Marantz SD4020 Two-Speed, 3-Head Vintage Cassette Deck
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jdjohn
Posts: 3,004
I realize that posting a vintage cassette deck for sale in this forum is not going to get a lot of attention, but since this one has two speeds (and three heads), I thought I'd give it a shot. The two speeds are (the typical) 1 7/8 IPS, plus 3 3/4 IPS - listed as 4.75 CPS and 9.5 CPS on the front. The heads are made of Sendust Alloy, which I *think* is pretty desirable.
This came from my dad's collection. I replaced the capstan and counter belts (see arrows in pic), cleaned it up a bit, and did some basic testing of playback and recording. I did not do any calibrations. As one might expect, there is some W&F, but hard to say how much is due to old, stretched tapes vs the player itself. I did record several tracks with NOS tape, and those were very successful.
There is one issue with playback: the auto-stop at the end of a side does not work...the stop button needs to be pressed manually. Honestly, I'm not sure if leaving it as-is without pressing stop does any harm, but I wanted to mention it. Well, one thing I noticed if the stop is not pressed is that sometimes the play button will not stay down once the cassette is flipped, but pressing the Pause button fixes this. I'm sure this could be fixed by someone willing to put in the time and effort. I really needed to move on to other projects.
Cosmetically, this unit is a little rough, but again, I think the draw *might* be the two-speed feature, which by the way, works perfectly. Here are some pics of the case that show the blemishes.
Some genius inscribed what I think is their SSN into the rear panel, so it is blacked-out in this pic:
I guess that was before the days of identification theft.
Here is a pretty big ding on the bottom-left of the faceplate:
Fairly deep scratch in the acrylic here:
Ok, here are the guts:
Yellow arrow points to new capstan/drive belt, and red arrow points to new counter belt:
And finally, here are the heads:
As mentioned earlier, they are Sendust Alloy heads, which I think are considered pretty nice in the world of vintage cassette decks. These appear to have lot of life remaining.
Price is $125 plus shipping to established Polkies with 100+ posts, and in good standing.
Clearly, I'm not looking to get rich off this, but just hoping to find it a good home. I'll leave this post here for a couple of days before posting on eBay...at a slightly higher price.
I plan to have more vintage analog playback units for sale in the near future. We sold my parents' house, so eyer'thing had to be emptied...and put into storage.
This came from my dad's collection. I replaced the capstan and counter belts (see arrows in pic), cleaned it up a bit, and did some basic testing of playback and recording. I did not do any calibrations. As one might expect, there is some W&F, but hard to say how much is due to old, stretched tapes vs the player itself. I did record several tracks with NOS tape, and those were very successful.
There is one issue with playback: the auto-stop at the end of a side does not work...the stop button needs to be pressed manually. Honestly, I'm not sure if leaving it as-is without pressing stop does any harm, but I wanted to mention it. Well, one thing I noticed if the stop is not pressed is that sometimes the play button will not stay down once the cassette is flipped, but pressing the Pause button fixes this. I'm sure this could be fixed by someone willing to put in the time and effort. I really needed to move on to other projects.
Cosmetically, this unit is a little rough, but again, I think the draw *might* be the two-speed feature, which by the way, works perfectly. Here are some pics of the case that show the blemishes.
Some genius inscribed what I think is their SSN into the rear panel, so it is blacked-out in this pic:
I guess that was before the days of identification theft.
Here is a pretty big ding on the bottom-left of the faceplate:
Fairly deep scratch in the acrylic here:
Ok, here are the guts:
Yellow arrow points to new capstan/drive belt, and red arrow points to new counter belt:
And finally, here are the heads:
As mentioned earlier, they are Sendust Alloy heads, which I think are considered pretty nice in the world of vintage cassette decks. These appear to have lot of life remaining.
Price is $125 plus shipping to established Polkies with 100+ posts, and in good standing.
Clearly, I'm not looking to get rich off this, but just hoping to find it a good home. I'll leave this post here for a couple of days before posting on eBay...at a slightly higher price.
I plan to have more vintage analog playback units for sale in the near future. We sold my parents' house, so eyer'thing had to be emptied...and put into storage.
"This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
Comments
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ooh... neat.
The BIC two-speed decks are "somewhat" common; the marantz(es), much less so.
This is a very rare opportunity!
A heck of a deal for a three-head deck, too.
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Little bump here"This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
