Scooped A Local Find & Got Lucky! FULLY Working Panny DT-75 with MINT SPEAKERS!!

[Cpl-Chronic]

I scooped up a local sale on FB & got lucky with this Panny DT-75, Cobra-Top. I got both decks going after blowing the dust off the cassette feeler switches. They work great, including music search & sound great too. Very close to CD quality. The CD, Line-In & Radio all perform flawlessly & without any issues. I pulled it apart to see if it had the dreaded woofer rot that so many people complain about.

As you can see in the photo, when I got it I saw this through the grill & had to investigate further. The bottom of both woofers(L&R) looked like it had separated the surround along the bottom of each. These woofers are funky with their folded surrounds. They play with the light behind the grill , so it's hard to know what your looking at.



To my ears, the speakers sounded quite good anyways & did not hear any noises, buzzes, rubbing voice-coils, flapping or hashness of any kind. I bought it on the spot because my Scorpions CD & 2 mix tapes I tried sounded excellent, with clarity & a balanced Hi-Fi sound. It's rare to find a fully working unit, with remote. It's in great shape too,

When I pulked the front off & removed the drivers, I realized I hit the 'Panny Lottery' with this one. The speakers were dusty but all drivers are intact & in perfect shape too.



I got the front off & washed the entire molded half-shell, including the grills, with mild soap & warm water, I'm waiting for it to dry completely before reassembling the Cobra.



Stay tuned.....

 

[hopey]

What a blaster! A keen ear can tell the sound profile is filtered and orchestrated. You can tell by the Impedance of the drivers 6 ohm.

 

[lupogtiboy]

I do love a Cobra top! I think I have 3 or 4 now, including a modded DT-75 by Portogram, so you can vary the speed of both cassette decks and the cd player. I think my cassette decks need some love, but I don't think I paid too much for it either!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

I believe DT-95 is the top of this series.
I have the DT-95 in full working condition. It needs speaker cleaning. Now I am motivated to open it up and clean the speakers.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

I believe DT-95 is the top of this series.
I have the DT-95 in full working condition. It needs speaker cleaning. Now I am motivated to open it up and clean the speakers.

Uh, if it's anything like the 75, it's so easy to open up & get to the speakers. 8 screws on the back & the front pops off without disturbing the rest of the chassis. Dead simple.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Panasonic RX-DT95 is very much like the RX-DT 75. If disassembly is easy, I will attempt it one of these days. Thanks!

Not my pic! Found this pic from Ebay!

My pic below:

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

Ok. I got the chassis sitting on my coffee table & running Win10 & WFGUI. I got a decent result on both decks with speeds within 5-8Hz of 3000Hz & including both directions of play on both decks. As pictured below, I have the power block sitting in a cardboard box, to the right side of the photo. It's feeding the guts, left of center. I'm using cardboard & a white plastic tray from the grocery store which is thick & hard to puncture, as a riser so the CD ssembly can rest below it without having to yank apart the ribbon cable that connects them.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

In order to adjust the speeds of the tape decks I downloaded this manual & looked up the layout of the tape speed contrtols. They are not on the tape motors, as it would be cubersome to take apart the entire chassis to service the decks in a routine manner. Instead, Panasonic decide to create an adjustment circuit, separate from the motors & accesible when the chassis is removed from the cabinet. The speed adjusters are accessible from the rear of the chassin & use a jewellers philips screwdriver to properly operate them without undue torque or stress. on the delicate controls.

The adjusters for both decks are deep in the guts of the main chassis, behind the AM ferrite antenna of the radio circuit. You can barely see them if you look behind the iron bar & back a ways & slightly out of focus. They are the 3 white circles, with slots in them, visible just under the grey bar, at the top of the photo below.



The problem is that you cannot use a normal philips jeweller's screwdriver because they are not long enough to reach the adjusters, by a couple of inches. Luckily, I have just the screwdriver for it. My 2' long jeweller's Philips head. BAM!!


I'll post some vids of this thing pounding out the ear candy, on all fronts.....

Stay tuned!

 

[riker1068]

 

[BoomboxLover48]

I was wondering why there are 3 trimmers for adjusting two motor speeds!

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

I was wondering why there are 3 trimmers for adjusting two motor speeds!

The outer adjusters are for each deck's separate speed. When looking at them from the rear of the chassis, the right adjuster is for Tape 1 & the left adjuster is for Tape 2. The middle one adjusts the speed for tape 2 while in Hi-Speed Dubbing mode, so that both tape speeds can be sync'd when using that feature. I didn't mess with the middle setting since I don't have the proper equipment to make a proper adjustment.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

Ok, all back together, cleamed up & both tape decks are dialed in perfect. They sound excellent with a Maxell Chrome XL-II 90 minute tape. I love the way this boombox has automatic tape type settings. Check out the video below to get an idea of the sound quality. It's a bit long but it demonstrates both decks in both directions, music search, etc.

Enjoy!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Sounds really nice!

Mine has a feature when you walk within 5' away boombox the cobra head will open automatically to play music!
It will light up the display and play music to the mode you left it on.

Hope RX-DT75 has it.