Hartley - Forever Analog

May 2, 2021May 12, 2023

How To Repair a Noisy Nakamichi BX-100 Cassette Deck

Read below for a tip on how to repair noisy recordings on a Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck.

I recently purchased a Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck off Facebook market for $40. The seller listed the item “as is” because the unit played tapes fine, but when a tape was recorded on the machine, it would play back with crackling noise throughout, especially on the right channel.

How to repair noisy recordings on a Nakamichi BX-100 cassette deck?

To remove the noise from recordings, clean the cassette deck’s heads, capstan, pinch roller, recording input sliders and the relay switch. Read below for step by step instructions.

May 1, 2021May 12, 2021

How To Connect Your Turntable To The Aux Input

Friends often ask me how to connect their record player to a receiver that does not have a phono input. Below are instructions on how to use the aux input for phono to get music playing from your turntable.

Can I use the aux input for phono?

Yes, the aux input on a receiver can be used for phono, but only if you use a stand alone phono preamp for your turntable or if your turntable has a built in phono preamp. See below for instructions on how to set up each.

April 29, 2021May 12, 2022

How To Use a Vintage Receiver as a Preamp (With Photos)

A step by step guide on how to connect the preamp in a vintage integrated amplifier to an external amplifier, using photos taken from a Marantz 2270 receiver and Emotiva BASX A-100 amplifier.

My Marantz 2270 and Emotiva BASX A-100 amplifier.

Connecting an integrated receiver’s preamp to an amplifier only requires connecting a pair of RCA cables to the correct inputs (read further below for photos):

Locate the Main In and Pre Out inputs with jumpers on the rear of the vintage receiver.
Remove the jumpers from the inputs on the receiver and store them in a safe location.

Plug RCA cables into the Pre Out input on the receiver with the red cable in the Right input and the white cable into the Left input.
Next, look at the rear of the amplifier and locate the Input RCA inputs.
Connect the RCA cables from the receiver to the Input RCA inputs on the rear of the amplifier.

Power on the receiver first, then the amplifier and use the volume control on the receiver to adjust volume as needed.

April 23, 2021April 28, 2022

The 12 Best Record Stores in Austin, TX

A personal list of my favorite record stores to shop while visiting Austin, TX.

I live in Nashville but love Austin. I’ve been visiting the city for years, attending the annual SXSW festival and even one year getting to return and attend the Austin City Limits Festival as well.

We have friends who live there, including my wife’s roommate from college, so we make it a point to visit Austin regularly. We’ve even taken our twin sons with us to show them around town and introduce them to the “weirdness” of Austin.

Whenever I’m visiting, I make it a point to visit as many records stores as possible. New stores are always popping up (a good thing!) so I’ve made a list of my favorite record stores as well as some new ones that I need to visit next time I’m in Austin.

See below for a list of Austin record stores, in no particular order.

April 15, 2021May 12, 2021

4 Reasons To Love Blue Note’s Tone Poet Vinyl Series

I still remember the first two jazz CDs I bought, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane and Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. These two titles are often the first jazz albums that people buy. I was still a teenager in high school at the time, trying to blindly discover jazz music on my own and those were the two albums I picked from the Columbia House CD catalog!

That was over twenty years ago and as I began collecting records in college, I kept an eye out for jazz records to buy.

Fast forward to today and I’ve built a a nice stereo system in my house and enjoy buying jazz reissues whenever possible.

My favorite series of jazz reissues this past year has come from Blue Note’s Tone Poet Series. Below are a few reasons why I’ve enjoyed this series and keep buying new Tone Poet LPs as soon as they are announced.

April 13, 2021January 26, 2022

11 Unique Covers of I Got You Babe by Sonny & Cher

From David Bowie to Britney Spears, I was surprised to find out just how many artists have covered the classic Sonny & Cher song, I Got You Babe.

It all started with a trip to the record store. It had been a few weeks since I stopped by the record store closest to me to do some shopping. Unfortunately, after a quick stroll through the LP section, I couldn’t find anything interesting to buy.

I noticed they had a sale sign on their 45s so I started going through the rows of little records, hoping to find something that piqued my interest. It wasn’t long before I found just the right 45 that led me down this rabbit hole of finding as many cover versions of I Got You Babe as possible.