Jump to content

Any cassette fans out there????


Guest

Recommended Posts

Mark, I know this is not AR, but Pleeez keep this post here, in the event I might get some takers. I value the opinions/interests of the "AR" forum!

But I digress. Anyone still listen heavily to cassettes? High end decks? High end blanks?

I am stocking up on the high end stuff while I can---10 Sony Metal Masters(cool $12 apiece(I paid) and upppppp(eBay) since discontinuation), Maxell MX-S, and I just placed an order for a brick of Fuji FR Metal 90's. Anyone needs help finding high end blanks, let me know, as it has been harder and harder to find really good stuff. I have searched exhaustively for days, but I have some sources left. Some of these people really gotta start updating websites before they take orders for items they haven't had in more than a year!!!!

I love my cassette deck, and plan on a purchase of a Sony TC-KA3ES deck in the next year or two. I have a TC-K615S 3 head with Dolby S right now. Dolby S would have saved the cassette had it been introduced earlier.

Who else is putting the sweet analog cassette sound through their AR's??

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

YES! I'ver long been into quality, high end audio cassette decks. In fact I still have a few really legendary models like Nakamichi's Dragon model, a 1988 Revox, a H/K model and a model made by Kyocera back in 1986.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Barrydor

I owned a Nakamichi LX-5 for many years. I traded my Tandberg open reel recorder for it even before I got my AR9s, so it must have been about 1976. I used it extensively, usually with metal master tapes, for many years to record borrowed LPs, memorable radio broadcasts and concerts.

A few years ago, it reached the end of its useful life and needed major repairs, so I replaced it with a Sony K707ES. I later regretted this decision after I spoke to a friend who is still using his LX-3. The Sony does a great job nonetheless. I suspect that with advances in electronics and materials, the Sony machine is technically and sonically on par with the old Nakamichi.

There was once a Sony factory outlet store near me which kept a garbage can full of clearance blank cassettes in the store. They used to get a little annoyed with me when I tipped the can over to get to the metal master cassettes, but I got a great deal on them. Right now, I have about ten Sony and TDK metal blanks left.

Now that I have a Harmon Kardon CD burner in the system, my days of recording cassettes are probably numbered. I still listen to the hundred or so favorite cassettes I have recorded or acquired, including several hours of the Preservation Hall New Orleans jazz concert series.

A good cassette deck always has been and still is a part of my system. I often demonstrate the deck to friends and they cannot believe they are listening to a tape. A well-recorded cassette sounds truly great.

Barry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I'm not alone!!! Awesome.

Actually, I also have high end Clarion cassette decks in my car(s). That was my main reason for having the home deck, was to create tapes for the car use. I could do CD's in my changer, and I do, but there is something about the "mystery" of popping in a period tape I made(fraternity days, broke up with a girlfriend, etc.). I just listened to one I made in 1991(my days in Delta Sigma Phi), and couldn't believe how good it sounded. I remember how many CD's I borrowed from my fellow brothers to make the tapes!! I don't label the songs on any tapes, I like to be surprised.

A high end car deck with Dolby C or even a cheaper one with Dolby B and good speakers is a pleasant listen. I have contacted Dolby about upgrading my car decks to Dolby S, they maintain it is not possible. Dunno if it was a blow-off or if it is really true.

I too, like Barrydor, love to show people how good cassettes can sound when they think they're really listening to CD's. I experiment a lot, and have extracted just about everything the home deck will do, I hope the ES will not disappoint me. I love the 3 head deck's monitoring capabilities. Just gotta take good care of the tape heads, and you're golden. I wish they all had fine azimuth adjustments like the Nak's.

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've owned a (used) Nakamichi 1000 and an Advent cassette deck - both were really well-designed products from either end of the price spectrum. The little Advent actually outlasted the Nakamichi, which was sold when it was on the verge of costly repairs. A couple of years ago, I transferred all of my favorite tapes to CD, and now just use the cassette slot in my truck as a way to hook up my Archos MP3 player!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I still use them, but not for critical listening. I have, and HAVE had some real sweetheart machines. Best of the bunch was a Teac A-700. I got it around '88, and it lasted till about last year. Paid $100 for it. When you pressed play and the motor engaged, it sounded like a car door slamming. NICE machine. How I found a Nakamichi 581 in the original box w/owners manual in a thrift shop for $10 I'll never know, BUT I DID! Mint condition! Used it for a couple yrs and sold it. It sounded SO good, somebody walked in here a couple yrs ago, heard it playing, and figured I had finally broke down and bought a DVD player! Somebody left a Nak LX-3 on my desk at work. That was nice. It died after about 5 yrs.

Right now, as part of my home theater rig, I have a Pioneer CT-650. I use it because it's the best sounding auto-reverse machine I have. At work I have an Onkyo TA something or other. Also a nice machine. My handicapped daughter has a Toshiba PC-X20 in her room. The other daughter wants NO cassette machine.

Other cool machines I have around here are an Advent 201 that still works fine, and a Pentagon multiple cassette player. This Pentagon is a cool item. Built like a tank, you stick 4 cassettes in it, and it plays both sides of each one in sequence. Eject #1, and #2 immediately starts playing. So on and so forth. I also have lots of real small cassette decks, some no bigger than a hardcover book.

The first REAL piece of hi-fi I ever bought, was a Vivitar cassette deck, around 1968. Long deceased.

Cassettes are okay with me, because you can literally find tons of music at thrift shops, yard sales etc., for about a dime a cassette. Sometimes a nickel if you finesse it just right. Okay for CASUAL listening, or experimenting with new types of music. Why buy the cd right away?

George

Link to comment
Share on other sites

George:

I'm only 31, but I remember a cassette deck like the Pentagon you mentioned(dunno where), but it was like a 70's or 80's cassette changer. Boy I bet those are RARE!

Trust me, the cassette still has a last gasp in the Sony TC-KA3ES I mentioned above. Even my current 3 head deck has not disappointed. With the self-recorded high end blanks, I sometimes don't touch CD's for days at a time. Now with the poor weather and being on vacation, I listen at least 8 hours a day to the stereo in my "listening room"(the basement) with such clarity I can walk up and down the stairs and it's just a bit quieter upstairs, that's all.

I'll tell ya, I bought a Parasound PHP-850 pre with no bells/whistles, but boy did it bring out the sounds in my music!! Bare bones is great if they spend the money on the stuff that REALLY counts.

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pioneer made a six cassette changer for awhile. We had two of them at the radio station where I deejayed. The last thing I did at the end of my shift (11:00PM), was load up six C-90 cassettes, and announce the beginning of "Music Through the Night". Cassette #6 was USUALLY still going strong at 6AM when real humans came back into the studio.

Bell & Howell also made a cassette CAROUSEL about a million yrs ago as well. I'm pretty sure it was a carousel. I'm positive it was a changer, again 6 cassettes or more. In later yrs, Carver may have even made one.

I really spiffed up my classical cd collection because of cassettes. It's easier to buy used classical cassettes for cheap, than to try and pay attention at the end of the pieces on the classical fm stations that remain. This way, if I like a particular piece by a particular composer or orchestra, the name of everything is right at hand. Then I purchase the cd based on THAT info, and not the info provided by a feeble memory.

As far as durability, well they're not great. Although, my Dad did give me 6 pre-recorded cassettes for my 16th birthday. To coincide with my purchase of the Vivitar cassette deck. I still have two of them, never spliced, and they still work fine. Rolling Stones "Between the Buttons", and an album by "The Electric Prunes"!

George

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...