Beocenter 4000 (1985) tape deck playback issue

[CharlieWednesday]

I feel I should start this with ‘Me again’, because it is me.  Again.

I have found myself with a Beocenter 4000 that has a problem with playing tapes. I didn’t particularly want a BC4000 but it came as part of a job lot.  It’s in very good cosmetic condition, so I think it’s worth saving.

Before I start stripping it down though, I might as well ask in case anyone has experience of this problem.  The tape decks (both of them) do not play sound.  If you turn the volume all the way up you can hear a scratchy noise when either tape deck is playing, but that’s all.  It’s the same with speakers or headphones.

The radio works fine, the phono and aux inputs both work fine (in fact they sound pretty good), it’s just the tape decks, so at least I know the amp is good.

The level meter seems to be working as expected when playing a tape, and the track search is working, so I know the tape unit itself is ‘hearing’ the tape.  So, I used the twin tape deck ‘Copy’ button to copy from Tape A to Tape B ,then I put Tape B into my Beocenter 8500 and it played fine – a good quality recording. So, in isolation, the tape decks are working, but the sound isn’t making it from the twin tape deck ‘unit’ to the Beocenter itself!

I’m guessing there’s got to be some connection issue between the tape deck unit and the Beocenter itself, and hopefully it’s something I can fix easily, but before I open it up (I have never owned a BC4000 before and have no experience of them), does anyone else have experience of this issue or similar, and could offer any advice?

 

[CharlieWednesday]

I decided to have a play around inside this Beocenter 4000 in case I can get it working.  If I can’t, I’ll just sell it for parts, but it’d be nice to get it going.

As I said in my previous post, I know the tape decks ‘work’ as I can record onto tape 1, then when I take that tape out and put it in my Beocenter 8500, it plays fine.  Somehow, the sound is not making it from the tape decks to the amp.  You can only hear a very quiet scratchy sound when playing either tape 1 or tape 2.

I poked around inside where I can see that the tape deck units connect to the PCBs, and every now and again I’d get a brief burst of playback for a second, or more often, a loud hum, so I’m thinking it could be a loose connection, dry solder connection or something, but I can’t seem to isolate it.  If any of you have any experience of this, I’d be grateful of any help you can offer.

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