National Panasonic RX-A5 - 8 Woofers/2 Tweeters & 2 Tape Decks

[Cpl-Chronic]

I finally got around to pulling my HUGE RX-A5 off the shelf for some cassette deck love & service. I have already modified the speakers with 8(2x4) 4.5" Boston Acoustics line array woofers & updated 6db/oct crossovers(caps) for the tweeters & full range for the woofers for a really nice sound. Both decks sounded terrible actually & one had crackling & whining when playing a tape. I finally dived in & took it apart & did the old record bar cleaning & it came back to life on Deck 2. It still needed a head alignment(Azimuth) & speed adjustment, lubrication etc. to get it right. Also, Deck 1 is playback only so no record bar issues there but it was also muffled & playing slow when the pitch control was at the middle(0) point so I lubed & adjusted that one too. Oddly, the speed control for the motors is a separate adjuster on the circuit board, for each deck & not on the back of the 6v motors as one would assume. Finally, for good measure, both heads were lightly polished & demagnetized with a tape head wand. The results are quite good in my opinion & you can get an idea of how good it sounds from the video below.

Next on the bench is the RX-A2. Video coming soon & thanks for LQQKING.

Cheers.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

Here's what it sounds like on Line-In with a Bluetooth dongle playing songs from my phone:

Enjoy!!

 

[Fatdog]

Sounds clean.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Big VU's missing but still I love it!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

I finally got around to pulling my HUGE RX-A5 off the shelf for some cassette deck love & service. I have already modified the speakers with 8(2x4) 4.5" Boston Acoustics line array woofers & updated 6db/oct crossovers(caps) for the tweeters & full range for the woofers for a really nice sound. Both decks sounded terrible actually & one had crackling & whining when playing a tape. I finally dived in & took it apart & did the old record bar cleaning & it came back to life on Deck 2. It still needed a head alignment(Azimuth) & speed adjustment, lubrication etc. to get it right. Also, Deck 1 is playback only so no record bar issues there but it was also muffled & playing slow when the pitch control was at the middle(0) point so I lubed & adjusted that one too. Oddly, the speed control for the motors is a separate adjuster on the circuit board, for each deck & not on the back of the 6v motors as one would assume. Finally, for good measure, both heads were lightly polished & demagnetized with a tape head wand. The results are quite good in my opinion & you can get an idea of how good it sounds from the video below.

Next on the bench is the RX-A2. Video coming soon & thanks for LQQKING.

Cheers.

The 2 woofers in each speaker boxes are passive types, right?

 

[goodman]

This is real monster! I like all buttons and switches. It's possible to connect other devices too.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

The 2 woofers in each speaker boxes are passive types, right?

Actually yes you are correct. Originally, each speaker cabinet had 2 woofers & 2 passive radiators & they did not sound that great to me so I modernized it with 4 woofers per cabinet & extensive treatment of the internal cabinet with deadmat damping materials & some acoustic wool to slow down the air inside.