What is a Tascam 133?

[kiira]

I mean, can one be used as a mixdown deck? I saw one that was called excellent condition on ebay and the auction ended with no bids and no reserve at $50. It looks like athree track machine which I guess would make sense for people who were syncing cassette decks to betacams in the 80s or something?

I have a Tascam 103 that isn't really the quality of my other Tascam stuff - my boyfriends Nakamichi sounds MUCH better almost like a CD, maybe even better to my ears. I like to give friends and family cassette mixdowns instead of CDs to get their opinions.

Pretty decent Nakamichis are going for under $100 on ebay though soooo...

kiitso,

Kiira

ps - it is so cool that lofi found the problem with his 388. This forum rawks.

[The Ghost of FM]

I wouldn't suggest the 133 as a good choice for a mixdown deck in that it is an oddball format of 3 tracks across the width of the tape and probably will not be compatible with standard cassette decks for playback.

If you have access to or can score a Nak for 100 bones, grab that instead.

The 133 was primarily designed as a stereo plus cue track recorder used in some older radio station and exhibit display applications.

Cheers!

[kiira]

Originally Posted by The Ghost of FM

I wouldn't suggest the 133 as a good choice for a mixdown deck in that it is an oddball format of 3 tracks across the width of the tape and probably will not be compatible with standard cassette decks for playback.

If you have access to or can score a Nak for 100 bones, grab that instead.

The 133 was primarily designed as a stereo plus cue track recorder used in some older radio station and exhibit display applications.

Cheers!

Thankyou thankyou Ghost!!! all I needed to know.

[wildflower soul]

while we're on the subject... is the Tascam 122 any good? It looks pretty cool with XLR ins and outs

[The Ghost of FM]

The 122 is a decent cassette deck but don't be mesmerized by balanced connectors alone on a piece of gear.

Some of the world's worst gear has balanced connectors!

Some of the best have none!

Go figure!

Cheers!

[kiira]

Originally Posted by wildflower soul

while we're on the subject... is the Tascam 122 any good? It looks pretty cool with XLR ins and outs

heya wildflower soul (cool name)

some of the Nakamichis are selling for ridiculously cheap prices on ebay... maybe coz in the hifi world cassette is not a respectable format. Only the very top end dragons and such are going for big dollars but the terrific sounding LX-3 and LX-5 and other can be found dirt cheap. My boyfriend got his LX-3 for $50 and it is a beautiful well made (heavy too) deck. There is one of them up there right now for BIN $90. It dosn't have xlr i/o thogh just RCA. There is a www page somewhere that explains which decks are best and good to look for, not just the Nakamichis.

[boingoman]

If it's a Nakamichi B-series save your money........

[The Ghost of FM]

Originally Posted by pies

The 133 has three tracks. I have two of them. I never thought about the tracks not lining up with a standard cassette format...crap.

Umm.....Hold the presses folks!

The 133 is indeed a 3 track deck but it uses standard track width for the format which means that it is a 4 track, 3 channel design. In essence that means that the first two tracks should be able to be played back on a normal home cassette deck if the slow speed is utilized.

I still wouldn't recommend this deck as a mastering deck though considering its limited frequency response of 30 - 15,000hz at high speed and only 30 - 8,000hz at standard speed.

Cheers!