There are a few US based companies that take some original Technics or Teac R2R decks and modify them, i.e. rebuilding them for resales. I am still using my trusty ten-year old Rega Planet 2000 CDP. Rega is really the few remaining "truly" British audio components makers that have decent distribution and product support networks in the US these days.
Technics SP series turntables and the RS 1500 series open reel, were very popular radio station choices. And were generally of top caliber performance and reliability and very well liked by station owners, managers, engineers, and operators.. ReVox A and B 77 open reels and the PR 99 tape machines are common broadcast station favorites, many stations used them and usually as commonly seen as the Otari MX 5050 line open reel machines. Studers like the old B 67 and A 80 did get used by many stations left of the dial owned by Colleges and Universities and some very high budget commercial stations. But a lot less commonly seen than ReVox machines.
TDK has been long out of the tape business, and also the last TDK tape products were sold while the TDK Tape division was under the IMation banner. Maxell no longer makes tape save for the UR cassette line and maybe some VHS. UR cassettes and their Communicator and Duplicator series are made in Indonesia by Panggung.
However, the Rega CD player laser, mechanism, and affiliated electronics are bought in and not UK manufactured. Everybody's CD player lasers and mechanisms are Asian sourced as are DVD and Blu-Ray mechanisms.
Of course Rega does not disclose the sourcing of these parts ... Toshiba, Sony and Philips were for a long time the global suppliers of CD/DVD drives but Philips quit the business a while back ...
BTW, any meaningful resurgence in the interests for cassette decks will have implications for the design of receivers and preamps, as tape loops have been banished from most over much of the past ten years. I have been trying to upgrade my preamp for my study but have been having problems finding any modern preamp with at least one tape loop ...
Good point. Although I suspect any "resurgence" in the cassette tape will take the form of the vinyl "resurgence" - morons buying Crosley-like garbage and then playing $25 half-speed mastered, virgin metal tapes on it (with no Dolby noise reduction). Cassette - the new pet rock of the audio world.
Cassettes are a medium to enjoy if you still have it. I don't think it's a medium worthwhile to pursue if you have to go out and find a good deck and decent tape to play or record on. I still have a nice deck and a few cases of high quality tape, but if it weren't for that, I would not even think about tape. That's my honest opinion.
Strongly . Cassette deck requires much more maintenance than an open-reel deck ... If I had not had quite a few of them, I would not have rushed out to buy one now.
I have owned both, and Open Reel was Easier to maintain, and clean, mainly due to the much larger size of parts. At its best cassette can be fairly quiet, even more so than my open reel (running no noise reduction) but just found open reel at 7.5 2 track to be more open and clear sounding, as if it was not even straining to do high frequencies even at decent levels.
FYI If you want the straight scoop about what the best cassette deck is, or how reliable a cassette deck is, or want graphs, and technical information, go to tapeheads.net and ask there. There are a few engineers, technicians, people who repair cassette decks and other very knowledgeable people will be able to substantiate their view with hard core facts. M~
You should if you want to "know" about things and get the information from the guys that repair, and modify them. There is a ton of information over to help a person make an informed rational decision about cassette decks. M~
Interesting....Mmmmm.... intriguing. A store that sells used cassettes in 2017. And blanks. Except no one makes Type 4 cassette any more and And no one makes new cassette decks anymore. Used cassettes are usually in bad shape. They are mostly played through cheap dirty car tape machines and walkmans. All of us here regularly clean and demagnatize are machines. Unfortunately most of the public didn't. And why buy a cassette of Power Windows when I can get the superior version on CD or vinyl for that matter? And I can make cassettes that sound better than anything they have in their shop. Although I wouldn't say no to a early 90's Chrome cassette of Iron Maiden (1980-1988). I'll take the cassette over the remaster disaster any day of the week.
Format drawbacks aside, OMGosh, I love the look a that deck. If, today, they made a statement Dragon (with gear and eq mod) or CR-7a with that style fascia... I'd sell my neighbor's kids to get one.
CD-A580 SPECIFICATIONS Cassette Tape Track System Stereo Head Structure Record/playback head x1, Erase head x1 Tape Type Cassette Tape (C-10 – C-90) Supported Cassette Tape Playback Normal (TYPE I), Chrome (TYPE II), Metal (TYPE IV) Recording Normal (TYPE I), Chrome (TYPE II) Pitch Control ±10% (Playback Only) AUDIO PERFORMANCE Wow and Flutter 0.3% (W.RMS) Frequency Response 50 ~ 12.5kHz ±4dB (Chrome) 50 ~ 12.5kHz ±4dB (Normal) S/N Ratio 59dB (Maximum input level, A-weighted) IN/OUT Nominal Input and Output Level (RCA) 4.5dBu (0.46V) Impedence more than 50k ohms No Dolby any type, no auto calibration in 2017, W&F 0.3%, 50 ~ 12.5kHz ±4dB $479.99 street price.
Unfortunately, when there are little or no competitions in the market place, decks with lousy specs can command a steep price ...
Just put an offer in on a deck I'll use for playback only. Harman/Kardon TD-192, for $25 plus shipping. We'll see. I only have two tapes (came with box sets) and just want something to play them back reasonably well. Now if only I could figure out how to get analog out from my Anthem D2 to my PC for recording...
It's total junk, tho. Doesn't even have Dolby. Can't record on metal tape. Frequency response is 50-12.5kHz with chrome tape, which is garbage. A generic Sony Walkman from 1983 could best this thing.