Happy New Year Dan...sorry to hear about your transport problem. Had similar trouble with a Denon laser mechanism which only lasted 2.5 years on one of their own brand upmarket players. Oddly enough it seems the more expensive the player the more likely we are to get issues. The bog standard universal players I've had lasted at least 10 years.
By way of contrast my old Nakamichi 600 cassette deck is still going strong at nearly 40 years old. While not by strict definition hifi it does not wow or flutter and is still running all its original mechanical parts. Not even so much as a belt has been replaced.
The Nak is currently helping me to salvage a pre-recorded tape collection. I now have quite a few classical classics stored on the Hard Drive with hundreds more to go, so the concern is that my tape machine gives up the ghost before completion of the project. :O
Initially I was pricing CD versions on the net but gave up after discovering that many were unobtainable and those that could be obtained were e.g. £164 new or £80+ used. :O
Compared with 20p for a writable optical disc it makes the tapes well worth recovering. ;^)
(It's one of those retirement projects ;^)
Best regards
By way of contrast my old Nakamichi 600 cassette deck is still going strong at nearly 40 years old. While not by strict definition hifi it does not wow or flutter and is still running all its original mechanical parts. Not even so much as a belt has been replaced.
The Nak is currently helping me to salvage a pre-recorded tape collection. I now have quite a few classical classics stored on the Hard Drive with hundreds more to go, so the concern is that my tape machine gives up the ghost before completion of the project. :O
Initially I was pricing CD versions on the net but gave up after discovering that many were unobtainable and those that could be obtained were e.g. £164 new or £80+ used. :O
Compared with 20p for a writable optical disc it makes the tapes well worth recovering. ;^)
(It's one of those retirement projects ;^)
Best regards