Sharp RT-3151 inside Look

The sharp RT-3151 electronic engineering is extremely sound, and the problems tend to be with the mechanical side such as rubber tyres and pulleys wearing out. This old tape deck certainly is a huge beast of a machine measuring 442 mm × 144 mm × 357 mm, with mass 9 kg. All of this electronic engineering consists of 5 integrated circuits (IC), and one microcontroller IC, which back then was considered large-scale integration (LSI). In addition, it has 51 transistors, and 29 diodes, and in total, the circuits consume 16-watts of power.

The record lever is essentially a huge long rod that comes out of the tape transport mechanism (TTM) to the main board and connects to the record/playback switch via a spring.

The DC motor would be difficult to replace today.

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