Any harm in boosting cassette deck output?

Not like maxing it out but just increasing output maybe 15 - 20%?

Seems a lot of decks output is pretty quiet but as long as the db meters are not going over 3 on a regular basis, is there any hidden harm in boosting it at the VR's on the circuit board?

I have not had any problems YET and the sound doesn't distort.

Am I just asking for problems or what do the experts here say?

 

My Nakamichi CR-2A has an front panel knob to adjust the line output level. Also, a knob to adjust recording bias. My two Nakamichi CR-1A decks don't have either knob, but, output & bias can both be adjusted via internal VRs (variable resistors).

I boosted the output on one of my CR-1A decks dedicated for playback only. I wanted the output to better match the output of my DSD DAC.

 

Are you referring to playback or recording? For playback, it makes no difference - you're not really "boosting", you're attenuating. Not a source of concern, even at max.

For recording, yes, there's harm in lighting up the 3dB point on a regular basis - you're driving the tape into saturation, which won't sound good.

Cheers,
Larry B.

 

I think the dynamics are better with cassettes and sometimes necessitate turning the volume up.

I'd rather have to do this then turn the volume down because of over-compression and squashing.

 

True, I guess it is a matter of less attenuation than boosting.
I do not mess with the internal "record level" VRs, I figure the external ones were designed for that.

Not that this matters but what prompted this question -
I have a JVC KD-D50 deck which (among other slight issues) the output seemed a bit low. Cleaning the heads, adjusting azimuth, and verifying the speed all did nothing. It really seemed to suffer with highs. So after some investigating on the web, i learned which VRs adjusted line out level. I turned each of those up a tiny bit and it seems to be doing great.

That's the funny thing about cassettes. Even knowing they are not the ideal media, there is always the search for that extra "10%" so to speak.