What's up with the open face cassette decks?? Studer? Revox??

I've been checking out getting another cassette deck lately. I really dig those older, freaked out Revox machines, but I have a question. What is the reason for the lack of a plastic cover where the tape goes? Isn't it bad to expose the heads constantly to open air, dust, and who knows what else??

 

Probably some attempt to eliminate resonances in the typical plastic cassette doors but more likely they were removed in the name of the all mighty style god.



IIRC some of those decks like the Pioneer CTF-1250, hard movable covers which went over the heads when the deck was not in use.


cheerio

 

Listening to the Pioneer CT-F900 as I type. A three-head unit with the same dust cover as seen above. Sounds absolutely outstanding to me.

 

Hey! That's my old tape deck.

Didn't Nakamichi have an open-faced model as well at one point in time?

 

Easier access for cleaning?

We have Marantz units that come with a removable cover for the cassette well. I suspect we're typical, in that it gets removed and never replaced. By leaving it off altogether, perhaps they just beat us to the punch!

 

Professional reel to reel machines (2 track to 24 track) don't have covers over their heads either. Of course we clean the heads before every use.

 

Sansui cassette decks of the late 70s used the same open design.

 

Re: Re: What's up with the open face cassette decks?? Studer? Revox??

Is there any specific reason or sonic benefit to justify this open face design on a standard cassette deck??