I own 2 of these, one in full working order (belt was replaced when I bought it) the second needed an new motor, hard to find an original Matsushita MMI-5A2LM, but got a MABUCHI EG-530AD-2B CCW DC Motor 12V that does the trick, the belt needs a bit of "fiddling" as I learned from your video they counter rotate. [edit] Seen from the back, the belt goes 3/4 around the left wheel, top part of the loop directly to the spindle on the motor, and lower part upwards round the right wheel. BTW I've got the RC430 remote control, Turntable TT530 and tuner ST530L with an PM630 amp to complete the "stack" only shy of an CD73 CD player ;)

I bought the model above (SD630), in perfect mechanical order, for $5 2 years ago. The 630 model has a built-in DBX on top of Dolby B/C. The only issue with the one I bought was missing one foot... that got solved in minutes with a 3d printer. It's an amazing piece of kit.

Beautiful machine ..and mic and headphone inputs too ...priceless

@VintageElectronicsChannel

4 ай бұрын

Couldn't agree more!

I was a consumer electronics service tech in that era. Marantz made quality stuff then. They produced a line of components with that color of metal finish.

You're absolutely right, this is a very 80s looking cassette deck! It is from the Philips owned Marantz era. Nothing wrong with Philips but they really did not understand what the Marantz look and design was all about. I don't know, but I imagine this deck is a rebadged Philips deck. If it isn't then Philips mandated some really un-Marantz design parameters to the designers. I love the design in isolation, I also hate the design because it's a Marantz and I feel Marantz should not look like a Grundig.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

I learned something new! I didn't know they were owned by Philips at that time. That's interesting!

@leobakker7177

Ай бұрын

I ran into a Philips amp in a local used store and apart being "silver" the layout of the buttons and sliders were pretty much the same.

it is a pretty good deck, well built 👍🏻

I like marantz

Nice tape deck. It looks like my Marantz SR 8100 DC that came out around the same time. Thanks for the cool video.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching. Nice deck!

There was an auto reverse deck, I forget who made it, that slid the cassette out on a shelf, twisted it around, and placed it back into the transport. As for your collection, if the Marantz doesn't fit in looks wise, that just means you now need to collect more Marantz products of the same style.🤗

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

That was the Akai Invert-o-Matic. The most insanely complicated, yet amazingly well-designed mechanism I've ever seen.

@dean6816

5 ай бұрын

Also the Nakamichi RX range.

I liked the looks of those back in the 80’s but in reality my budget as a high schooler was more in the “Realistic” range.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

4 ай бұрын

Mine too!

old Marantz gear tended to run very hot. You would really need cooling fans. I'd guess most of the 80s Marantz gear lived a very short life......

@VintageElectronicsChannel

4 ай бұрын

I'll keep an eye on that. So far, I haven't run into overheating issues, but I also haven't used it for long periods of time.

I think it was NAD who ushered in the black era. Great amps. The ultimate 80s thing was a DUAL cassette deck. I think my friends Marantz cassette was a dual one

I've become a bit of a fan of this channel. Interested to see more in the future.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching! There's more cool stuff coming in the future.

Just picked on up for 5.99 at savers it seemed to reverse and forward and played when I tested but no cassette with me so we’ll see

That champagne color could be nicotine staining. Does it smell like cigarette smoke? The units I'm seeing online appear to be silver faced is the reason I'm asking.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

It's definitely not nicotine staining. I did find some literature from the period that mentioned the "champagne" color, so it's original.

@Frank_nwobhm

5 ай бұрын

@@VintageElectronicsChannel That's cool. I was hoping that was the case. I've heard tales of "champagne" colored gear that turned out to be nicotine stained, that's the only reason I mentioned it. It looks like a nice piece of gear for sure. Anything with the Marantz name is a keeper.

marantz made great 70's products however these are not so great decks ,,,good luck keeping the azimuth for very long with the ancient flipper head design,it looks kinda cool tho i wouldnt invest much effort into it

must be recapt

Don't turn it on, take it apaaart!!

this poped on my feed, love vintage hifi gear, but come on you didn't even put a tape in it. pointless video if you don't at least show it running, and getting a line out feed would have been expected too.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Totally agree. Followup video with more in depth demo coming within next couple weeks.

Disappointing video. A more in depth review of the features as well as seeing it work seems bare minimum. Too much facetime not enough machine time.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

After watching the video again, I totally agree. Noted and learned for next time.