The greatest consumer cassette tape deck ever produced?*

I sold it along time ago to the actors on ebay. I bought it at a swapmeet long ago for 10 bucks so I got 5 . I just saw it on the internet and they were selling for $250.00 so I got rid of it.....

 

Hey John,
how far are you from the Fluxion amp company? I guess he lives somewhere Toronto....

 

Ah. Well I guess if it is calibrated to one's need for recording, then this seems the CR-7 can count as having both functions. Cool.

 

Take note. A man who knows his tape machines.

 

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$5. No way!

 

I have no idea. Who are the Fluxion Amp company?

 

Funny! It was a 10 band EQ. No heads Bubba.

 

You have done this with he new 24/44.1 Beatle files I assume. Transfering them to cassette to give them a more analog sound?

 

I don't think he does "peaks." But if you mean a speculation for repair. As in "What needs to be done" probably $150 including shipping.
Don't be afraid to bit the bullet and just have him fix it. Nak techs are a dime a dozen but there is only one Willy Herman.

 

Fluxion is based in Hamilton, west of Toronto. Fluxion sells tube amps, tube preamps, tube integrated amps, tube everything. All of the rear panels state Made in Canada. Fluxion does not appear to have a web site. The company has an active Canuckaudiomart page though with a dozen or more listings, and the company owner also maintains a YouTube channel.

I haven't heard any Fluxion products yet. Too many amps/preamps/integrated amps, not enough time.

 

Yo.




M~

 

??
reel player or interface?
I do it now on interface 192,000sample rate and freaking amazing.
I did it on the reel then cassette and the sound is more 3d. infact above 20khz. I'm not sure exactly what. Next time I'll measure it.
using the right tape matching your cassette is another big ingredient. In my opinion the nakamichi 480 up to the BX series sounds great of the TDK high output type I. I like the sound of the scotch chrome than the maxell chrome. I'm not saying its better. Its just a personal preference. Maybe my settings and speakers has a lot to do with it. The music separation and details can be digital but the output is really warm modern-analog sound especially the 480 decks sounds more analog to me.
When I record in any of the 2 method and I crank it all the way to the max before distortion, on playback the speaker sounds theyre gonna pop-out due to the dynamic intense. Its unreal. I couldn't be more happy.

 

OMG.... I was trying to buy some maxell reel tapes. How could they refurbish a used one..? A lot of academy awards best actor on-line seller...

 

It would have been great to have auto azimuth on mainstream brands.

 

Noted. Thanks.

 

I'm kinda surprised auto azimuth on playback didn't become a standard thing, given the poor quality of pre-recorded tapes, some of which presumably was due to azimuth issues, as well as issues playing back tapes recorded on different decks.

That and dual-capstans, where the leading one is slightly larger than the trailing one, to keep the tape under constant light tension and pull it away from the pressure spring & pad. Did Nak invent that as well? Or was it existing tech brought over from open reel decks?

With all the love turntables get, it would be great if somebody released a modern tape deck, optimized for the playback and preservation of cassettes. It doesn't even need to support recording - tape is getting hard to come by, anyhow. I'm assuming you could use magneto-resistive heads of the kind DCC utilized - which were built using photolithography like a computer chip - since I doubt anybody could make high-quality conventional heads today. I guess my wishlist would be:

• MR head, including a component capable of capturing the bias signal
• Dual capstan
• Auto-azimuth (maybe controlled by locking onto the bias signal and adjusting until it's maximized?)
• 32-bit DSP used to implement:
  • Dolby B NR decoding
  • Dolby C NR decoding
  • SuperANRS decoding
  • High Com decoding
  • dbx decoding
  • wow & flutter correction (by locking onto the bias signal)
  • manual / automatic pitch correction (by locking onto the bias signal)
  • hiss reduction
• HDMI, TOSLINK, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, with support for up to high-res 24-bit, 192kHz output on connections where that's possible
• SD Card slot for recording unattended backups in FLAC or ALAC format, up to 24-bit, 192kHz
• Autoreverse playback
• High-speed playback to support rapid archiving of lower-quality tapes
• Remote control / app control

 

The pain is though you need a rec head that is already properly calibrated. It's simply matching the play head with the rec head, but if you rec head is off your tape won't play back right on any other machine. Where as with manual adjustable rec head knobs like on the Tanbergs, it can be used to record, and with the three heads you can listen while you are recording and make easy adjustments to the rec head. You can't do that the other way around. It's a lot easier to listen and properly calibrate a play head by screw than it is the rec head. You only need a test tape and play by ear, where as with the rec head you need to learn how to use an oscilloscope. Different cassette shells require different azimuths when recording. This makes the ZX-7 and ZX-9 much better options for recording.

 

You left out Dolby S decoding!

 

Oh, yeah, Dolby S. Although that one might be more difficult. Is it still protected by patents?

 

To be honest, if I had a CR-7, once the record head was properly calibrated by a local pro, I'd not touch it just so I could reliably play with the playback azimuth. Does it move out of alignment all that often? I like the idea of the CR-7 a lot. I just don't particularly love it even though I'd like to. My failing, I'm sure, as it's a monster of a deck and quite handsome. ZX-7 is fine for me for now.

 

If the tape's path and track(s) is/are not precisely perpendicular to the recording head (or at its best angle to it) as we know, you will have reduced fidelity in the recording process. Many cassettes had 'variable' QC when it comes to cassette shells and the mounting of tape within them. As a result, being able to vary the recording head azimuth for the tape in your deck when ready to record was a good thing. For that reason rec az adjustment was more popular and useful than variable play. Also with headwear it might be necessary to readjust the azimuth after some time. Impossible with the CR-7A.

 

That's a very good topic.. and quite true. For someone like myself that doesn't have that feature, its a must and one of the reason why I try to stay in 1 batch or brand., finish it before I move to the next one. There were season that I try to record atleast 1-c90 per day., or may be 2 days the most. Its not just my settings are consistent even the optimal sound playback dues to the recording is consistent.

 

Yeah tbh, if I had my pick to have chosen a cassette comeback or vinyl I would have preferred cassette every time. It would be incredible if manufactures were able to produce a HiFi deck in the 21st century made in Japan, and tape manufactures started making metal tape again. I'd gladly pay thousands of dollars for one to show up at my door, the same cost you end up putting into complete restoration of these old Naks by the time you are done with them.

The era of the audiophile cassette decks were way too short lived. Beginning in the mid 70's and over by the early to mid 80's. Before you knew it DATs and PCM took over. By the late 80's the cassette format was relegated to cheap car decks, boomboxes, and portable players. You have to remember that Dolby S is now over 30 years old. Imagine how advanced cassettes would be today if the technology had not stopped being improved and developed by companies like Dolby.

 

I can't see there being much of a market for cassette decks with record capability, especially since metal tape isn't available anymore. But there must be a market for decks that could transfer material off of cassette at high-quality, and largely unattended. Maybe the ideal deck would be a playback-only, auto-reverse changer with the features I outlined above, making it easy to rip a bunch of tapes fairly quickly.

 

Interesting that you say that. In my perception, cassette decks peaked in the late 90s. And DAT never took over in the consumer realm, much less PCM. What killed cassette was CD burners and MP3 towards the tail end of the 90s and early 2000s. Am I the only one who sees it that way?