Another Classic Revival, Teac V-670 Cassette Deck

The Teac V-670 Cassette Deck, sitting below my Aesthetix Janus pre-amp.

I've been playing with cassette decks since the 70's, as it was my first music medium experience, when it comes to hifi. Vinyl medium experience came a good decade later, followed by CD medium experience after that. There's something nostalgic about a cassette player since my student days. Back then, to make a mix tape for someone with songs you think they would like, to show how much you cared for that person. Not to mention the Sg Wang hey days in the 80's where one could walk in to any of the many music stores and ask for a mixed tape be made for you. You simply select the song on their available song list and choose the tape type(Type I, II & IV) you wanna record on to. The tape Type I means normal or standard tape, Type II means Chrome tape & Type IV means Metal tape. Chrome & Metal tapes means hi-end in the cassette world.

I had many Sony Walkman units as a student, and when I finally had enough money(I worked part time as a student), I splurged on a 3 head tape deck to reward my self. It was a Teac V-670 that you see here, bought in 1988! Yes, this tape deck is 32 years old.  Like everyone else back then, Nakamichi decks were the rage, and the still rock to this day. Budgetary concerns means I have to consider other brands, such as Teac, which is still good as they have good representation in the professional side of things.

Inside the Teac V-670. Note the plastic molded chassis instead of the usual 2U metal. Left side top is the power supply and transport mounted to front panel, on the whole right side is the power supply regulators and audio circuits. 

As a student and later as an young working adult, I had much fun with cassette deck. As a student, I made many recordings for my Walkman use and also mixed tapes for my friends, and when working, I made many CD & turntable recordings for my car stereo. You see, I still feel cassette was the perfect medium for people on the move. Of course that role now is done by our smartphones!

As car CD players became the standard, my Teac V-670 deck was boxed up in storage. I never saw it again until 2018, when I packed up to move. Seeing this cassette deck brought back much memories, but all I could do at that point is to box it up again and wait again for another opportunity to unbox. And by the end of 2019, that opportunity came calling, as I was setting up my hifi again.

I check the deck condition and it powered up, must basic functions still works, but only barely. So I decided to get it serviced, do a little DIY, so to speak. Upon opening up the chassis, the first thing spotted was four leaky caps in the power supply section of the main PCB board. I proceed to pull up the PCB board from the main plastic chassis, to extract the old caps, clean up the brownish oil stains off the PCB with IPA, then proceed to insert and solder the new caps in to it's original place.

See the laeky cap stains on the PCB board?

All cleaned up and caps changed.

Next up was the transport section of the cassette deck. The whole transport assembly was removed from the back off the front panel with 5 Philips screws. the transport is a 2 motor design, one for the tape pulley, the other for the rubber capstan. The are 2 rubber belt that drives from motor to pulley to the capstan idler gear. All the dried oil in the transport was cleaned and re-greased. Now everything was re-assembled, and ready for the final stage.

The 3 head, 2 motor transport module awaiting removal.

Working on the idler gear & pulley and rubber belt replacement.

Since I didn't have the calibration equipment required to do the fine tuning job, I sent the Teac to bro Azeem at Cheras. Azeem is a fine lad I met on FB, and have since helped me in other hifi restoration projects. With a Wow & Flutter test tape. the cassette deck hooked up to an oscilloscope, the fine tuning of Wow & Flutter can be completed.

Wow & Flutter test tape.

Wow & Flutter of both Left & Right channels.

Now both channels are well aligned.......

After the Wow & Flutter tuning is complete, we proceed to play some pre-recorded tapes. The cassette deck never sounded so wonderful! I brought the Teac home, hook it up to my system, and have been playing tape after tape since. Like the wonderful turntable, there's still much life left in cassette as a format. However, the big question is can the cassette revival be as strong as the vinyl revival? Only time will tell.

Test play with pre-recorded tape in progress.

This 1988 Teac V-670 cassette deck is an UK model I am told, hence there's very little information about it on the internet. As far as I know, the V-670 is the entry level 3 head tape deck with HX-Pro certification & Dolby-C noise reduction filter. As an entry level 3 head, 2 motor tape transport design, it does sport some cost saving features compared to it's similar looking flagship V-870 model. The whole chassis is plastic molded rather than 2U steel or copper coated. The transport is 2 motor only compared to the 3 motor V-870 model. And the Eject button mechanical, rather than a motorized solution. The V-900 sport extra recording adjustment parameters and also an IR remote.

As a cassette playback and recording medium, the sound is very good, despite it's obvious budgetary design compromises. It playback & records best with Type II Chrome & Type IV Metal tapes, so investing is high quality blank tapes pays off! My favorite high end tape is the all aluminium bodied TDK MA-XG series. In 1988 MYR price it was a cost of nearly 50 bucks a piece! For comparison a common branded Type I Normal rated tape would retail about MYR 8.00-10.00 a piece. I did most of my recordings from either a CD player or turntable as source, utilizing the Dolby-C noise reduction for a super quiet background. I would playback without using the Dolby-C though as I preferred the airier sound without the Dolby masking effect.

With this restoration, I can again enjoy many years of fun with cassette tapes!