Any interest in a teardown of the GRE PSR-800, Whistler WS-1080 & Radio Shack PRO-668

[retropcdos]

Any interest in a teardown of the GRE PSR-800, Whistler WS-1080 & Radio Shack PRO-668

May plan on a complete detail teardown of the following scanners, GRE PSR-800, Whistler WS-1080 and Radio Shack PRO-668 scanners. Only if their enough interest and help with the project. The reason being is curious if they made any changes in the hardware, updated IC's, RF front end and ETC in these 3 models, or they are all the same. I notice others are wondering the same.

Here the deal, as I need your help, I am willing to sacrifice one of my Radio Shack PRO 668 for the teardown, just not all three and reason being is RF shields are solder on and not clip in, good chance of damage and tuning issues to scanner removing those shields and need to be remove to see important IC's and front end. So if enough people are interested I will do the teardown, but also will require donations for the cost of the other two scanners, the WS 1080 and the PSR 800. Now if someone has a broken one of these models and willing to donate it for the teardown, then better even, as better not to risk a good working scanner. I been actually trying to find broken one cheap on eBay, but can't find them and when they do pop up, sellers ask for cost of a working one.

Will also need advise on how to go about asking for donations for this teardown project, or someone to set it up and a way to keep track of donations, so we know when goal is meant. Been a long time eBay member, so can accept PayPal and safer for everyone, but open to suggestions, as never done donations before on projects. As far as what happen to scanners if they survive teardown, or even parts, can be given away by picking a random names for those involve, or though YouTube channel, or on this forum. Will be using my main YouTube channel to upload teardown video and good Panasonic X920 camcorder with good lighting to do video and detail pictures.

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroPCDOS/featured?view_as=public







Took apart my old GRE PSR-800 to clean and realize a teardown may damage scanner as some shields are solder all the way around, some only at corners.

 

[MTS2000des]

retropcdos is a CLASS ACT

I've been a subscriber to his YouTube channel and have learned quite a bit on his restoration of some pretty esoteric audio gear such as the Nakamichi Dragon.

If anyone can do a grade A restoration on a sophisticated electronic gear, he can.

Totally uncompensated endorsement!

 

[ratboy]

A friend of mine had a Dragon! Awesome deck. I had the fancy Pioneer that was supposed to be a competitor, but it didn't sound near as good, and it had issues without end.

Off to youtube I go..

I think it was prettier than the Nak, but it wasn't even close in sound quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTSzvczoCA

 

[retropcdos]

A friend of mine had a Dragon! Awesome deck. I had the fancy Pioneer that was supposed to be a competitor, but it didn't sound near as good, and it had issues without end.

Off to youtube I go..

I think it was prettier than the Nak, but it wasn't even close in sound quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTSzvczoCA

The Pioneer CT-F1250, built very solid and one of their better decks around. Just restored one not to long ago. Had to rebuilt the motors due to corrosion on commutator plates, so had to sand and polish, so motors have good torque. Also had to replaced and upgrade all transistors in pre -amp section and change all the capacitors as were dry out leaky and most smaller ones had high ESR due to seals leaked. Once done sounded very good, had very good bottom end and very little hiss in record. Also matches the Pioneer RT-909 reel to reel which is another nice looker.

 

[ratboy]

The Pioneer came at the end of my selling stereo days and it was basically bought for it's looks. It had motor issues with the supply reel motor and sometimes refused to respond to anything. I guessed a bad solder joint, but since it was under warranty, I took it to a local service place that had it for weeks waiting for parts, even though when I got it back, it had no parts listed, just "touched up solder joints". It worked for a while, then the left channel dropped. Back to another repair place and they also hit solder joints. After the warranty expired, I fixed a couple of solder joint related problems myself. I sold it about 10 years ago to some friend of a friend who is a Pioneer fanboy. I got some serious cash for it too. When I sold Pioneer, I had a lot of DOA returns due to soldering problems. I got pretty good at finding them and fixing them myself before I sold them. A burn in helped a lot. Most of the bad joints were plugs on PC boards, or the leads going to the volume/balance/tone pots. Their cheaper stuff seemed worse than the better stuff (Different factory?). Best stuff I sold, it rarely broke, was Panasonic/Technics. Worst, by far, was Sansui. Some bad soldering in them, real bad. And some bad filer caps too.

The CT-F1250 wasn't bad sounding, compared to some other decks I had or sold, but the Dragon was just a level better. This one (see below) was better than expected, and lived to a very ripe old age. The take up reel motor died on it, and after years of looking for the motor, I parted it out, and of course, not one, but 3 motors appeared on Ebay, all appearing to be old stock. I bought another 276, looks new and works fine, but it's just not as good as my old one was, I'm guessing due to head alignment differences. One oddball thing about it was there appears to be several versions of it all with the same model numbers. My original RS-276US ($199.95!) had sliding level controls, but every one I've seen on Ebay, including my second one, have rotary controls (I greatly prefer it as the original sliders are impossible to find), and there appears to be one that has a black case on it, not wood as most of them have. I know it's the right model number as my manual that I've had over 42 years has sliders on it. I saw color variations on other Panasonic/Technics stuff from about that time on other stuff I sold back then. Never anything important, just kind of 'Why did they do that?" kind of stuff. My Technics RS-M45 from 1979 is still working perfectly, it has a lot of hours on it. My Onkyo deck didn't last more than 5 years before the head died from wear. Ebay saved me on that one. New head? $9.95 delivered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAsu5BQC7Nw

 

[Boatanchor]

Not much in the way of RF circuitry inside that PSR-800, is there.

 

[retropcdos]

The Pioneer came at the end of my selling stereo days and it was basically bought for it's looks. It had motor issues with the supply reel motor and sometimes refused to respond to anything. I guessed a bad solder joint, but since it was under warranty, I took it to a local service place that had it for weeks waiting for parts, even though when I got it back, it had no parts listed, just "touched up solder joints". It worked for a while, then the left channel dropped. Back to another repair place and they also hit solder joints. After the warranty expired, I fixed a couple of solder joint related problems myself. I sold it about 10 years ago to some friend of a friend who is a Pioneer fanboy. I got some serious cash for it too. When I sold Pioneer, I had a lot of DOA returns due to soldering problems. I got pretty good at finding them and fixing them myself before I sold them. A burn in helped a lot. Most of the bad joints were plugs on PC boards, or the leads going to the volume/balance/tone pots. Their cheaper stuff seemed worse than the better stuff (Different factory?). Best stuff I sold, it rarely broke, was Panasonic/Technics. Worst, by far, was Sansui. Some bad soldering in them, real bad. And some bad filer caps too.

The CT-F1250 wasn't bad sounding, compared to some other decks I had or sold, but the Dragon was just a level better. This one (see below) was better than expected, and lived to a very ripe old age. The take up reel motor died on it, and after years of looking for the motor, I parted it out, and of course, not one, but 3 motors appeared on Ebay, all appearing to be old stock. I bought another 276, looks new and works fine, but it's just not as good as my old one was, I'm guessing due to head alignment differences. One oddball thing about it was there appears to be several versions of it all with the same model numbers. My original RS-276US ($199.95!) had sliding level controls, but every one I've seen on Ebay, including my second one, have rotary controls (I greatly prefer it as the original sliders are impossible to find), and there appears to be one that has a black case on it, not wood as most of them have. I know it's the right model number as my manual that I've had over 42 years has sliders on it. I saw color variations on other Panasonic/Technics stuff from about that time on other stuff I sold back then. Never anything important, just kind of 'Why did they do that?" kind of stuff. My Technics RS-M45 from 1979 is still working perfectly, it has a lot of hours on it. My Onkyo deck didn't last more than 5 years before the head died from wear. Ebay saved me on that one. New head? $9.95 delivered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAsu5BQC7Nw

Dragon is the best deck around, even when some claim the CR-7 is better it not. The dragon just used better motors and transport altogether and one of only deck beside ReVox that had both Capstan motors direct drive. The CR-7 just has the auto calibration for record, but they when to a cheaper Sankyo transport and motors. Plus the Dragon could track poorly recorded tapes much better. The issue with the dragon is that they are complex, so a lot to go wrong and most don't service them correctly and one common issue that people don't get correct in most cases was always the NACC system fails and usually due to plastic cracking, or phase adjusted is way off and seen a lot of techs over the years get it wrong, as they assume the NAAC is the same as electrical center and only the head azimuth is off and don't bother to check voltages and assume the 5 VR pots are still correctly adjusted and do the alignment and they usually that not the case the 5 VR pots are usually way off electrical center was slightly to one side of the pointer center and they end up throwing the heads out of alignment as a result and if you don't set correctly your record head going to align wrong, due to playback head not set correctly and one reason they have a bad reputation for recording. They perform very well in record when heads are align correctly and most sure not attempt as you need a tape transport alignment gauge to set pinch roller height, then height and tilt correctly and test tone tape afterward with True RMS meter and scope afterwards.

 

[retropcdos]

Sansui early stuff was good, wasn't till later they had issues with solder joints cracking and quality when down hill. With Pioneers early gear to get reliable you have to change out most transistors as they used those bad 2sc458 transistors that usually fail just due to corrosion works it way into the package, if you don't change them you will have issues down the road. Then I also replaced most the diode and for their reel to reel the drivers in the H bridge, as well and most capacitors. You also have to rebuilt the DC motors. If you do service them correctly sure not have a issue for a while. The pioneer fluoroscan displays that have fail segments is usually due to bad Toshiba buffer IC which I usually replace, do various other upgrade and mod's to them, won't get into that in this thread. I have RT-909 that people use pretty much daily for 3 year after I serviced them and still working. I had one guy come back, because he worn the head outs and to get the heads replaced. Most eBay sellers just do the basic and call a belt change and new oil a restoration, when it not and then ask top dollar for the "Windex Pro" job they did, as much as I do in some cases and don't bother of course to show the work they did. I seen some blatantly sell broken high end stereo gear as working and it doesn't, not even close to being in working condition, or even tested But quick to put fully working and tested and ask top dollar? This stuff now over 30 years old and need to be service and a lot more then just the basics.

There one guy in Wisconsin that the worst offender, won't name names, One of the worst sellers that lies on his ad listing as "Professionally Restored and Guaranteed fully functional.”, or "Pro Restored Guaranteed"' when he get to many negatives, or banned he just uses a different account. He doesn't even know how to change components and it very frustrating, as it leave a bad taste in the buyers mouth and they assume everyone does the same. One customer that bought one of mines GX4000D, bought three others before mines off eBay, as they were cheaper that claim to be restored and all had issues. Glad he found me and didn't just give up.

 

[ratboy]

Anyone who expects that rubber belts and wheels won't be as hard as a rock after 30-40 years of sitting there or even being used is delusional. A friend of mine bought off Ebay, a Teac (Don't remember the model, but it was a higher priced one) deck that he had bought from me back about 1975. It looked great, but when it came time to actually play a tape in it, it proved it needed a lot of work. The first guy who worked on it did a quickie job and it still had issues with a lot of wow. A steady tone recorded on it was horrible. The second guy who worked on it did a fantastic job and it came back looking amazingly good (touched up some minor issues), and it sounded great.He has a whole retro system, Panasonic SA-6500 receiver (Another one that lasted forever for me, the sliding controls made me sell it after 25 years, it lives on as a tuner and rear surround amp on a friend's system, and I bought a new looking one on ebay that is 100% working fine and his a 9.5 out of 10 looks wise) , the Teac, a Dual 1229 with a Shure V15XX cart, and AR 9LS speakers (Bought insanely cheap at a garage sale!), an old school first gen Phillips CD player round it out.