Oh to be free........:lol:
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Oh to be free........:lol:
.
Inspired by this thread I looked out my Sony TCK81 that I bought new only to record NOAA9 Satellite Telemetry. :kiss:
http://www.soundhifi.com/tck81.jpg
So the quest is, what blank tapes do I buy from eBay?
Regards
:bag:
Dave
Don't forget, folks, that Richer Sounds still sell TDK-SA 90 tapes with a web-price of £1.50 per tape with free delivery, if I remember correctly. For general use SA's are good value. I also have a few Maxell XLII-S unused from the early 90's. And TDK-SAX 60's are available on eBay for around £3 each. I a bit pricey, but OK for a try out.
I recently got hold of a few more unusual tapes which I'm planning on trying out in more 'controlled' comparisons. Some Maxell XL-I 90's, extremely well regarded Type I tapes, 'super-ferric' type formulation, cobalt coated apparently. Near-type Type IV performance on a good Nak I'm told. I've not verified this yet, but am looking forward to :) Also some Sony US-X Turbo Type II tapes, well regarded for their shell construction. And some BASF Maxima Type IV's. And some Maxell UR 90's, which I'm looking forward to trying. I guess my point is to look beyond the obvious ones, particularly if your machine has tune-able bias and eq. Buy individual tapes and try them out in your machine. See how they work for you.
Well, there I was thinking how lucky I was to still have a cassette deck. David Painter in June 2009 Hi Fi World says that although Noel Keywood said the Nackamichi CR7E was "the best of all" that "the Sony TCK-81 would give it a run for its money" :kiss:
But the TCK-81 doesn't have a direct drive motor. Worse than that I just bought a Technics RS-B965 that Alex isn't too fond of.......
http://www.soundhifi.com/965.jpg
So guys, what are the best cassette decks ever and why?
Regards
:bag:
Dave
Easy.
Tandberg TCD 910/911
"dolph"
You missed out the "why", Dolph :)
Marco.
Because it made me sell Nakamichi Dragon, CR7, ZX-9, ZX-1000, Revox B710/215 and all the other crap. (Oooops....kept a Revox for fun)
Because no other Cassette makes it possible to allign this precise for different tape formulations.
Because the sound of recordings and playback is the best.
Because it makes it possible to adjust recording input in analog peak reading after eq.
Because Dyneq and Actilinear recording beats the other NR and Headroom expanders (doesn't beat - just equals the real HX-Pro - not to mix up with the consumer crap Dolby HX).
Because you don't have the compatibility issues as you do with Nakamichi machines that stupidly tried to set own cassette head gap and Eq curve standards. What a faillure............
Because you have manual Rec head azimuth on the fly. And Azimuth of PB is protected to only being available with tools on the 910. Why fuzz around with PB Azimuth on a recording machine.
Azimuth on PB head is on a surface button and on the fly on TCD 911. (Only PB machine)
Because the functions are pro lined up.
Because the grap and release function is eliminating most irregularities in bad precision of the cassette shell and it's running gear.
Because dual capstan close loop with belt drive just makes everything sound better and W/F is NOT an audible issue at all as well as drive train noise from DD is gone.
I could continue almost forever but all of it is just STUPID ANSWERS because it's so obvious.
"dolph"
It's only "obvious" if you've had the experience. Thanks for the info - most interesting.
Marco.
Out of my 32 decks (including 4 Naks, thought not the top ones) I personally like Aiwa XK-S7000 best (and my guess is XK-S9000 should be even better) for both recording and playback, and Technics RS-M85 for playback duties. BTW, it is a myth about Nakamichi EQ - Naks were actually just following the standard properly, unlike many other manufacturers, and I have measurements to prove it. Many Japanese makes, including top Sony decks, Kenwood and others in the 80th, deliberately rolled off high frequencies in PB EQ by 2-4 dB, compensating in the recording EQ and gaining some S/N ratio this way. Nakamichi, Hitachi, Aiwa usually were very close to the standard PB EQ.
Alex
Denon's three head machines (OK, I know they're not quite in the top end of cassette machines) had a playback rise to 14KHz, after which they plummeted. Great for playing back old tired tapes and for "showroom appeal," but play back a Denon recorded cassette on a Nak and the result was awful.
I'm glad someone else said about the NAK playback curve. if it was so far out then Dolby wouldn't have used a Dragon playback eq as a reference for Dolby S, which, for the first time, gave decent noise reduction with the minimum of insertion loss (IMO) and consistancy from maker to maker.