Sony EDV-5000 Operating Noise

[McMountain]

It's my first time posting here, and I'm not tremendously experienced when it comes to working with VCRs. I have a decent capture workflow set up and have digitized most of my family's Hi8 collection, but it was time to move on to our extensive Betamax library. I wanted an EDV beta player mostly due to the S-Video output for capturing, so I finally pulled the trigger and bought a unit from Japan. I picked a seller that accepted returns, and I knew it would be a gamble to buy something like this sight unseen. Shelling out for one of Mister Betamax's units would be great, but it just wasn't financially viable.

Anyway, I received the unit this past week, and it had some dents and dings, but was in decent shape cosmetically. It loads tapes perfectly fine, the picture seems very good. Unfortunately, it makes a strange sound during playback. I recall other forum posts warning about worn-out head bearings on these units, and one user suggested returning a unit if it made noise during playback. I have attached a short video of the sound, and would greatly appreciate any opinions. The mic on my phone made the noise quite a bit louder than it is in the room.

If it helps, I can upload a short unprocessed AVI of a known good tape from VirtualDub. I was going to include a 100mb clip in this post, but I can't seem to upload it. I can hopefully attach it to a follow-up post.

Any input would be appreciated. The sound does not seem healthy to me, but I'm hoping it might be something minor. I have a much older SL Betamax VCR, and while it does make a whining noise, it is not quite as rhythmic as this EDV machine. I don't have anyone local to me (that I know of) who services VCRs, but I'm hoping there are some experts here who can offer some guidance. The options are: Keep using the unit to Digitize tapes despite the noise, return it and roll the dice on another Japanese EDV machine, or attempt to get someone to repair it.

Thanks

[McMountain]

Can't seem to upload an AVI segment.
Also, I do have a proper 120v-100v step-down transformer supplying power.