The Best Cassette Decks Ever? How do they compare to the Nak ZX-7?

[Alex Nikitin]

IMy past experience of Aiwa put me off.

My experience with cheaper Aiwa decks is quite similar to yours and I would not touch them. However the top of the range machines are something quite special if set up properly. I suspect that whoever designed them was not completely deaf (as apparently was the case with many other Japanese brands) .

Alex

[Spectral Morn]

My experience with cheaper Aiwa decks is quite similar to yours and I would not touch them. However the top of the range machines are something quite special if set up properly. I suspect that whoever designed them was not completely deaf (as apparently was the case with many other Japanese brands) .

Alex

I agree the 007 and 009 were very good, but they went faulty too. The cheaper Aiwas were crap IMHO/E. At the time the two worst brands we dealt with were Aiwa and Philips later to be followed by Micromega stage series cdp oh boy they redefined the word faultyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.


Regards D S D L

[Beechwoods]

I took receipt of a Studer A710 today - plugged it in and it sounds amazing! Tried a couple of pre-rec tapes and they sound great, but a DAT> Maxell XL-II of a band I used to help out with in the early 90's sounds just fantastic. And build-quality? It weighs a ton! And the transport is quiet as anything... I need to do a head to head vs my ZX-7. Hopefully I'll get the chance on the weekend to crank it all up a bit.

I'll also try and get some updated pictures for my Gallery post...

[symon]

Nice. Glad it worked out and sounds great. Looking forward to some pics.

[jandl100]

Advice required.
Moved to a separate thread.

[TheMooN]

I took receipt of a Studer A710 today - plugged it in and it sounds amazing! Tried a couple of pre-rec tapes and they sound great, but a DAT> Maxell XL-II of a band I used to help out with in the early 90's sounds just fantastic. And build-quality? It weighs a ton! And the transport is quiet as anything... I need to do a head to head vs my ZX-7. Hopefully I'll get the chance on the weekend to crank it all up a bit.

I'll also try and get some updated pictures for my Gallery post...

Did you manage to find time for your proposed shootout Nick ?

[Jason P]

Apropos nothing, save for the mention of Aiwa - I had an Aiwa walkman. It had a 3-band EQ on the front, and fed with TDK SAs or Thats chrome tape, with a pair of Sennheiser headphones, it sounded bloody wonderful!! I was amazed at the quality of the playback considering it cost all of £50.

Must dig out my Pro Walkman (WMD6) and see if it still works. Must also test the Denon DRM 44HX I got the other day... nice looking deck, but dunno much else about it.

Jason

[Beechwoods]

Must dig out my Pro Walkman (WMD6) and see if it still works. Must also test the Denon DRM 44HX I got the other day... nice looking deck, but dunno much else about it.

Ooh do do that. The WMD6 was a nice machine, albeit the batteries meant it could be a bit flaky on speed stability... give it a mains feed and it could better a lot of standalone decks.

Did you manage to find time for your proposed shootout Nick ?

I did. At least a bit of time. I need to do some more listening and to a greater variety of tapes. My initial impression is that the Nak is more analytical and the Studer slightly warmer - a tad less at the top but a richer bottom-end. If I were doing a blind test I'd say the A710 sounded more pleasing, due to that fuller low-end but I think the Nak is probably more faithful to the signal on the tape. I've not tried recording on it yet. I am extremely pleased I got it, and think it compliments the Nak more than detracts or betters...

Following Alex's example I purchased an extremely cheap Technics RS-M85 which may need some work to bring up to full performance. It's only a two-head deck, but I'm interested in playback more than record, so another interesting time ahead!

[Beechwoods]

I've had a chance to spend some time with my new acquisition now and that early assessment is still about right. Given the absolutely rock-solid transport, and speed stability of the Studer, I'm pretty sure its working within spec. My only other finding is that the Studer 'does' hiss in a slightly different way to the Nak - more broadband. I know that if it were my only deck I would be very pleased, but the Nak does have the edge, albeit slight. Pound per sound though I think the Studer is an extremely good purchase. I paid £220 for my Studer, and I consider that great value.

[Alex Nikitin]

I've had a chance to spend some time with my new acquisition now and that early assessment is still about right. Given the absolutely rock-solid transport, and speed stability of the Studer, I'm pretty sure its working within spec. My only other finding is that the Studer 'does' hiss in a slightly different way to the Nak - more broadband. I know that if it were my only deck I would be very pleased, but the Nak does have the edge, albeit slight. Pound per sound though I think the Studer is an extremely good purchase. I paid £220 for my Studer, and I consider that great value.

Hi Nick,

I thought that I would answer here and not on the Tapeheads forum as it is a bit off-topic there.

The most important feature in a deck playback performance for me is a raw resolution - how much of the ambience of a recording is resolved. On a good recording it could show itself as a proper projection of space, including depth and hight. On a lesser deck the sonic picture is flatter, less natural, sounds more as a recording. Instruments are less "real".

My top (sonically) deck at the moment - Aiwa XK-S7000 is very good in this respect. Out of all my collection so far only a recently acquired Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1 (quite surprisingly) comes close to the 7000 and Technics RS-M88 and RS-M85 are not far behind. If I would make a scale from 1 to 10 in playback quality terms and take the Aiwa XK-S7000 performance for 10, some of my decks I've listened to recently will be marked by me as follows:
Nak CD1 would make 9,
Technics RS-M88/85 about 8.5 ,
followed by Sony TC-K75 with 8,
Aiwa AD-WX999, Sony TC-K81, TC-K555, TC-K555ESII, Denon DR-M44HX, Nak BX-300 and CD1.5, Hitachi D-909, Akai CS-M02 will share 6 to 7 and modified Revox B215 will make it to the same mark.
Unmodified it is roughly on 5, together with Aiwa AD-F910, Akai GX-6, Sony TC-K677ES.

That is strictly my personal and subjective opinion . I can add that all decks were serviced and aligned before listening and while some difference in the sound quality could be attributed to variances in a tonal balance as a result of different playback responses, the quality I am looking for is not directly affected by this and usually clear despite these variations.

Cheers

Alex