After some days of use it seems my 951 players play better.
I no longer get the clean head message every time I insert a cassette.
All three players had been stored and not used for over 10 years until I bought them.
That might explain why they behaved the way they did.
I also replaced the felt pad on a cassette that had constant drop-outs and now the cassette plays perfectly on all my 951 players.
A very positive moment indeed.
I’ll just have to replace the felt pads on all the cassettes that have that same type of drop-outs.
In my case that type of drop-outs can be distinguished as very short fractions of a second, but constant throughout the tape on both a and b side.
The felt pad on the cassette I replaced was sitting somewhat further in than on other cassettes.
So probably the head couldn’t get fully contact with the tape and thus the constant drop-outs.
So now the big felt-pad replacement day is on the horizon.
After replacing the felt pad on several cassettes it stands clear that it’s a 50/50 chance that it eliminates the drop-outs.
On those where the drop-outs persisted the tape is clearly damaged on inspection.
Mostly due to the tape not being fully rewinded when stored and not used for several years.
I could see an indentation on the tape corresponding to the tape-spool attachment piece.
That indentation keeps passing by with the exact same interval when turning the tape manually.
The drop-outs on those tapes also appear with same interval.
A question:
When replacing the felt pad - Is the felt pad supposed to touch the tape on the backside or should there be some spacing when turning the spools manually?
I will try to help because I had severe trouble after changing pinch rollers too…
Pls change back on one of the decks to the old black pinch rollers. If this helps try to clean them with Qtip and Alcohol but in case of blisters you must replace them. There are original spare pinch rollers made by panasonic available. There is no warranty that the white chinese pinch rollers will work.
In general changing pinch rollers will result in different head/ tape position. Maybe DCC is not so sensitive as analog high end decks. Errors on auxiliary track was in my case proof of the changed head/tape position after changeing pinch rollers.
If changing back pinch rollers does not show results try to change back the flat belt to one of the old ones. My 951s had no necessety to change this belt in all the years.
Pls let us know the outcome ! Greetings Michael
Interesting post michael.
Unfortunately I have already discarded all of the old pinch-rollers, as they were in pretty bad condition on all of my three 951 players.
I never even used them once until I had replaced the pinch-rollers.
But I will try to play tapes that have drop-outs on the newly restored 951’s on my three 300’s (whereas one of them has replaced pinch-rollers, but two of them still have the old ones) and compare the amount of drop-outs.
Luckily I too have a 380 player which has the same drive as your 300.
I have found out that there is a compatibility or head adjustmet Problem between second and third Generation Players. I have acess to the original mirror casettes of philips and to check back with König brand and found that on both the 951 there is bad tape head contact on Forward direction but very good one on the reverse. In the Service Manual there is a Picture which I could only read out for the reverse direction. I did not change Adjustments.
So in result the records of the 380 will Play ok on my portables and the 951 but records of the 951 will on some casettes only Play in reverse at the portables.
Maybe there is something worn out at the third Generation drives in General. My experience says there is a lack of back Tension in Forward mode.
I did some testing, but only with pre-recorded cassettes as I haven’t tried recording on my DCC players as of yet, due to the fact that I will only use them with pre-recorded material.
I use my DAT players for recording.
And I’m willing to say that in my case the cassettes are the culprit.
The difference between the 951’s and the 300’s is that the 951’s are more sensitive to damaged/deteriorated cassettes.
Parts on damaged/deteriorated cassettes where the 951’s go totally quiet for a second or two the 300’s sometime play the same part with crackling/chopped up sound.
It seems that the more I use my 951’s the better they play (non damaged/deteriorated tapes that is)
As all of my three 951’s had been sitting in a closet unused for over 10 years when I bought them.
