Breathing Life into the Lo-D D-9: Vintage Cassette Deck Transport Servicing

Join me on this journey of rejuvenation as I service the tape transport for a Lo-D D-9, a top-of-the-line vintage cassette deck. Old, deteriorated belts, worn pinch rollers, and years of dust and grime have all taken a toll on this beautiful piece of audio history.
In this video, I will guide you through the careful process of replacing the old belts, installing new pinch rollers, and meticulously lubricating every moving part. This process, though challenging, is necessary to resurrect the true potential of this vintage gem.
Together, we'll navigate the complexities of this vintage cassette deck, appreciating the detailed design and craftsmanship from a bygone era. It's time to bring the Lo-D D-9 back to life, so sit back and enjoy the transformation!

[@dottingA]

I am amateur and just have serviced the same one. FF and FWD were week not only because the motor but two reels themselves needed to be dismantled to parts to clean up and lubricate too. Many thanks for your demonstration video, without this I couldn’t make it myself +++++

[@n.lyndley.9889]

This man is a wizard.
🫡

[@cassettekaier]

Nice work man

[@annierenard5954]

nice long educational video, thank you

[@seongcheoljang4706]

I have many decks but missing this one from Hitachi. I heard good things about Lo-D decks and thank you for the inside look. It has a different transport than the other decks and the design looks very original to Hitachi.

[@mihaischitcu1917]

Nice videos! :)
I've always been somewhat interested in how the auto-calibrations are implemented by various manufacturers (in decks that I've never seen such as this one), maybe you will consider including a segment where you play back the portion of the tape being recorded during the (auto) calibration process. I'm sure you won't get any copyright matches from RUclips :P Cheers!

[@hifirulezzz]

Stay tuned to my channel. I always do audio test.

[@mihaischitcu1917]

@@hifirulezzz Yes I know you do :) What I meant was what the auto-calibration test tones sound like. Most of the decks mute the line while processing. Like in this vid (played back afterwards): ruclips.net/video/6r5V-WTYa-w/видео.html

[@hifirulezzz]

@@mihaischitcu1917 they all mostly the same tones of 2, 3 or 4 frequencies with different levels, it limited to the CPU programming and should not affect results. The issue is within measurement precision. As tape levels may fluctuate. And ADC were slow or non existent at that days. For example Nakamichi 1000zxl used DAC and OpAmp in comparator mode to check levels.

[@mihaischitcu1917]

@@hifirulezzz The Kenwwod deck from the clip I sent you uses such a comparator arrangement too, and it only "measures" the Right channel (the L&R channels are locked together, always receiving the same amount of correction). Others (like Technics on their last 3 head decks) use a much more sophisticated implementation and have much finer control - 64 steps for bias, however they only take 6 measurements as a binary search algorithm is employed. And they adjust the L&R channels completely independent of each other. I know in principle they all work in the same way but the actual implementation makes a big difference - those are the details I was curious about, and you can tell a lot just by listening the test sequence.

[@hifirulezzz]

@@mihaischitcu1917 I do not need to record - I may tell you by looking into schematics how many steps it can have :)

[@hohoanggiang1986]

Victor dd 77 không đưa đầu từ lên tới băng