Thought my cassette deck was junk until a guy at the Columbus flea market played me one tape
I had my dad's old cassette deck sitting in a closet for 6 years because I figured tapes just sound bad. Last weekend a seller at the Columbus flea market popped in a tape he recorded off vinyl in 1984 and it honestly sounded warm and full, nothing like the hiss I remembered. He said most people blame the format when the real problem is a dirty head or a $15 belt that stretched out. I took mine home, cleaned the heads with alcohol and a q tip, and swapped the belt for $12, and 3 of my old mixtapes play fine now. So I was wrong about cassettes being a lost cause, the deck just needed basic care I never gave it. What old gear did you write off too fast before someone showed you the fix?
Had the same thing happen with an old Technics turntable I got for free. The speed was all over the place so I figured the motor was shot, but a guy at a repair shop told me it was just the belt slipping. $10 belt and some cleaning on the pulley and it spins dead steady now. Turns out a lot of this old stuff just sat unused for years and dried up, it's rarely actually broken.