Aiwa XK-007 Transport Service Nightmare and Record Quality Test

Apologies for the length of this video. This one fought me big time over the course of several days. There was a lot wrong in there. Aiwa's cassette transport, despite being purely belt driven without the added benefit of quartz lock direct drive stability, are nevertheless considered by many to be among the best ever made. Unfortunately, they are considered by yours truly to be among the most irritating to service. My Carver TD-1700 (Aiwa AD-F880 aka XK-005) took ages to get right, and this is the same transport using the same heads. I still want the top of the line XK-009, so this is my way of getting enough practice to tackle that beast. At the very end, we'll do a test recording on both the Carver and Excelia using the same Sony Metal SR tapes from a FLAC source to see which sounds better. All rubber sourced from Fix Your Audio. There is no other good source on the planet to my knowledge for belts for these machines. Carver transport repair video:    • Carver TD-1700 with Reel Drive Issues - Ca...   Thanks to my fellow members of tapeheads.net for assisting me with this unit. Facebook:   / theweatherwolf   Insta:   / oklawolf   Camera gear I use: Nikon D800, Nikon Z50, iPhone XS Max & 13 Pro Max, DJI Action 3, Autel Evo Nano+, Autel Evo Lite+, DJI Mini 3 Pro Music: Cosmic Cycler (cosmiccycler.bandcamp.com) Latin Rascals - Disorderly Conduct 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:25 Internal inspection 0:05:15 Removing the transport 0:11:39 Cassette holder removal 0:12:43 Evaluating the head condition and front components of the transport 0:16:04 Starting the work 0:17:15 Reel table removal 0:19:35 Finding a big problem 0:23:45 Lubricating the reel tables 0:30:12 Accessing the capstan flywheels and cleaning 0:39:36 Installing belts 0:42:40 Checking transport operation, sanding the pinch rollers 0:45:14 Discovering and fixing broken cassette detect switch 0:50:30 Test play - what's wrong with this thing now? 0:55:39 Wow and flutter test, attempting speed calibration 0:57:03 More playback issues 0:59:39 Capstan motor service 1:12:18 Rechecking wow and flutter, idler change 1:16:28 Discussing the last remaining lube issue, finding even MORE problems 1:17:32 Fixing the new shutdown issue 1:21:29 How to set the bias controls for recording 1:25:51 Record/play test, comparing sound quality against the Carver TD-1700 1:31:12 Final thoughts