cassette deck advice please..

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my son (who's got a nice little system of my hand-me-downs at Uni ) wants to dip his toes into the world of cassette decks..

Can anyone recommend any makes/models to keep an eye out for (bearing in mind this is on a students budget)??

I have no idea so all help appreciated..

festive thanks in advance

neil

 

Maverick

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Hi Neil

personally as any kit is likely to be quite old a bit of a gamble I’d say stick to well known hifi brands, I like mechanical controls as they last well and less to go wrong. My NAD dates to 1982 when I bought it and has had one minor repair (on/off switch) and the engineer was drooling over the build q! It has Dolby HX as well. 

Maybe a Denton, Sony, Yamaha, Teac etc - some good looking ones on eBay - of course it MUST have meters!!!! Ideally large and back lit 
KGQvWwAv1JnhHiaWe8CK1OzXmCENL6xxzzc6IH1bqtYh3q4Z5Wf4SSYqvL3rSXsGoF9ML3IWnw_wB1Ig0YJxTjGoP2Ng81j4Md89=s0-d-e1-ft


or if you lottery ticket comes up a Nakamichi Dragon, my dad was given a tape by his friend who owned one, recorded classical on a 20p WH Smith's cheapo, best sounding tape I’d ever heard, by a mile.

kr, Paul



 




 
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AnilS

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Keep an on gumtree locally. 

Stick to Technics, Denon and Yamaha, but to name a few. 

Belts may need changing at some point. 

I have a fully working spare Denon (sadly not free) if your son's University is local to the Midlands. 

 
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orbscure

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+1 for Yamaha decks from the late 1990... I have a KX-480 which is still going strong and the KX-580 was a highly respected deck too...

 

Beyond you

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My Dads Awia F330 cassette player from the 80’s was fantastic. 

20210520_174155.jpg

Photo of internet 

 

uzzy

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This is a tough one - I sold a Nakamichi 580 about 20 years ago when it was over 20 years old ... it had not been used that much but it had its issues.

Ideally any tape machine with dolby B & C and even better one with three heads (for offtape monitoring when recording) should be the goal.

Someone who has laid out money on a 3 head machine was a cut above the norm (let's just say was more likely to be a hifi enthusiast) .. 

Ideally take a tape and go try the machine out - does it fast forward/rewind/ and play ok (nice clear playback and no wavering of notes etc.)   

Technics, Pioneer, Aiwa, Sony, Denon, Teac, Tascam and Yamaha made decent machines .. 

I cannot for the life of me though think of any reason why anyone would want to go back to the world of cassettes .. but good luck in your quest.

 
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Nearly bewildered

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This is a tough one - I sold a Nakamichi 580 about 20 years ago when it was over 20 years old ... it had not been used that much but it had its issues.

Ideally any tape machine with dolby B & C and even better one with three heads (for offtape monitoring when recording) should be the goal.

Someone who has laid out money on a 3 head machine was a cut above the norm (let's just say was more likely to be a hifi enthusiast) .. 

Ideally take a tape and go try the machine out - does it fast forward/rewind/ and play ok (nice clear playback and no wavering of notes etc.)   

Technics, Pioneer, Aiwa, Sony, Denon, Teac, Tascam and Yamaha made decent machines .. 

I cannot for the life of me though think of any reason why anyone would want to go back to the world of cassettes .. but good luck in your quest.
If you tried taping from a high res source onto cassette tape..then playing it back from cassette player through your hifi..it's rather splendid! 

 
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Beyond you

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It’s amazing how many bands are releasing albums on cassettes, bands like no-man, even Riverside 

20210608_213048.jpg
 

 

EddieRUKidding

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I still use my Nak RX202 on a weekly basis, I also have a TEAC V700 but only use it as an input device for guitar recording now (makes great distortion with the levels high thru the mic inputs lol)

I still buy tapes to- brought a mint copy of Led Zep remastered double cassette the other day for $10 bucks ;)

 
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uzzy

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If you tried taping from a high res source onto cassette tape..then playing it back from cassette player through your hifi..it's rather splendid! 
I had a Nakamichi 580 3 head cassette machine from 1978 for 20 years .. I did that and whilst good if I liked summat I bought the vinyl and latterly the CD ... it ended up mainly for copying stuff for the car cassette or walkman (until I got a minidisc in the car and a recorder in the system).

The pain of fast forward and rewind - cleaning heads and never as good as Vinyl or Cd on playback regardless of source.  In many ways it would be like ditching the DVD Blue Ray to go back and watch a VCR machine .. and that aint gonna happen :)  

 
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Nearly bewildered

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I had a Nakamichi 580 3 head cassette machine from 1978 for 20 years .. I did that and whilst good if I liked summat I bought the vinyl and latterly the CD ... it ended up mainly for copying stuff for the car cassette or walkman (until I got a minidisc in the car and a recorder in the system).

The pain of fast forward and rewind - cleaning heads and never as good as Vinyl or Cd on playback regardless of source.  In many ways it would be like ditching the DVD Blue Ray to go back and watch a VCR machine .. and that aint gonna happen :)  
Me too..years ago I taped stuff and it was pretty good but never as good as cd or vinyl..but recently I taped from my streamer and was quite surprised!  the music from the cassette seemed more toe tapping..and I listened with a mate and he said he could hear more from the cassette? We compared the streamed version to the taped version..and before you all shout me down as deluded!  Try it?  

 
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EddieRUKidding

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Agreed, on a good deck the results are surprising particularly in the top end, plus I think doing this you end up with a warmer sound, filtered by default ;)  

 

hairyderriere

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Maxwell metal cassettes were great for recorded play back in the 80’s

20210608_213040.jpg
That was one of their chromes (actually Ferro-Cobalt/type II), of course, but equally desirable to my ears. The MX is just as fine and that mechanism is a justifiable classic.

48308129056_93fdbbaf1e_b.jpg


 
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bigfish786

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There’s literally hundreds of cheap and cheerful cassette decks on eBay. Just try and find a newer model. I saw a technics deck go for £6 not long ago, anything is worth a gamble at that price. 

 

dave

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I have been through quite a variety of decks in the recent past, of my more modern ones only my Denon has not needed any work. Most Sony need some work, but parts are cheap.

 

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