This is a rebadged Hitachi D-410. The innards are identical. And it actually is a fine performer when calibrated. If you want to calibrate this one, I have the service manual and would be happy to share it. I think you'll be surprised at how good it sounds when set up.

Hi. That transport was made by Marantz, and used in Marantz, Superscope, Realistic, Hitachi, and perhaps other brands of cassette decks. They are a royal pain in the butt to work on. I owned the Superscope version when I was 13 - my first Hi-Fi cassette deck.

I have this tape deck also. My Dad purchased it new at Radio Shack in the late 70s along with a 2100D receiver, Lab 400 TT, and Mach One speakers.

Realistic was an entry level brand, they got few higher end pieces but most was on the budget level, still a cool retro deck

My brother had the full receiver version of this deck - angled tray and everything.

I worked at a radio shack store when this came out and bought one new. I agree, Hitachi. Mine had the bias set all the way down brand new. I fixed that and it worked just fine for many years. They were phasing out top loaders and they were huge machines that seemed to have a poor high end response. At that time, the best sound was from a reel to reel they sold and the high end 8 track deck. I believe the issue was the head gap. This sct 11 had a good response up to 17 khz. Yes a nakamichi would go to 20 khz and yes a 500 machine would also do better but this was durable and had low flutter. Loading becomes easy as you use it. Todays decks wont even come close to this. Hitachi made durable stuff but the marketing sucked. I remember a commercial that went hit hit hit Hitachi Hi fi. Was as bad as Motorola. They made car radios in the 70s. Mo mo Motorola, something else in sound on wheels. Sucked too. Disco was better.

Good Video. This wasn't the only flat/angled Cassette deck. Technics had several, RS-671, 676 & 677, which were Great decks.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching! Over the years, I've had a few Technics decks and I was always very happy with them.

I bought one of those brand new in my mid teens, and have been very happy with it. It's definitely Hitachi, and, as long as the tape head isn't completely worn out, its sound should have pleasantly surprised you, with a frequency response up to 15Khz. It was top of the line (RS), and, although it's no Nakamichi, it does sound decent. There are some custom chips inside, and one of them broke. Because the manual has the schematic, I was able to duplicate that chip with discrete components and get it running again. My belts wore out in the 90's, and life happened, so I never had the time to fix it, but I still have it ready for when I have the time. Yes, I was surprised to get something this good from Radio Shack, but Hitachi was a very underrated brand.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Some of the best TVs and VCRs I've owned were Hitachi. They weren't the most full-featured, but they were pretty indestructible. I was impressed with the sound quality of this deck. It was a little noisy, but I'm sure that's down to aging Electronics inside.

Great video! I made one as well for my SCT-11. It’s a Hitachi D410. My story is similar to yours, got it for free, not working. I’m not a tech guy but over the course of about 6 months I managed to learn how to fix it and now have it running at about 90-95% perfect. Recording on it sounds crappy but playback is good, ESPECIALLY on a Type 2 cassette. I haven’t tried any higher quality tapes, like Metal or anything. Type 1 sounds pretty bad but Type 2 sounds quite nice! For the VU meter, try cycling/waiting back and forth between short bursts of Record and Play about 10-15 times, that’s one of the things I had to do, though on mine, one of the meter needles was buried all the way to the right. Realistic had some great gear, especially for receivers, amps, speakers and turntables. For tape decks though I’ve heard the 3 head decks are the way to go. But I have a weird love for the horizontal load tape decks. They’re just so unique and cool. Another good Realistic tape deck is the SCT-25. It’s small and looks like one of those old dictation decks, but it actually sounds really nice. One of the best tape decks I’ve ever heard!

Hitachi did indeed manufacture the early realistic Cassette decks. Marantz also sold a angled cassette deck.

@scottstrang1583

5 ай бұрын

There were a lot of Japanese decks that had the angled cassette. But upside down was weird.

This reminds me of the Technic RS-615 I had back in the day.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

3 ай бұрын

It's very similar to some Technics decks. Some folks have commented that the Realistic decks were possibly made by Technics. They definitely have that appearance.

I a few realistic decks after a problems with a sony tc-fx500R with head problems. I give up trying to get my sony dealer to repair it. And so Brought a realstic deck and was very happy with it it was cheaper but did very well. I give it to friend after a brought Teachics separates and dual automatic reverse deck.

FYI, Realistic had higher, mid, and low end quality/price options in all of their audio gear. I know a lot of audiophiles look down on them, but I've thoroughly enjoyed my father's late 70s high end system. He's still running his Mach One speakers and they sound amazing.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

10 күн бұрын

I remember seeing some really nice Realistic equipment back in the day. Didn't they have another brand, too? Optimus, I think it was?

@kath121

10 күн бұрын

@@VintageElectronicsChannel it was Realistic most of the decades and most recently Optimus. I'm not sure if Optimus gear had the same quality as the older Realistic did though.

i have a gennexa sct37 cassette deck which was sold under the tandy name here in australia, its a well made deck with auto reverse, i think its the highest model they sold with the duel decks, its a good unit too, all steel mechs with big flywheels, i know AIWA also made stuff for them as well,

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

I'll have to look that one up. A Tandy branded cassette deck... that's cool!

My dad always said that Realistic stuff was not up to snuff. My brother, otoh thought their stuff was above reproach. Part of that is probably due to him running a RS in the downtown Memphis area. Early to mid 70s.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

We're all probably biased one way or the other with different brands for our own reasons.

I think I have the same one in storage that needs belts, I have a Craig brand that’s very similar here and works. It has piano keys and the eject will shoot the tape out into your hand if the door is open. It’s kind of neat to do,plus it has a nice warm glow to watch as meters dance . No din plug on the Craig. I got it cuz it’s an odd brand 🤷🏻‍♂️😁

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

This one will shoot the tape out too. Better be ready to catch it!

I have bought a few items from Radio Shack and it would be nice if they would come back and do business in the US, but now of my purchase were speakers. I still have a 15" woofer that I never put to use for a project initiated by a speaker manufacturer that was going to release a combination subwoofer and center channel speaker but I never followed through with it . But I did enjoy the old catalogs from Radio Shack, Heathkit, and Lafayette! I owned an LR-9090 for awhile and it was great because it could handle 3 cassette decks!

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

I loved Radio Shack. I could spend hours in there just looking at all the electronic components, kits, equipment, and miscellaneous parts and pieces. It was always a great day when I could stop by a Radio Shack store.

My parents had a Pioneer with the same feature. In fact, its sitting in my garage. I think it needs a belt.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Sounds like you need to bring it inside, get it working, and enjoy it.

Ooo, interesting channel. Subscribed.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Welcome aboard!

Great you got your money back and to keep the item sent ,wrongly ,I have never had a realistic deck but there is a three head realistic that is said to sound decent ,made by Hitachi.

@VintageElectronicsChannel

5 ай бұрын

Normally, situations like that don't end up well. Besides the disappointment of not getting what I ordered, I still ended up with this deck to at least take a look at. So it ended up a good resolution. I've not seen many realistic decks myself. I tended to overlook them until this one landed on my doorstep.

They had another upside model.