pioneer ct-606, cassette deck hiss?

N

notsoposi

New member
Hey everybody,
Recently I got into cassettes recording, after buying cassette deck and amplifier I thought everything else is gonna be easy..
And everything was easy until i found first and biggest problem.
I connected cassette deck with amplifier together, amplifier with MAC with which I want to record.
But somehow, whatever I am doing, there's hiss in the backround, firstly I thought, ok something is wrong with the way i am doing this, lets try this, lets try this but after some time and literally after trying EVERYTHING. Its still there, and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with cassette, sound coming from MAC but with cassette deck itself? At least I think so because whatever I record on tape, theres hiss in the background, when I stop recording - theres same hiss, when I am playing blank cassette - still same hiss and that hiss is also being recorded on tape.
Whats the problem?
Please I literally tried everything.
Thank you
 
Are you so young that you didn't use cassettes before? They were always noisy, but I suspect your used deck's tape heads need to be demagnetized.
 
I've got some really good cassette decks (Nakamichi) and some boss pre-amplifiers and amplifiers to send the sound through, but I wouldn't use them for recording live souces. Honestly, you're fighting a losing battle. Try the computer route. You'll get better sound out of a stock soundcard.
 
Not only does tape hiss but the replay amplifiers probably only manage a noise level a few dB below tape noise. This will show up badly against subjectively silent digital background.

IF the machine is in good order (and is decent to start with) AND you use a high quality tape* THAT THE MACHINE HAS BEEN SETUP FOR, AND you get your levels and gain staging just so, a Dolby B recording should be very acceptable. But, WTGR, just blundering on in ignorance with an ad hoc system? Disaster.

*In my (ancient!) experience the best tapes were TDK SA (type ll) and a remarkably good type 1 was TDK AD but the deck MUST be biased for those and they need high bias to boot.

Maybe the guys in the Anyloggy section can be of more help?

Dave.
 
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