Technics RS-D550W, any good?

[apit]

Hi,

First apologies if this is in the wrong place, i'm new here and this seemed like the most appropriate part of the forum.

Basically i am looking into starting cassette production, starting a small cassette label. Therefore looking for a good deck in order to record the tapes myself.
I found the Technics RS-D550W relatively cheap and it seems to have good specs, 3 heads and dolby b. But the price and the inability to find much information about it online worries me a little.

Does anyone know anything more about it at all? Or by looking at the specs whether it'd be any good for the purpose i want it for?

It won't let me post the full url, but there is some more info on it at

www classic-audio.com/technics-rsd550w-p-175.html

Thanks for the help!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

This is a low end two head double cassette deck with a mechanical piano key transport and Dolby b noise reduction. It might have 3 heads in total but that's when you count the one playback head on one of the decks and the erase and play/rec head on the other deck.

I don't know where you got your specs on this deck but they are incorrect.

A functional 3 head cassette deck with respectable specifications will likely sell for around 100 bucks and up depending on make and model. Decks like a TASCAM 122Mk II or or Mk III would be good choices for actual production duties and there's usually lots of those available on eBay and elsewhere.

As carpenters like to say: measure twice, cut once.

Cheers!

 

[A Reel Person]

RS-D550W Specs!...

It's "3" heads in the specs by virtue of having 2 transports. Rec/Play & Erase head in one transport and Rec/Play (only) in the other, total of 3. You have to be careful of specs. Sometimes there's more to it than meets the eye.

The RS-D550W is relatively low end. There are even better 2-transport dubbing decks from Technics, such as the RS-TR232, but this may not be the way to go for your purposes.

The RS-D550W appears to have "piano key" (purely mechanical) transport, but those keys are just the period style and the inner transport is solenoid driven.

Nonetheless, this is not the type of cassette deck you'd need. I agree that a Tascam 122 would be a much better solution.

However, I am also fond of Technics cassette decks, with the RS-955 being one of my favorites. It may seem nothing special, but I think it's an exceedingly good cassette deck. Also, something like the more modern RS-BR465 (autoreverse) and the RS-B555 (I think) are great single well cassette decks.