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In Reply to: RE: New to the Tape Scene posted by Mkanke on March 10, 2013 at 11:37:13
No. Those portable tape recorder/players are ok for speech, but pretty mediocre for music with any fidelity. It is not even stereo. The market for component quality stereo cassette decks has really collapsed over the past bunch of years and pretty good stereo decks have been available at virtually give away prices at yard sales and thrift stores etc. You really do want to find a good quality component stereo cassette deck from a name brand maker like sony, JVC, Harman/Kardon, Technics, etc. or even Nakamichi.
The tips on that superuser.com site you linked seem like good ones, and I would follow them. I would definitely agree that whatever tape deck you get, you would most likely get better results by recording from your computer output to the line input of your tape deck rather than to the microphone inputs. Ideally you would connect the line output of your computer into an input of a stereo amplifier or receiver to which you also have connected a stereo cassette deck you can record onto. Otherwise, you can go from your computer output directly to the line input of your cassette deck using a cable that has a stereo minijack on one end and two RCA plugs on the other. Then you can monitor and set levels on your cassette deck using headphones. (Most cassette decks have a headphone jack, often with it's own volume control.) Even mix tapes that you intend to play on those little portable tape players, old school boom boxes or even cassette walkmen will sound better if you first record them on a good quality cassette deck.
Good luck, and have fun.
--Matt
If cutting out the middleman lowers the price, why are we paying the government to stand between us and the markets?
Follow Ups:
Great thanks for the info so I didn't go and buy that piece that wouldn't work for what I'm doing.
Any advice on brands or better yet model numbers I should be looking for to get a decent deck?
And the best of the Japanese decks, except for Nakamichi, were the Harman/Kardons. They had pretty good transports, excellent switches and meters (LEDs), and they used Dolby HXPro which is an encode-only system that results in *noticeably* better sounding tapes. And that better sound is realized on any deck that plays back the tapes. BTW, the HX in HXPro stands for Headroom Extension. Google it and get the details.
The very best sounding decks, IMHO, were the B&Os and the Tandbergs. B&O was one of the inventors of Dolby HXPro and their 9000 series decks made astonishingly good tapes. It took a keen ear indeed to tell the source from the tape providing you used a top quality tape like Maxell, TDK, or Denon chromes or metals. IMHO, Denon made the very best sounding tape with Maxell 2nd and TDK a close 3rd.
The Tandberg decks were a close second to B&O, their ActiLinear system is somewhat akin to HXPro. The Tandberg TCD-340 and TCD-440 would make awesomely good tapes. And nobody but nobody had a deck that could rewind or fast fwd a tape faster than the Tandbergs, they were *blazing*.
The Naks were also *very* good decks. But Naks were known to use a slightly different biasing scheme from all others so that a tape made on a Nak should be played back on a Nak. It's not like it will sound bad on another brand, but the best playback quality is realized by using a Nak for playback.
-RW-
As I said, not many people have been wanting good quality cassette decks lately (maybe that'a changing?) so they have been numerous and very cheap. Unfortunately, that also means that they have been sitting, and that's not good for the rubber pieces like belts and rollers. I would be looking at yard sales, thrift stores, and among your friends and family to see what's kicking around. I would be looking for decks from all the major Japanese brands (Sony, Onkyo, Akai, JVC, Pioneer, Kenwood etc,) or from more specialty deck makers like Nakamichi and Teac. At this point, specific models aren't as important as the condition of the deck; how the belts are, etc. because you probably don't want to get into the hassle of repair, you just want something that works. In general, fancy features like double cassette capability, and auto reverse are not as important, you want good sound quality first. And in general, a two or 3 motor deck is better than just a single motor, and 3 heads are better than 2.
good luck,
--Matt
If cutting out the middleman lowers the price, why are we paying the government to stand between us and the markets?
Take care when you buy a (used) tape deck, as it could be worn out beyond repair and spare parts are very rare. Also take care when connecting a modern amp with the sound card of your computer, as the ones that have earthed receptacles being connected with the computer can form a ground loop. better connect the tape deck directly and "eliminate the middleman" (the amp). I have a Denon DR-M20, which I bought slightly used from my stereo dealer, but something broke in the transmission mechanism, but he could find a spare part out of his own stock and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. I can't wait to give it a spin. It's a 3 head 3 motor, back in the day it would cost 1200 euros but I bought it only for 300.
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