Opinions on old Sanyo cassette decks?

So at thrift, I found this nice shape Sanyo RD 10 cassette player. $7. From what I have gathered, these were built sometime around late 70's to early 80's.
I get it home, tested the speed, azimuth, record, etc... It was playing 4% fast so I adjusted that down (yes I have the equipment to do such) I cleaned the heads, capstan, pinch roller. They hardly needed it. I am guessing this thing must have been serviced recently. Basically it is in like-new shape. Excellent channel separation, clear sound, no noticeable wow and flutter, belts seem tight, etc.

Even though the frequency response specs say 50 - 15,000 hz, it still sounds really good. I was not expecting it to sound very good honestly. For $7 I figured it was worth a shot though.

Isn't Sanyo one of those lower end brands? Maybe not as bad as Emerson but still "not so great"?
I am wondering how a Sanyo would be functioning at all after almost 40 years with or without much use. I have not used it much, just got it today but it passed all tests with flying colors.

Also about frequency response specs on any audio equipment - Are they like "absolutes" or are those just the points where they START to fade off pretty steep?

 

Sanyo stuff was always a cheaper brand here in Australia. It was a poor man's version of Sony, at least that's what it seemed like all those years ago.

It sounds like you had good luck with that deck. The acid test will be to see how it stands up to some regular use.

 

In the US, there were the low end brands, Emerson/Juliette/others, which were US companies, and a good jump to the larger bigger brands. There were also cheap brands directly from Japan. (Denon was one, it got going in the US as a cheap brand in the 1960s. It has a very long history in Japan, of which I know little more than what wikipedia has.)
Sanyo could be considered one of the cheaper, or cheapest, of the Japanese brands, but it was one of the majors from Japan. Matsushita/Panasonic bought them completely several years ago and has retired the brand.
A fair test is: did the company design and engineer its own stuff? Those cheap US company brands did not, they just accepted what a cheap Japanese company would present to them, or they might tell a cheap Japanese company "make this kind of thing" and let the cheap Japanese company put it together. (And notably, both the cheap brands and the major brands all used BSR record changers from Great Britain. For only the lower price items from the bigger brands.)
But Sanyo did its own engineering and sold under its own name. They also made parts and circuits for even bigger brands. They also made store branded stuff for Sears, for one, in the 1960s-70s-80s-into the 90s.
Also, awfully, the cheap US brands mostly got their starts by engineering and manufacturing their own stuff in the US. But they were the low price brands and were first to go to cheap never-known Japanese suppliers who would put their US brand on stuff. "Emerson Radio" was a fairly respected, US-made, low cost, (and lower quality but kindof ok) brand through the 1950s. The Emerson story is pretty interesting, to me. Portions of the original company split off this way and that and industrial things branded "Emerson" today are still made in US, and are direct offshoots of Emerson Radio. For home audio stuff, the brand "Emerson" is now owned by Funai of Japan, as eventually "Emerson" audio of US was pretty much all made by Funai anyway, so Funai just bought the brand.

A frequency response spec means nothing unless it has the +/- part too. And generally for example, 50-15,000 +/- 3db means the response is a parabolic curve where it is down 6 db at both ends and could be pretty rough in between.

I am not surprised that a little-used Sanyo cassette deck from the 1970s will fix up well now, and be a reasonable thing to use.

 

Are you sure about this? I thought it meant that all frequencies between 50-15k Hz could be enclosed in a 6 dB envelope.

Understanding Speaker Frequency Response - ecoustics.com

 

Sure! It could be 6db down at 50 rising up and wavering along touching 0db, and then down 6db at 15,000. That would all be enclosed in a 6db envelope, from 0 down to -6db.
Maybe you're thinking it's all mostly centered on 0db and wavering a little around 0db and is just down 3 db at the ends. That's what they want you to think.
Graph "B" on your linked page is closest to what I mean, but instead of that unobtanium straight line, I am imagining a wavy line there that just touches 0db and does not go above.

 

Sanyo was lower priced but respectable Japanese made. Entry level "good mid-fi" was their stock in trade. My first turntable purchased in 1983/4 was a Sanyo - I got it because it was direct drive and the comparable Pioneer/Sony/whatever models at the entry level price point were all belt drive. It's still spinning in my brother Andrew's living room to this day so Sanyo must have done something right. I would speculate that a slightly older tape deck compared to my turntable would be a reasonable, if not great, piece.

 

As much as I dislike the compact cassette format, I wouldn't bother with ANYTHING belt driven. If you have to step into the Wayback machine with Sherman and Professor Peabody, I would look for a top of the line or near top of the line direct drive example from SONY, Pioneer, Technics, Tascam, Revox, JVC, Teac and the like.

I would Google the phrase "Direct Drive" "cassette" and start compiling a list of brands and models. Then set up an auto search at eBay. Tapeheads know what these machines are so I'm sure they already have done this. Craigslist and local vintage hifi shops like Analog Restoration in Berlin, New Jesrsey would be my first stop. The hardest way to find one would be an estate sale in upscale neighborhoods.

Happy hunting and listening. Michael

 

My first HDTV was a Sanyo. 34" widescreen CRT. Thing was a beast! 120 lbs. Couldn't be beat at the time for $600.

 

Sounds good, however, this sanyo deck i picked up was $7 at thrift. It is just one of four cassette decks that I now have. Kind of a fun little, "ahh let's see how well this one does" as opposed to some huge investment.

 

A more low end deck for its time, but for $7 and a little elbow grease, it's a great deal!

 

What he stated is one possible means of thoroughly abusing a FR specification. But this typically means is that the FR can vary both up and down by up to 3db with reference to 1kHz within the referenced band.

 

$7

You'll enjoy it a lot more than lunch at subway.

 

You have a point, says the Philadelphia guy who has only eaten Subway once, 20 years ago, under protest.

 

How about a lunch at Lee's Hoagie House instead?

 

If I'm gonna fall off the wagon, it's gonna be a big fat cheese steak, extra sharp provolone and "wit" or pulled pork with extra sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. I'll wash it down with several Vienna lagers that don't have Yeungling on the label. Desert will be cannoli.

Message me when your in town. My children love the following.

'Jeet yet?
No 'jew?
Let's gedda steak.
K
Then some worder ice?

 

As long as you like it, rock it. Cassette rocks!