Every log entry
Working notes from every restoration project, newest first.
2026-09-24 · The Mini Pro
The Mark II sheet arrived
The eBay copy of Otari's November 1976 Mark II preliminary specification sheet arrived on paper. Both pages are now scanned at 600 and 1200 dpi, transcribed as a digital edition, and used to replace the site's thin Mark II photograph and sparse specifications.
2026-09-18 · The Mini Pro
Paper in the post
Six eBay lots bought in one run and due over the next month: two wanted cards filled, the first sales paper this site will hold for the eight-channel machine, a form number it has never recorded, and paper originals of the two books the library currently holds worst. All of it read off listing photographs until it lands.
2026-09-12 · The Mini Pro
Zero in, zero out
The record side aligned for the first time — bias, record azimuth, record level, record EQ and SEL/REP — and the reproduce side run again underneath it, after a jumpy trimmer sent the session back to the meters and a channel reading 0.23 V turned out to be a pot, not a pad. The closing check: 1 kHz in at 0 VU, 1 kHz back off the tape at 0 VU and 1.23 V, both channels.
2026-09-10 · The Mini Pro
Five decibels hot at 10 kHz
The whole reproduce side aligned in one session — azimuth, equalization, maximum reproduce level and SRL, the first alignment since the recap, and the same procedure run a second time against the ¼-track playback head. The headline number: playback was 5.2 dB hot at 10 kHz before a pot was touched — which a recapped equalizer network goes a long way to explaining.
2026-09-06 · The Mini Pro
The meters mean something now
The multimeter arrives, both VU meters get tied to a real +4 dBm, a pinned needle turns out to be a measurement mistake rather than a fault, and the rear-panel output level switch turns out to do nothing at all — plus the discovery that this deck's speeds aren't what the site has been saying.
2026-09-02 · The Mini Pro
The reference tapes, at the right speed
Two more MRL reels from California, both cut at 7.5 in/s — a multifrequency tape and a 3150 Hz flutter tape — for the speed this deck actually runs at HI. Made in August, the month the first pair gave the game away.
2026-08-18 · The Mini Pro
The announcer was slow
Four days after the reference tapes arrived, the 15 ips tape's spoken announcement came out of the deck at half pitch, and a box of Gene's grandfather's home tapes played right only at LOW. This 2SHT runs 7.5 and 3¾, not 15 and 7.5 — and the parts list says why.
2026-08-15 · The Mini Pro
The operation manual surfaces
OIM-1005E — the book this site spent a month calling unfindable, the open web's only indexed mention of the number — turns up as an original paper copy, not through a listing but through a Tapeheads post and the Brisbane tape community. The wanted list is empty.
2026-08-14 · The Mini Pro
The reference tapes arrive
Two MRL calibration tapes land from California — the multifrequency tape and the 3150 Hz flutter tape, both made last month. The enclosed calibration graphs settle the one open question before a single pot gets turned, and the labels teach a small lesson in standards-speak.
2026-08-11 · The Mini Pro
The other two brochures
The rest of the eBay order goes through the scanner — two tri-fold brochures that wouldn't survive the document feeder, scanned on flatbed glass instead. One is the earliest factory sales paper the site carries; the other quietly rewrites the spec numbers in 1978.
2026-08-10 · The Mini Pro
The first brochure: Specification Sheet S-111
The eBay order from the last entry arrived — three sales brochures, all different. The first through the scanner is Otari's August 1976 spec sheet for the one- and two-channel machines: marketing figures the maintenance manual never gives, list prices, and a footer that names the sheet itself.
2026-07-24 · The Mini Pro
Paper arrives
The eBay hunt pays off — both paper manuals delivered and scanned at 1200 dpi. The honest part: the book is a photocopy itself, punch holes and all, and the schematics volume turns out to be the manual's own pages rebound.
2026-07-23 · The Mini Pro
Recap complete
The record side gets its turn — the input board and record amplifier on fresh capacitors, one broken wire found the hard way, one false alarm from the oscillator test, and then the machine records.
2026-07-17 · The Mini Pro
The playback-first recap: a bench guide
Hearing tape only takes two of the three audio boards — so this is the recap in two sessions, in the order that protects the heads first, with a checklist column for the bench.
2026-07-17 · The Mini Pro
Choosing the audio capacitors
The audio boards need about sixty electrolytics, and the ones that matter most block DC from the heads. Then the datasheets taught their lessons: a series named 'low leakage' isn't, one that never mentions it is — and my own verdict that the grade was extinct at 10 µF didn't survive a second, wider search.
2026-07-14 · The Mini Pro
The eight parts that keep the switches alive
Every switch on the power board breaks an inductive load, and every one of them has a little RC network across its contacts to stop the arc — eight 1977 CRU 112 units out, eight X2-rated Okaya spark quenchers in, and a look at why the most dangerous thing about these parts is that they fail without telling you.
2026-07-09 · The Mini Pro
Inside the transport buttons
What's behind Rec, Play, Stop, Rewind and F.Fwd: Omron V-series microswitches on a simple plastic stack — one part that does the breaking, a BII donor harness that drops straight in, and a switch you can still buy new.
2026-07-05 · The Mini Pro
Re-capping the motor run caps
Nobody makes a 5.5 µF motor-run cap in a single can any more — so I made one from a 3 and a 2.5 in parallel, and got a lesson in how much these parts have improved since 1977.
2026-06-27 · The Mini Pro
No dummy plug — no problem!
How to build the missing dummy plug: reading the remote socket pinout off the tape transport schematic, a Frankenstein jumper made from automotive crimp ends, the modern Cinch-Jones replacement from Mouser — and what the factory's own plug looked like.
2026-06-26 · The Mini Pro
Finding the schematic
Contact cleaner on the switch block, three AI chatbots that struck out, a Facebook post — and then a phone call to Otari's Australian distributor put the tape transport schematic in my hands.
2026-06-14 · The Mini Pro
Listed as broken. The adventure begins.
Why I was hunting for a 'broken' studio machine in the first place — the Akai X-150D warm-up, AI-assisted recapping, and what the under-$1k Mini Pro did (and didn't do) on arrival day.