Cassette Decks

StevenKay

New member
Mar 28, 2011
36
0
0
Visit site
Hi all

Am wondering if there are many who still use the good old cassette players to listen to any kind of music. Are good quality ones still avaiilable? I have a huge collection of cassette tapes lying unused and would like to add a reasonably good cassette deck to my exisiting audio system. My question is which budget Cassette Player wouold be a decent buy to go for. Thanks in advance.
 

hone_u2

New member
Jan 7, 2013
11
0
0
Visit site
StevenKay said:
One more point:

Is the taped music quality in any way superior to other available formats of recorded music?

In my personal experience and my opinion only, I have found cassette tapes to be slightly superior to CDs... But some really well pressed CDs give you equally good results...
 
I don't think anyone makes them still, I might be wrong. I still use my Walkman Professional now and again to play my old recorded LP's. Quality is amazing and better (if only just) than my CD of the same abum. Probably doewn to mastering of the CD itself.
 

MajorFubar

New member
Mar 3, 2010
690
6
0
Visit site
I still have one, as per my sig. (In fact I've got several, but the others are more historic relics than true useable HiFi pieces). Our car still has its original radio-cassette in it too (Kenwood something or other) with a CD changer in the boot. Never had the need or desire to change it.

As for which ones to buy...not easy. If you intend to play only your own recordings then there are loads of used models which fit the bill. Anything from Sony, Techncs, Pioneer, Yamaha, etc etc. But if you have a lot of Musicassettes (pre-recorded tapes) you'll be amazed by how many machines out there were never set-up properly at the factory to get the best from them, and without demo-facilities it can be hit n miss. The safe bet is a Nakamichi. They didn't make a duff one ever.
 

davedotco

New member
Apr 24, 2013
20
1
0
Visit site
MajorFubar said:
I still have one, as per my sig. (In fact I've got several, but the others are more historic relics than true useable HiFi pieces). Our car still has its original radio-cassette in it too (Kenwood something or other) with a CD changer in the boot. Never had the need or desire to change it.

As for which ones to buy...not easy. If you intend to play only your own recordings then there are loads of used models which fit the bill. Anything from Sony, Techncs, Pioneer, Yamaha, etc etc. But if you have a lot of Musicassettes (pre-recorded tapes) you'll be amazed by how many machines out there were never set-up properly at the factory to get the best from them, and without demo-facilities it can be hit n miss. The safe bet is a Nakamichi. They didn't make a duff one ever.

This is very much the issue.

There are two separate aspects to setting up a cassette deck, it is relatively simple to set up a cassette deck so that it is 'self consitent'. That is, recordings made on that deck will play back extremely well on that deck.

The problem is that any recordings made elsewhere, either privately or commercially, will almost certainly not allign correctly with your machine, the asimuth will probably be out too. The result is a noticeably less clear sound that can often sound muted or muddy, through a hi-fi system at least.

Nakamichi may be the best but, despite what the Major says, they are all different in terms of 'absolute' allignment and asimuth, so the results on tapes recorded elsewhere will still be patchy, mediocre in the main.

Some years ago we were required to supply 2 £1000+ Nakamichi 1000s to a client. The requirement was that he wanted to record onto one machine, in his main system, and then playback those tapes on a second system in his study. OK, the client was very critical but there was no way that we could make that happen, the decks were setup time and time again, both sounding superb playing there own recordings but noticeably less good playing the other. It just could not be done.

To be honest, it is probably better to just replace the recording you really want to hear on modern media, probably cheaper too.

Unless you have a lot of irreplaceable recordings of course, that is a different issue.
 

MajorFubar

New member
Mar 3, 2010
690
6
0
Visit site
MajorFubar said:
Nakamichi may be the best but, despite what the Major says, they are all different in terms of 'absolute' allignment and asimuth, so the results on tapes recorded elsewhere will still be patchy, mediocre in the main.

True enough but if you want to play prerecorded tapes (which I think the op does), then in the main, the Naks I've owned (both late DR models) played them better than any of the other dozen or more decks that I've owned. Azimuth is one issue that's easy to change, but more often than not it seems to be the playback EQ which is wrong, leaving even the best prerecorded tapes sounding muffled (which of course is exacerbated by Dolby mistracking).

Funny someone should mention the Sony 611ES. The example I demo'd in 1994 was a perfect example of a machine which played its own recordings brilliantly, but which was utterly useless with prerecorded tapes, because the playback EQ was all over the place. I demo'd the same tapes on a (then new) Nakamichi DR-3 and the difference really was night and day (oops HiFi cliche alert).

EDIT: Just remembered that some machines from NAD (and Yamaha?) had a play-trim feature to help correct this problem.
 

eagle123

Well-known member
May 4, 2012
10
2
18,525
Visit site
i used to have technics cassette deck, a az6, with a playback head based on dcc, agree with major fubar, that some playing recorded cassettes made on cassette decks will sound not similar as played on other tape decks, azimuth is the issue, dolby mistracking, or simply bad playback amplifiers

i have a nakamichi dr3, pound for pound completely wipes out some 3 head machines in terms of sound quality, although they dont have the gadgets as other competing tape decks from technics pioneer or aiwa etc.

if i were you i buy a nakamichi, but the later ones like cassette deck 1, dr series, or the cr7 if you lucky!
 

davedotco

New member
Apr 24, 2013
20
1
0
Visit site
Nakamichi made the best decks, with few exceptions nothing came close. Alignment though is critical, each track on cassette tape is the idth of a thick pencil line, it is remarkable that the heads line up at all. Add in azimuth errors, incorect replay eq and miss-alligned Dolby and it really is surprising that you have anything worth listening too at all.

And all this is before you even consider how well alligned the actual cassette itself is, they are, in the main, cheap molded plastic and tolerences are poor. Recording and playing back your own good quality tapes on one machine is fair enough, but for the rest I simply would not bother.

My personal view, others are available........
 

MajorFubar

New member
Mar 3, 2010
690
6
0
Visit site
No problem, good luck finding a machine you like. Certainly from the Nakamichi range, the Cassette Deck range (1/1.5/2) and DR range are probably the ones to go for unless you are a 'fanatic', mainly because they're the youngest. They're usually the cheapest too because Nak enthusiasts concentrate more on the earlier models.
 

BigH

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2012
115
7
18,595
Visit site
davedotco said:
Nakamichi made the best decks, with few exceptions nothing came close. Alignment though is critical, each track on cassette tape is the idth of a thick pencil line, it is remarkable that the heads line up at all. Add in azimuth errors, incorect replay eq and miss-alligned Dolby and it really is surprising that you have anything worth listening too at all.

And all this is before you even consider how well alligned the actual cassette itself is, they are, in the main, cheap molded plastic and tolerences are poor. Recording and playing back your own good quality tapes on one machine is fair enough, but for the rest I simply would not bother.

My personal view, others are available........

I tend to agree and used cds are about the price of a decent blank tape, I always found cds to be better SQ than tapes.
 

LesT73

New member
Sep 20, 2010
5
0
0
Visit site
I own both nakamichi and sony es decks and I would recommend both. The sony in particular, sounds great and, if you look for a late 80s to mid 90s deck may not require servicing whereas a vintage nakamichi almost invariably will.
 

eggontoast

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2011
453
12
18,895
Visit site
StevenKay said:
Hi all

Am wondering if there are many who still use the good old cassette players to listen to any kind of music.

Hell no, they were rubbish back in the day and haven't improved with age.

StevenKay said:
Are good quality ones still avaiilable?

Loads of them about second hand, but it's a rubbish format, it's like polishing a turd.

StevenKay said:
I have a huge collection of cassette tapes lying unused and would like to add a reasonably good cassette deck to my existing audio system. My question is which budget Cassette Player would be a decent buy to go for. Thanks in advance.

Just spend the money on buying the music on CD, or even download an mp3 version, or if you're really desperate buy it on vinyl and that's saying something !
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts