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I love the idea of cassette decks, but after reading so
many tales of woa about constantly needing tune-ups and parts and alignments, would it not be more practicle for copying FM and
vinyl to use a highly rated CD recorder?
Follow Ups:
hi ==just to give you some tips ==i have 2 cassetts=and 2 reel to reels==over the lasty few years ive been putting tapes and vinyl on a vhs tape==at fast speed it rivals all my tape decks== thanks
Well, First of all archiving FM seems a little impractical. All the compression involved on FM broadcasts means a lot of boom and hiss no matter what you record on! I would agree that the cassette hardware is becoming more and more of a pain. As the hardware gets older there is more failure. But the medium(the tape itself)has proven to be very durable, much more so than people ever thought.I have an entirely different take on casual, fun, hands on recording that is also accurate and durable. Use MINIDISC! It's as much fun as recording to tape. It sounds exactly like it's source especially from analog sources. No wow and flutter or dropouts. It can later be transferred to CD, tape or whatever. The Minidisc medium is durable because it has it's own protective shell. It is the easiest medium to edit. You can move, delete, combine, or erase. It is a compressed format(ATRAC)but you honestly could never tell by the sound! Just stick in a minidisc and record. It will automatically track if there are gaps between songs or you can do it manually later. There is nothing else that offers the best features of any other recording medium in my opinion. I think we missed out when the minidisc failed to become a big item in the states. Good Luck! Franksta
Well, I know squat about minidisc's. How much record time
does it hold? I need two of whatever I go with in order to
wind up with full discs, tapes, etc. I'd have to spend another month researching the various brands and parts availability.
And I'm primarily interested in classical, which apparently
doesn't suffer to the extent of other formats. In the end,
I have to judge by what I hear, and FM sounds better than 50% of the CD's I have.
Thank's, guy's.
Wait till the blue ray standards settle (if they ever will???). Otherwise you just have to buy a new system. Of course marketers are banking on that. But yes, getting the signal to an optical medium is much more archivally safe for longer term. Magnetic tape suffers from binder failure, ie the magnetic oxide falls off. But CDs can get scratched.
"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
PANZER VI, no woes with a good machine, get a NAK 600, rehab it, IT'S BULLET PROOF AND WILL RUN FOREVER! I agree with bobp completely. I also have the same machine he does for a stand alone CD recorder, a great value but most of the time a real pain in the ass. I encounter 2 problems, 1) setting the level. Once you set it you better forget it. If you try to adjust during recording chances are the CD won't finalize, bummer, another coaster. 2) These machines are very susceptible to not recording good on CD-Rs that are more than 24X write speed, it even says so in the manual, yeah, where are going to find CD-Rs with a write speed of less than 48x or 52X. You can buy HHB media for about $1.00 or more each or MFSL Gold CD-Rs, 24X at about the same price. "WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK"
Ron,I am using both. Standalone CD recorder is great for transcribing vinyl and tapes but lousy for "taping" FM shows. My HHB 830 needs 18 seconds to get into stand by mode. Deck is as ready with a push of a button. Although the sound quality is fantastic, there is no joy in burning CDs like there is when you make the tapes.
Also, there is always risk that CD-R will not be finalized at the end of the recording and the recording is wasted. Then, digital audio is not forgiving for sound lever errors. If you go over Zero dB (comparable to +6db on VU) you go into AUDIBLE CLIPPING not merely distortion like analog tape.
For me, CD burning is a chore, making tapes is a pleasurable pastime, "whistle while you work".You can mix the two - first make tape for pleasure and then dump it to CD-R.
Please don't make me wrong, HHB 830 is one of the best audio purchases I have ever made.
Xactly Bobp.
Sitting around, pushing buttons, is not my idea of fun, or mixing, and thus, no joy. Segways and dubbing (mixing sounds from movies, TV, found sounds, etc...) and putting it all together so that it flows and rocks your sox, now that is ultimate fun!I also have a Nak 600, and as oldglide states, these old Naks are a lot more bulletproof than you might think. Sure, 25-30 year old gear needs a cleaning and lube on occasion, but I swear, this morning I was amping up my old Tandberg upright MKII, and that thing has more depth, balls, and bass stage than you could believe. I'd say it surpasses most "normal" CD players I've ever heard.
And that was a copy tape, from my Tandberg 3014 onto my Nak LX-5.
Analog brilliance. You can't replace it!If someone wants a CD mix, I'll take my tape mix and burn a CD through my Harmon Kardon digital recorder. Sounds terrific!
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