No new decent cassette decks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter grh
  • Start date Start date
Sorry but I must disagree.What cassette decks have you been using? To say that they are crap is a rash generalisation.I use a Nakamichi 480 with a resultant warm,dynamic analogue sound. (Correct me if I am wrong,but don't MP3 recorders/players compress the shit out of the signal ?) I run a system with a Bang and Olufsen Turntable, Bang and Olufsen Receiver and JBL Balboa 30 speakers and the sound from the Nakamichi is every bit as good as that from the vinyl.
 
garww said:
No, I doubt that this job requires a high end deck. We don't know how many of what, or, anything. We might get an idea from how they are labeled : )
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My tapes are all recordings of clowns singing, and clowns playing clown instruments.
 
RFR said:
Nothing the matter with new.
But the problem is the format itself and it's relative importance in todays world.
Cassette is a trend, nostalgia, a hipster thing, an underground movement, a revolt against mp3.

The decks they are making today are junk compared to decks of yesterday.

It's just not profitable to make a quality deck in today's market.

It's been brought up by myself and others that the 90s was the peak of cassette technology. DAT was in play, but for the most part only proffessionals owned and used them.

The rest of the world was using cassette as a portable music medium.
People were making cassette mix tapes off of CD to play in their cars, etc.

So in conclusion, if dealing with cassette, get a high end studio or consumer deck of the day.

They were high quality, robust units designed to work for a long time.

Not the cheap chinese junk of today.

Yes, you might have to replace the belts and other rubber, but that's easy enough to do. (You or a tech)
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Are you sure hipsters are into tapes. I know they have been big into vinyl for the past 10 years, but I don't hear much about these so called people being into tapes.

You and others may criticize my decision, but I wen't ahead, and ordered the Marantz, because I wanted something new, and I also paid for a 3 year warranty.
 
Some are really crappy, though. Some just limited by the tech of the day. But the name brand stuff played the development game and you have to note what the price points represented along the way.

I bought a Fisher High Speed in the late '70s to go with my early Technics that was before Dolby. It was High Speed giving us something like 8-track fidelity. By '82/83, though, everyone was comparing fidelity to the CD and Audio only VHS decks. Modest decks could be right there. It is worth getting the better amps and such with pricier models, but not every one needs that. The bigger factor was what cartridges and selection of styli one wanted to run that day on one table or the other.
 
grh said:
You and others may criticize my decision, but I wen't ahead, and ordered the Marantz, because I wanted something new, and I also paid for a 3 year warranty.
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Good for you! A decision has been reached and we can be done.
Enjoy your new puchase!
Aaaaand im out!
Peace.
:D
 
Oh, they don't say DNR - just Dynamic Noise Reduction. DNR isn't a encode/decode process, so something like a Dolby tape will sound overly bright and you may want to find a Dolby decoder in software
 
I have a tascam 122 mkii calibrated for Denon HD6 . . . the recording quality of it is actually quite remarkable. Very flat frequency response. The have direct drive so wow and flutter is super low. They still use this model in the national archives of my country. Probably because they are so reliable and easy to maintain.
 
I've a 122 in the rack, been powered up 24/7 since probably 1997 - provides headphone output from line in. It still seems to playback the tape that has been in it for the same period. However, while I can appreciate the quality of older reel to reels and other originally excellently sonically great products - cassette was never in the same league, and essentially a consumer convenience product. Sure - there were some really good one, but even then, they were a compromise.
 
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