most boxes, the 909s is louder on radio than it is on cassette. Don't know what the line-in sounds like because the DIN cable hasn't arrived yet. Does a good job of tuning in stations... I can't complain about much of anything.
Oh, and that crack that the seller described in the auction wasn't a crack at all... Turned out that the seam between the front and back cases on the bottom of the box weren't lined up correctly. I suspect that the box was dropped and instead of opening it up straightening it out, the owner left it like it was. There was nothing wrong with the bottom.
Chris and I were speculating...
Lasonic TRC-920 said:
When I opened up the box, the manufacture date code sticker fell out... November 29, 1982.
All that said, here's the box:
