On 9 Jul 2005 04:25:03 -0700, "the real DeserTBob"
wrote:

That 83D just sold for $406 snip

There's some rich nutjob cruising eBay now for carts and decks by the
name of "thep0pe0." $406 for ANY 8 track deck is an anomaly, indeed.
He also goes nuts paying for blanks, to wit:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...491341 0&rd=1

$37 for 11 Ampex 381s? I don't THINK so! He also paid over $4 a pop
for a couple of Memorex 90s...not a bad price, owing to the
characteristics of Memorex cart tape, but certainly not good. This
guy's probably some idle goof with more money than sense. I ran into
a couple of them like this in sheet music and LPs...they usually go
away after awhile, and normality returns.

Why don't you send him a spam-gram, Noodles, and fleece him for one of
your fraud alignment carts for $50? Poetic justice would be served!

I had 2 of those 83D's- nice decks but Akai only rated them to 14khz,
and you can hear the difference compared to an 80-81-82d Akai deck- the
earlier decks sound a bit better. I only paid $50 and $75 respectively
for them on Ebay. snip

I paid $20 for my 83D, and it was in good shape, only needing routine
clean, lube and alignment work. It couldn't match the Wollensak 8075
or 8056 (with Nortronics head) in top end, and the bottom was audibly
worse. The one that holds promise is the GXR-82D. The thing about
Akai's "glass" heads wasn't the "glass," per se, but rather that the
"glass" construction allowed for more precise pole piece gapping, plus
longer wear time on the head face.

What's nice about the 83D is, more modern looks, silver front panel,
and very quiet track switching. Not a loud "ker chunk". snip

....all of which has nothing to do with performance, which I found
inferior.

Both of mine needed new motors- as the smallish DC motor wears out on
them- the brushes wear out. Any 83D used heavy will need a new motor. snip

All it probably needed was a drop of turbine oil on both bearings, a 5
minute job if you know what you're doing. One of my Wollensaks had a
lot of miles, and opening the motor revealed that there was barely
perceptable wear on the brushes and commutator. Same for earlier
VCRs...a drop of oil, and they take off and run like new. I've
resurrected several Betamaxes that way. My SL-8300 still runs like it
did when new after that treatment, as I'd refused to pay $100 for a
drive motor from Sony Baloney.

Fortunately, I have plenty of motors for that application, remember ? snip

So do I. Remember, I got there first.