Show off your cassette deck!

Their TA 2090 was a great deck, I should've never sold mine to my buddy.

 

Love the 480. These sound great, enjoy!

 

I still have one just like this somewhere.

 

My TA 2090 was awesome before it died. Too bad the parts I need are unobtanium.

 

Front switch issues?

 

You guessed it! Cosmetically it's in near mint condition, so it makes a very nice looking doorstop.

 

Unfortunate.

I wonder if there is a fix using a non stock switch?

I've done some interesting "fixes" on some of my older Pioneer Elite electronics due to unavailable parts.

 

I've used a lot of the decks highlighted in this thread. Some bring back fond memories, like the TEAC 450 and the NAK 700's. I am an expert at recording on magnetic tape, and I can make a broadcast or mastering-quality recording, even from live acts, on any cassette machine you put in front of me.

Each deck is unique in it's abilities and limitations, and if you know what you are doing you can eke out the best performance from each. Of course it's easier if you have a machine that has all the desirable features, three heads, good electronics, a built-in tone generator and bias adjustment, etc.

But even on a basic deck, if you have a half hour to make a few test recordings to find things like the saturation level of the heads (hopefully not the electronics, but if so, that too) and the weighting of the meters, you should be good to go. It does help if you know what bias the factory sets the decks up on, because that will be the tape that works best if the bias cannot be adjusted on the machine. For example, Naks used Maxell XLII tape at the factory, while TEACs used TDK SA. The European decks would typically use BASF tape stock. And so on.

The very best deck I ever used for recording was a TEAC 860, very rare machine. But to this day I can pop a cassette into the car deck and without looking, know that it was made on the 860 just from the Sound Quality (SQ).

I don't have anything exotic at home now, I don't make many recordings anymore but I have an outstanding cassette deck I use in my beater vehicle, usually a pickup. It's a (made in California on or about 1988) Soundstream deck (SS was sold and is just another Asian car audio company today, but that was not always the case).

The Soundstream decks were about $400 when new, and were also known for an outstanding FM section. I will never get rid of it; it sounds too good. But it has DolbyC, so I picked up a deck to make tapes with that has DolbyC, A Nak CR2A.

I bought it from a Tape Duplicator (someone whose business is making the pre-recorded cassettes for Record companies), he was switching to dual decks and clearing out about 60 Naks at the time. I paid $200 for it almost 20 years ago. Because I got there early, I was able to choose from all the decks he had available, so I got one that had been recently serviced with new heads and new motors (he would replace those parts in the "fleet" based on hours).

 

Unfortunately I'm trying to unload it. Cost a fortune to have it serviced, and I'm finding nice working decks left and right for practically nothing. I'd love to have this up and running, but just can't justify the cost.

 

Back in the day, mid 80s, I ran a Nak TD-700 head unit with a Soundstream dual mono amp, Polk Audio coaxial speakers and a couple subs. The Nak sounded so sweet, dolby C and on the fly tape head alignment. I still have it but it no longer works. It still looks mint. I should get it looked at.

 

I had a copper chassis Sony mobile ES cassette head unit I put in years back in one of my cars. It had Dolby C that tracked my home tapes very well, sounded superb. I should've pulled it when I sold the car.

 

I have a Yamaha KX-1200u. The best sounding deck I have ever used. Makes a Sony HF-S cassette sound great. Has a frequency response of 20Hz to 20Khz on type one tape. one of the best recorders built.

 

My baby
And I Love it
free photo hosting

 

definitely one of the upper tier decks being made back in 1987-1993, $750 MSRP back then.

One just went for $400 in E Bay!

• HX Pro Dynamic Bias Servo
• Closed Loop Dual Capstan Mechanism
• Amorphous 3 Head
• RS
• ORBiT (Optimum Record Bias Tuning)

 

Nice! What model is that?

AIWA made quite a few great decks.

I have their XKS-9000, which was touted by audio testers to be THE BEST EVER MADE cassette deck when it hit the shelves back in the day.

I also have their AD-S950 deck. Both have Dolby S, and the AD-S950 although costing about 1/4 MSRP of the XKS-9000 sounds very, very good.

 

AIWA Excelia XK-009

 

Listening to mine right now. Sony tcRX60ES

 

. Love the Sony "Lasermorphous Heads". What does that even mean? And "Super Bias". Japanese cassette deck hype was so hilarious over the years.

 

Which one?

I have like 10 of them.

 

It's not hype:

"Amorphous Heads were the latest technology back in the 80's they are supposed to wear slower and last longer then any other types of heads. Also they have clearer highs and greater dynamic range then other head types. Many of the head manufacturers switched to amorphous heads.

Amorphous heads usually last longer than Sendust heads, and that means much longer than any Permalloy. Amorphous materials are supposed to be harder than are similarly composed crystalline materials too. Laser amorphous heads were cut with a laser precision, for better surface contact with the tapes. without laser it is extremely difficult to cut an amorphous material in a precise accuracy."


More on tape heads:
Is it all in your head? »

 

My lattest acquisition a Tascam 202 MKII, nothing special but at least it has HX PRO on it.

Best part of it is I got it free from my brother AND it has ZERO hours on it. He bought it years back to bounce some tapes and he never got around to using it, I visited him last weekaand he gave it to me.

 

Was doing some cleaning & moving stuff around down in the man cave last night, I ended up stacking up some components while rearranging things.

So, here's my stack of my "lower quality" decks, the "real good ones" are upstairs:

Top to bottom:
Tascam 202 MKII. Just got this thing free from my brother, brand new, he never used it, I doubt I will either.
Teac V 2020S, my cheapest Dolby S deck, it still sounds very good for the price.
Aiwa AD-S950, this budget Dolby S deck sounds outstanding considering it's original price.
Teac V-8030S, a very good Dolby S deck, easily the best sounding of this bunch.

I'll have to get a pic of the decks I have upstairs sometime, those are the really good ones.
2 Pioneer Elites, a CT 91 and a CT 93 which has Dolby S , and the best sounding deck in my house and certainly one of THE BEST cassette decks ever made, an Aiwa XK-S9000 Dolby S deck.

 

I have a k15 and need new belts. Do you know the belt sizes by chance? According to this Yamaha Cassette & CD Player Belts, Guaranteed 10 Years | Marrs Communications , the K series have the same size?

 

Sorry, I don't know. Check HiFi Engine, they may have the service manual for free download (after free registration) which may have these details. I haven't turned my Yamaha on for many years, I've been wondering about the state of my belts.