Don't laugh but a Kenwood tape deck that I have (model KX-3510) sounds like it is possessed. The tape does not play correctly. It almost sounds like it is skipping. I thought at first that it was playing backwards, but it is definitely playing forwards. I tried several tapes: same result. What could it be?
Check the pads on the cassettes that holds the tape to the head. I had a bunch of them come off around the same time on the same brand tapes. Other brands weren't too far off from this age either.
I will have another look at this tonight. I will look at the pinch roller as well as the overall tape path. It is a shame that this happened as it was working great in the past. I have not used the tape deck in quite a while. It almost sounds like something in the audio decoder (if there is such a device in this old of a unit) has gone kaput, or perhaps a transistor or other active device.
Yep, might be the pads. Had similar symptoms a while back when I was trying to archive some 8-TRACK tapes to CD. First and biggest problem was finding an 8-track player. Took several months of haunting the local thrift stores, finally found one that worked perfectly. Of course, the first 8-track tape I put in there, sounded like the OP described. Popped the tape out, looked it over, and discovered that the
40 year old foam pressure pads had literally disintegrated, turned to dust. Had to resurrect the pads on every tape I tried.
Funny thing, after copying the tapes, I re-donated the 8-track player to Goodwill. 20-ish year old kid at the drive-up. Wanted to know what the heck that was. Telling him it was an 8-track player made him none the wiser. Told him they were in a lot of cars in the 60's, don't think he believed me.
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