Toshiba KT-S1 Tape Transport

The tape transport mechanism of the Toshiba KT-S1 is manufactured to a very high specification. The capstan, pinch roller, and stereo playback head all appear high quality. The d.c. motor is a standard type manufactured by the Sanwa Corporation in Japan.

The cassette compartment has a blue tinted metal plate, and there is great detail that one would not normally find on other stereo players. The tape transport of the Toshiba KT-S1 is much superior compared to the Sony TPS-L1 and L2 range of Walkmans as you can see.

Of all the Sony Walkmans I have seen, this Toshiba design is far more superior. Back in the early 80s, they went all out on the design as this was a new product line and they did not know how well it would perform.

Audio Head

Here is the audio playback head, which sounds very nice.

Tape Path

There is no auto-reverse, and consequently, there is a single wide pinch roller and capstan spindle, which pulls the tape effortlessly even today.

Connections

For a stereo head, there are two coils, and therefore four connections. Although the earth is common on the PCB, they kept it separate to reduce crosstalk. A common problem with this player was the wires trapping between the metal push-button components. My impression was that they forgot to design a dedicated routing strategy for the wires resulting in them touching the capstan flywheel and getting into the push-button assembly. By replacing them with high-specification low-resistance copper wires, I was able to solve this issue.

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