My favourite Nak was an ZX-9 , however my favourite 'cassette ' machine is my Sony Elcaset EL-7
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xDSYjTKBRYI
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My favourite Nak was an ZX-9 , however my favourite 'cassette ' machine is my Sony Elcaset EL-7
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xDSYjTKBRYI
I had a Cambridge cassette player for very long time and thought it was great. It was one of these:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...013897cbec.jpg
I believe it was built by NAD for Cambridge.
However I brought a Nakamichi DR-3 (2 head) player a few years ago for a ridiculously cheap price on ebay (less than £50). I had thought I'd never be able to afford a Nak! It's very much at the bottom end of the Nak range but I was still amazed at how much better it was than the Cambridge.
The Cambridge has long gone, but the Nak is still in my number two system in my Office/Study. It's now mainly used to play audio books, that I have a large collection of - built up over the years I worked as a Pre-Sale engineer and was therefore on the road a lot. There is no cassette player in my main system. Oh and my minidisc player is in the number two system too (it's where my old hi-fi goes to die)
To be honest - the main problem nowadays is getting decent blank cassette at a reasonable price. There are companies still making them (an example), but the prices for old stock chrome cassette seem ridiculous to me.
Yes poor tape is a problem, last year I bought some NOS TDK SA 90s but it wasent great and does not Bias evenly between the channels I also bough some Sony tape which was also not consistent at all frequency's, this was frustrating for me as I was trying to calibrate the Bias & record levels of my deck :scratch:, I have good calibration tapes so I know the deck is OK on playback.
The best tape stock I got that really sounded good was the Maxell LXII, this is wonderful tape :).
I have had several Cassette decks over the years and still have a Nak BX150e which is just OK, Ive allways thought of Cassette as a substandard but very likable sound, until I bought a knackered Tascam 122 mk2, after fixing that I have to say the sound quality is very good indeed and I have started using it again :eyebrows:
Tape hiss is still a problem with Cassette and I do not like what any type of Dolby does to tape so I dont use it.
There is something about the sound of tape to me that just makes it the ultimate analogue format IMO particularly from R2R
Alan
I still have my Sony Deck - I think it was the highest in their range at the time. It was next to impossible to tell the difference between a tape and a CD from which the tape had been made.
I also bought a Sherwood deck for my dad and that was similar. Indeed on some types of music it did sound just a tad better.
I agree that on the whole tape was fairly poor - but then we had all the usual - portables, Walkman etc. which grabbed the tape, chewed the tapes up, loads of tape hiss.
Having said that, we still use a tape player for listening to speech tapes.
If I find time in the next day or so I'll do a photo of my Sony deck.
I didn't get into Mini Disc until very late in the day. I have heard lots of Mini Discs since (bought off eBay) and most don't compare with the sound I expected from my cassette deck - though that could be because of the material which was recorded.
Tape can be great and you don't need a Nak to explote it. There are many good decks and with the right tapes you can make great recordings that are of very high quality. There are good decks around for good prices some may need a bit of work but, there are plenty of parts around on the net if you look .
Still use my technics direct drive top loader to play tapes. Why would I want to record anything from vinyl or cd when I have the vinyl and/or cd. It got plenty of attention at Scalford a couple of years ago when audio al loaned me some speakers......don't ask.