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To All:I have seen the construction of some of the great vintage
3 head cassette decks by Nak, JVC, Akai, Sony, etc.; many of
which had first rate transports (particularly a few of the
Naks)and overall good+ or better electronics and build.But by true high end standards ( FR4 circuit boards, ground
planes, discreet high performance record/play circuits, discreet
high performance power supplies for various circuit sections, true high end resistors & capacitors, best wiring & pots, anti-resonant chassis, and other tweeks) these decks were not really fully to the standards that are seen in top notch (very expensive) equipment.The question is, using some of the very best cassette tapes that
have been marketed in the past, what do you all think is the true
potiential of the cassette medium if a deck were built at the top
of todays technical standards, and using the best Nak heads and
transport of the past?
Follow Ups:
If you are concerned about quality you wouldn't even consider the compact cassette. It's simply a convenience issue and proof that the fumbled fingered outnumber the nimble fingered. The faster you move tape and the wider the tape track, the higher the quality. You don't reduce noise you just psychoacousticlly mask noise. The noise is still there.Ray Hughes
"I take you as you are
And make of you what I will,
Skunk-bear, carcajou, bloodthirsty
Non-survivor.
Lord, let me die but not die out." THE LAST WOLVERINE by James Dickey
Man.I've enjoyed a lot of music thanks to compact cassette. It certanly lowered the sound quality of it. But, in the end there was no other way to record and carry the music anywhere. One can perfectly have 200 hours of music in a medium box in his house, that can be heard in just seconds
Comparing it with bigger tapes, I think it has evolutionated much more and has been perfected during its history to a point where no one could in its beginning dream of.
The inmmense number of models from many brands show how important has the medium been.
Just a series of engineering compomises.
That enabled music to be portable for the fist time. How many 8 track walkmans did you ever see!
It was never meant to be "audiophile" but thanks to the efforts of the likes of Sony and Mr Nakamichi it came close to providing quite good Hi-Fi. Not as good as an LP but you cant carry a pink triangle or mitchel in your pocket.
Lets not forget its 40yr old technology.
I've had many pleasurable hours listening to very good sounding tapes on my Nak & TASCAM decks.
My mid vintage Nakamichi 682ZX can play back high end tapes and tapes recorded on good tape esp metal without overt detection by my (by some of your standards) mid fi system. And it sounds pretty near to real instruments and voices and space.And I got it 2nd hand in 1987 in excellent but not mint shape, no change almost since then with very careful handling and usage by me.
To ALL:The question I posted in this thread was just a "what if"
when considering the advances in parts, wire, and designs.
It was not in any way intended to be truely critical of
the existing decks out there - I myself have a 1980's modified
3 head/3 motor full logic Sony deck that makes excellent
copies of my CDs. But I also think that by todays top high
end standards that most of the super decks of the past are
probably a bit behind current capabilities, if someone were
to design a very expensive unit ($ 3-5K ).
agree with your sentiment, but it would cost 4k or so and would require tape which could keep up. I agree also with kingseiko, always astute on this forum.
I think the problem with cassette medium is not the electronic but the limitation of that narrow tape and slow speed of the medium. The FR-4 is not going to make much difference in the 20-20KHz range of audio signal compared with the pcb materials that have been used so far in all thest decks. Audiophile grade metal film resistors and capacitors might help some but the big problem is still the first two items that I have mentioned in the beginning.
I think the mid to high end deck's of 20-30 years ago are/where far far superior than any of the Mass Market Digital crap that's being made today.Hate to say it but we (The mass population)are getting more lazy as time goes on,maybe it's because we work to many hours and try to cram 34 Hours worth of running around into a 24 Hour day instead of taking time out to relax and enjoy our gear.The days of great analog decks are gone in lieu of junk like Ipods and Mp3 players and CD burners and not because they sound better (Cause they don't)but they are quicker and more convienient.Sure manufactures "could" make a killer high end cassette deck today but at what cost,and who would buy it .0001% of the population?And just like we pray for tape company's like Maxell and TDK to reintoduce there best tapes,it will never happen (Sigh)so keep praying and dreaming just like i do,hey everyone has to have a dream right?
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