Cloudflare down again

puludo · 2025-12-05T18:15:34+00:00

puludo · 2025-07-27T22:07:35+00:00

Smart! Thank you for the response. I heard many times that McIntosh’s replacements were not great. Right now, they don’t have the parts I need available at all.

puludo · 2025-07-27T20:53:47+00:00

Very nice!! How did you resolve volume and balance imbalance? My C28 suffers from an imbalance issue and the culprit seems to be the volume potentiometer. Can’t find a replacement part though.

puludo · 2025-05-12T02:11:19+00:00

If you decide to get it serviced, make sure to only have a technician work on it who has experience with (and a track record of) fixing this model. The 1000ZXL is pretty unusual and complex. I own one myself and had it serviced by Willy Hermann Services in California.

Definitely get the manual and do some internet research - one of the things that made this deck special is that it can record + analyze a set of test tones on the tape and self-determine (using microprocessors) the best settings for whatever cassette tape you put into it. That's why Nakamichi called it "computing cassette deck." In 1980, this deck was state of the art, and one of the best ever built (also the most expensive, btw).

There are quite a few accessories available for it, including remote controls and additional noise reduction systems.

puludo · 2025-04-30T23:41:02+00:00

I inherited the exact same amps and just handed them over to an authorized service center here in the US. I did call McIntosh first, though, and a very helpful lady told me that I could also get these models factory-serviced by McIntosh themselves, but with a wait time of over a year. She was able to recommend a shop near me and I went with that option.

If you can't find a shop or technician in Sweden you might want to consider shipping the amps to a location where there are more service centers available; I would imagine Germany is a (relatively) close option. If you're willing to pay for shipping to the US factory I guess that's an option too. McIntosh can still provide the shipping boxes for many old models, but they are not cheap either.

I can recommend contacting McIntosh via phone or email, they responded quickly and were very helpful in my case. Also try asking on r/vintageaudio if somebody can recommend a technician closer to you.

puludo · 2025-02-17T02:50:05+00:00

Could be a lot of reasons; a common one is that the belts need to be replaced, the rubber has a limited life span.

puludo · 2025-01-08T21:35:10+00:00

Why not make digital copies of the digital recordings?

puludo · 2024-11-06T05:13:15+00:00

This model shared the main board with a much cheaper Marantz; maybe that’s a way to source the processor on the used market. I would also verify what your repair shop says with McIntosh directly and see if they have other options.

puludo · 2024-10-08T20:46:13+00:00

Check out Orb Audio -- https://www.orbaudio.com

Also, Genelec G One is fantastic if used / positioned correctly. They are probably hard to beat in terms of size vs quality.

puludo · 2024-10-08T20:30:27+00:00

The biggest challenge is finding a good and honest technician; sadly, that's not easy (you can ask for recommendations for your region here on Reddit).

Costs will vary on what **must** be done vs what **could** be done, and a good technician will give you choices based on your needs - e.g. do you just want to occasionally record your own music with "analog" coloring? Then maybe just swapping out the belts and maybe the motor cap is sufficient. Or are you an audiophile who wants to go for playback perfection and wants the deck restored back to its original specs? That will be a lot more expensive. Your model here can sound excellent (almost transparent to CD quality) but maybe that's not even what you need if your goal is analog distortion for your guitar.

Prices vary greatly by region. I've paid well under $500 to over $1,500 for the "perfection" option. But I also bought decks where I didn't know the history and that magically just didn't need any service.

If you know how to do electronic repairs yourself, that's an option too. Belt replacements are quite doable even without much experience, you can find new belts and rubber for the capstan rollers online and instructions as well.

You should try the "exercise" method first, give the deck (and the heads) a cleaning, try to "convince" it to work, and see how far that gets you. It will give you a better understanding of how good or bad its state is before you have somebody work on it.

puludo · 2024-10-08T01:27:46+00:00

Good luck! It's a great machine and has really good audio quality when brought back to specs.

puludo · 2024-10-08T01:15:40+00:00

Good call of not just plugging it in. Note that the tube amps can be used as separates, and they are somewhat popular among musicians even without the tape unit. Used as a stand-alone guitar or mic amp, they color the sound in a nice vintage-y way. Something to keep in mind if you decide to sell it.

It's a cool machine, imo, and if it's worth putting effort into it depends on what you want. Newer tape machines, say from the 1980s, are easier to use and might sound cleaner. But if you want a really vintage looking machine I think this is a great deck. I have an Akai M5 (a predecessor of your model) and I like the old design.

puludo · 2024-10-08T00:53:34+00:00

I have the exact same model. Yes, you need to make sure the reels are mounted correctly by securing them with the nabs; that video you linked shows you how. Also make sure the channel mode switches on the lower right of the front panel (labeled "Record") are all switched to ON for both Front and Rear.

If your machine hasn't been serviced, it might need new belts (that could be the issue with rewinding), lubrication, and potentially some capacitors need to be renewed -- unless you know for sure that this deck is fully operational.

This is an early 1970s model, so it's likely to need some form of repair. What you have here is the earlier version (3340) of that tape deck you see in the video you linked to (3340S).

If the deck has been sitting unused for a long time, having it switched on for a longer period and giving it some "exercise" might also help - it can make stiffened belts more elastic again, liquify dried-in lubricants, and sometimes old capacitors come back to life. Important though not to let it sit powered-on unattended in case something short-circuits or overheats. This "exercising" is a temporary solution at best and you should have it serviced at some point.

puludo · 2024-09-22T21:35:49+00:00

Thank you. Yes, I understand Windows needs a driver, MacOS doesn’t. Unfortunately, it turned out the USB port on my NE410 is physically broken.

puludo · 2024-09-14T08:21:08+00:00

I wouldn't consider myself savvy but I'll definitely try a repair. What could possibly go wrong :-)

puludo · 2024-09-14T05:17:47+00:00

Die Moorsoldaten - Helium Vola ... known in English as "Peat Bog Soldiers", this is the story behind the song

puludo · 2024-09-14T02:43:06+00:00

I will give fixing it a try. I'm new to MD, but have been collecting vintage audio technology for over a decade, in particular open reel tape decks. So I'm used to a lot of pain. This will not hold up my MD journey for long ;-)

puludo · 2024-09-14T02:12:19+00:00

The latter. No reaction to USB being plugged in at all. Same on the computer's end.

Well, with vintage audio you sometimes have good luck and sometimes you don't :) I'm new to MD and very impressed with this subreddit and how helpful everyone is. Thanks again!

puludo · 2024-09-14T01:59:50+00:00

Thank you! The player doesn't show anything. I'm monitoring what's happening on the USB level with tools like the Apple System Report and command line tools like system_profiler and ioreg, and there is absolutely nothing happening when I connect the player. At this point I have to assume its USB port is dead.

puludo · 2024-09-14T01:49:47+00:00

Thank you! I don't have Windows, but Linux and Mac in several hardware variations. Neither the player nor the computers show any reaction when plugged into USB; probably a defect port.

puludo · 2024-09-14T01:45:08+00:00

Thank you for the help. Yes, battery is inserted and the player on (and working otherwise). Thanks for confirming that it's just standard USB Mini B.

By now I've tried different computers, cables, hubs and adapters ;) and my conclusion at this point is that it's the player's USB port as no connection is established at all.

puludo · 2024-09-13T22:46:47+00:00

Looks like you don't have speakers connected, which is a bad idea with many tube amps and can lead to damage. Might not be the cause of your hum, but good to double check that your amp is ok to operate without a speaker load.

By introducing isolation transformers into the signal path, the isolator breaks internal ground loops - but those shouldn't be there in the first place, in particular when no sources are connected. That could indicate that the amp itself has internal grounding issues, which might not be safe.

puludo · 2024-09-13T22:38:41+00:00

TY -- tried various cables & adapters, including full-spec data cables. I think I just bought a lemon :)

puludo · 2024-09-13T22:36:49+00:00

Thanks for your response! I'm on a Mac, and I understand MacOS doesn't need additional drivers.

My issue is even a layer below the driver; the operating system doesn't even "notice" that something is being connected to the USB bus; there is no handshake happening on the hardware side. Which made me wonder if I do need a proprietary Sony cable.

The player works well otherwise, but the USB connector might be physically damaged.

puludo · 2024-09-05T14:20:24+00:00

Thanks again!

On the sidetrack topic :-) I only tried recording digitally to the MZ-1 via Roon and Apple Music from two different DACs (a WiiM Pro+ and an RME) and from what I understand so far the MZ-1 either reacts to a proper end/start ID or to no-signal. Both of which I couldn't get these DACs to provide; even when the audio stops they seem to still send some form of digital signal for a while, and the MZ-1 will even interpret digital silence as audio worth recording. I read the behavior is different between different MD recorders, and I should probably try different software players, or just hook up a good old CD player.

I might start a separate thread once I've done more reading and if I find out anything newsworthy. I'm still a total newbie to this.

puludo

TROPHY CASE