From: Chuck Ross <ckross@ais.net>
Subject: RE: a few questions....
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 09:10:16 -0600

>From: Erik <epb3r@faraday.clas.virginia.edu>
>Subject: a few questions....
>Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 15:05:20 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Hello,
>
>I'd like to hear your thoughts about the following:
>
>2.  I have a Sony DTC 690.  (Audience laughs) Occasionally in
>the past few weeks, while rewinding a dat, it will stop
>rewinding before it reaches the beginning.  Is this the
>beginning of the end (of my deck, that is)?  It has done it
>more often with the 60m HP/OEMs, but not always with them.  I
>have cleaned the heads, but the problem happens pretty randomly
>(is that a word?) so it's hard to pinpoint the problem.  It
>works fine otherwise, though I'm surely jinxing myself by
>saying so.

This sounds like the beginning of the problem that the 690 has,
when suddenly, it doesn't want to rewind tapes completely any
more. You may find that it works fine until after an hour or
so of operation, when it warms up, and then the problem occurs.
Turning the display OFF sometimes delays the onset of the
problem, but it will only get worse.

There is only one solution to the problem. Don't bother sending
it to Sony; they are aware of the fault and have mods to "fix" it
but their mods don't solve the problem completely.

I had the identical problem (and have heard of several more 690s
with the problem), and I sent mine to Paul Plotnick who does the
Sony mods and also adds a few of his own. Total cost was $130
and the deck works like new. Replacement of one of the drive motors
is part of the solution, but there are other things that have to
be replaced in the drive spindles and also some electronics in the
drive system.

Paul Plotnick can be reached at

ProDigital, Inc.
700-B Parkway Blvd.
Broomall, PA 19008

610/353-2400

It's my feeling that he's "the best there is". It was suggested
to me by other repair shopts that "the deck needs a good cleaning",
and by a Sony-authorized repair shop that they never heard of the
problem but would attempt to fix it for like "over $100".
Neither of these inspired much confidence in me.

Chuck

----------------------
From: Kidpocono@aol.com
Subject: Paul Plotnick
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 21:16:55 -0400

Felt that I had to respond to Dave Landsberger's recent comments about Pro
Digital's turnaround time. I've recently had 2 Sony DTC 700s and a D3 worked
on by Paul/Pro Digital and was extremely impressed not only with the quality
of the work but the timely manner in which the units were taken care of. The
decks were ready 3 days after delivery to the shop and the portable 4 days. I
also had to have a head replaced on a unit and this was all taken care of
within 3 days, as well. From what I understand with other service places, 2
weeks might not be viewed as an unreasonable time to wait (especially when
compared to the manufacturer), but I haven't seen anything to beat Paul's
turnaround time. I suspect that there may've been something extraordinary
about the units which David's friends had serviced.
Regards, Paul Soderman



----------------------


I am a repair facility specializing in portable recording equipment, and I 
repair many Sony DAT machines.

Adam Liberman
Liberman Sound
info@libermansound.com
www.libermansound.com
510-526-5447