Good Quality Cassette Decks?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Rivcuban, May 14, 2021.

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  1. Rivcuban

    Rivcuban Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Was looking for my Discwasher Anti-static gun from the 1980's and instead found this. Teac electric head demagnetizer. Are they still making good quality cassette decks?


    https://photos.app.goo.gl/vL27f51NPKYZ6hZZA
     
  2. jusbe

    jusbe Modern Melomaniac

    Location:
    Auckland, NZ.
  3. Marcev

    Marcev Sit back, Relax, and Enjoy the Music

    Location:
    New York
    The other question is do they still make high quality tape? Think along the lines of High bias Chrome or Metal... Once again the answer is no...
     
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  4. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    There are tons on nos great casettes out there. They made millions of them.

    A properly maintained and calibrated Nakamichi Dragon is gonna cost you plenty.
     
    jusbe likes this.
  5. MikeJedi

    MikeJedi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Las Vegas
    The old TEACs are decent. I have my Dads old V66C. :)
     
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  6. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    I would go with a better model vintage Pioneer, Luxman, Nakamichi, and the Sony TC-WE series (dual bay) players sound good and are easy to obtain at very reasonable cost. (they keep going)
     
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  7. Retro Music Man

    Retro Music Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    For a new deck, the TEAC W-1200 honestly doesn't seem too bad.

    VWestlife did a nice video about it:
     
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  8. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    There's much better older machines which outperform this. Even the old Advent 201 does. From 1971.
     
  9. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I'm now using Maxell UR. My Sony TC-K950ES can be calibrated for it and thus cassette recordings from vinyl are pretty much indistinguishable in tone from the vinyl. What's the point? I can listen to two sides of an album without need to turn over a record or lift a tonearm. [​IMG]
     
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  10. fish

    fish Senior Member

    Location:
    NYS, USA
  11. jusbe

    jusbe Modern Melomaniac

    Location:
    Auckland, NZ.
    This is probably a disaster for the health of tapes but I'd actually really like a nice one of these.
     
  12. CDV

    CDV Forum Resident

    Not all albums fit on one side of a 90-minute cassette. Brothers in Arms is 55:11, On Every Street is 60:16, The Wall is 81:08. So you still will need to flip the cassette manually because your deck lacks auto-reverse.
     
  13. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    [​IMG]
    I’ve not run into that problem perhaps because I can play long albums on my other deck, a Sony WR-87ES.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2021
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  14. Rigoberto

    Rigoberto Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA (UT)
    I've seen those cassettes. 4 screws. They don't seem to think the 5th screw is needed anymore. I wouldn't buy one myself.
     
  15. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    They still make medium to high quality cassette tapes type 1 normal and type 2 chrome "today". NAC Made in USA and a lot more world wide. I try not to buy NOS tapes from any sellers. Most of them doesn't even know the condition, quality and what they're use for. I wanna support new companies for I wanna have a long term supplier. On cassette decks.. There are a lot of used ones you can buy. The reality is, no one is' making good cassette decks as of now but maybe soon Tascam will gear up and that will start something. Going back to the used one, I would buy something that is in excellent shape and have it worked on by someone that is qualified to do the job. I have a lot of experience even with used cassette decks. The worst thing that youll do is buy something from ebay that they called "refurbished" Majority of them are not on the level.
     
  16. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    There's one good current production cassette. recordingthemasters FoxK7 C60 and C90. Type 1. For me, 3 motors/3 heads all direct drive best. More reliable than dealing with belts and extensive disassembly.
     
  17. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    Okay I gotta try that..
    Oooh man. I got another new toy. I bought an old technics cassette deck like new in the box "direct drive".. OMG, the design and simplicity is ingenious! I was able to replace the idler tire.. easy! Wow and flutter is very-very low.
     
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  18. CDV

    CDV Forum Resident

    Like 0.02% WRMS?
     
  19. anorak2

    anorak2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    No. The best new cassette deck you can currently buy are TEAC/TASCAM whose frequency range is officially listed as 13 kHz with type I and 15 kHz with type II. That would have been considered low end in the 80s/90s.

    Also, there are no good tapes available, except new old stock. Most actually new cassettes are type I only.
     
  20. AL01

    AL01 Eh?

    Location:
    Texas
    Evidently ALL (at least according to the Youtuber Techmoan) modern cassette mechanisms are either made by or based off a cheap mechanism made from the '80s by a company called Tenashin, (I hope I spelt that right).

    Your best bet is to go vintage, as the wow and flutter specifications for modern cassette decks, (which are Chinese knockoffs of Tenashin) are way to high...

    Although you may have better luck finding a deck that uses an actual Tenashin motor, but I can't think of any company/model that would guarantee you a genuine mechanism.

    Please keep us updated with your search, and I wish you the best of luck!
     
    McLover likes this.
  21. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I have been buying Maxell UR Compact Cassettes. I calibrate them for recording and play from my Sony TC-K950ES and I've got to tell ya this type 1 tape yields results which are indistinguishable from the vinyl from which the cassette recordings were made, so , I do not sense a need for Maxell UDXL2's which were my go to tape years ago. No doubt though, the quality of the UR's cassette is not in the same league as the UDXL2's. At any rate, seems to me the only usefulness of Compact Cassette Recorders today is in context to digitizing rare music, enjoyment of vinyl productions without digital conversion, or need to get out of the listening chair to flip the music as often as vinyl demands.
     
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  22. CDV

    CDV Forum Resident

    15 kHz ±3dB would be not bad, but the TEAC deck is rated at 13 kHz ±4dB, and its "professional" sister model Tascam is only 12.5 kHz ±4dB. Wow & flutter is spec'd at 0.25% WRMS, quite pitiful, though actual numbers are better. Still 0.1% WRMS is not good enough for a $500 deck IMO.


    How do you digitize music on an analog compact cassette?
     
  23. Sterling1

    Sterling1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    You record the compact cassette to CD, DAT, hard drive, or SD card just as you do digitizing vinyl.
     
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  24. CDV

    CDV Forum Resident

    So you do not need a "Compact Cassette Recorders", you just need a compact cassette player? ;) Sorry, I did not get it at first, I thought you were recording onto a cassette. Thanks for clearing this up.
     
  25. Marcev

    Marcev Sit back, Relax, and Enjoy the Music

    Location:
    New York
    Who still makes Chrome tapes today? I was not aware of anyone still making them…
     
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