Cassette Tapes - Forever Analog

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021

How To Replace The Belts In A Nakamachi CR-1A Cassette Deck With Photos!

I recently purchased a Nakamichi CR-1A cassette deck that was listed as is/for parts. This is the second CR-1A deck I’ve bought recently as I was surprised by how well this little two head deck sounds.

The owner stated the tape would not play, nor would it fast forward or rewind. I assumed new belts were needed and ordered a set from Vintage Electronics.

Nakamichi CR-1A decks require two belts. One to operate the main the flywheel and the other to operate the counter. There is also a Nakamichi CR-1 model that, I believe, has an idler tire that operates the rewind and fast forward modes. The CR-1A replaced that model with a plastic gear as you will see in the photos below. If you have a CR-1 and it’s no longer rewinding or fast forwarding, you will need to replace the idler tire as well. It should be very similar to replacing the idler tire on a Nakamichi BX-2 that I also posted here.

I documented how I installed the belts on this new CR-1A to share here. I will start with a step by step explanation of how to install the belts and then post photos below.

August 22, 2021May 7, 2023

How To Replace The Belt and Idler Tire On A Nakamichi BX-2 Cassette Deck – With Photos!

I recently purchased a Nakamichi BX-2 cassette deck that was advertised as broken/for parts. The unit powered on, but when a cassette was played, it would only play for a couple of seconds and then stop.

I assumed the unit needed a new belt and while I was installing the belt, I should go ahead and replace the idler tire as well. In these Nakamichi decks, there is not a belt for fast forward or rewind like there is in some lower end Sony decks. Nakamichi uses an idler tire which wears out over time and needs to be replaced.

I placed an order with Vintage Electronics for the belt and idler tire as I’ve had great success installing their belts on other decks. I prefer to not buy belts on eBay or Amazon as it is likely the size will be wrong which will impact playback.

I will include a short step by step summary of how to replace both the belt and the idler tire and the follow up with photos to help better explain.

March 17, 2021March 31, 2021

RIP Lou Ottens – Inventor of the Portable Cassette Tape

Thanks Lou, for allowing us to create our own mixtape.

What do you think of cassettes?

Most people write them off as an inferior form of media, remembering the days of warbled sound, too much hiss or your tape being eaten by your Walkman or boombox.

I love collecting vinyl records but I grew up with cassettes. Born in 1978, I came into the world just before the official release of the CD format in 1982. When I was young, I would take a portable cassette deck outside to the swing set, press play and then proceed to sing and swing. Cassettes were affordable and you could copy songs off the radio when money wouldn’t allow you to purchase new music. I remember recording Casey Kasem’s Top 40 countdown radio show which would allow me to playback all the current hits at once. I would listen so much I could often repeat Casey’s intros to the famous songs before they played.

I’ve been making mixtapes all of my life, but especially during high school and college. I’ve made mixtapes for myself, for friends and especially for girls, including my wife who still has many of the tapes I made her 20 years ago.

RIP Lou Ottens

Lou Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape recently passed away. I was familiar with Lou from watching a documentary last year called, Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape.

Throughout the documentary, Lou seems perplexed as to why people still care about the cassette. After all, he helped invent the CD which helped destroy the cassette tape market for good. He had easily moved on and didn’t consider the cassette something to romanticize.

Forgive me Lou for romanticizing just the same…