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View Full Version : Nice "little" find,Aiwa Mini Cassette Deck


retrokeeper
12-12-2008, 02:37 PM
Found this little "cutie" at a thrift yesterday,came with the box,foam inserts,but alas,no owners manual.(anyone got a copy they can scan in for me?) Got it home,popped of the cover,sure a heck,there lays the main drive belt,all sticky and tar'y on the capstan pulley...what a mess*fit**headache*!!And what A PAIN IN THE ASS to get to the one belt,if you want to call it that anymore,and the FF & RW belt!!!I ended up removing the cassette transport mechanism to get to both belts,no easy task,at all.And of course,with a desingrated main drive belt,there's no reference for the size,so out comes the box'o belts,and after a little researching and trying various sizes and widths,finally found a 7 1/2 i.d. flat belt to do the trick.The FF & RW belt was no problem,it was still intact.The counter belt needed changed also,since it controls the auto stop.But the little,tiny,itsy-bitsy secondary counter belt I did not have,so it had to stay.The counter still works,just skips occasionally.So after all that,got it back together,but without cursing/swearing and etc,trying to get the stupid riser solenoid arm to stay in place,the one that rises the head and capstan to make contact with the tape,another pain-in-the-ass procedure.

So here it is,nice little cassette deck,and I mean little.I was always intrigued by audio companies who made the micro-audio stuff back in the late 70's-early 80's.I was partial to Technics,Sony,Akai,and Aiwa's offerings,and I finnaly have a piece to show my fondness for this "size" of audio gear.Here also are some scans from a brochure I have showing the deck and a bunch of gear Aiwa made also,to match the size of my deck.Oh,by the way,the deck sounds great,and she is definately a keeper. Rob

Scorpion8
12-12-2008, 03:01 PM
Awesome "little" find. Looks neat. Wonder what the whole shelf system looked like?

Web Police
12-12-2008, 03:27 PM
Nice little deck you found there. I like mini components as much as full sized ones.

stuwee
12-13-2008, 03:35 AM
The proportions make it look just like the Elcassette decks. The box and foam inserts are probably the only ones left on the planet, making it a priceless score *hypnot*. The SD-L30U slot, car-stereo loading like deck in the scans is interesting too.