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

[StanleyB]

I was lucky enough to work for a comapny that sold a nice range of equipment, including some great cassette decks. Anyone remebers Lasky's.
My top decks, bought with my staff discounts were:
Aiwa AD=6900MKII
Hitachi D-5500M
Pioneer CT-90R

The Pioneer was particularly impressive and I always rated it above the Nakamichi Dragon.

[Beechwoods]

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

One of these days I will get to hear a fully taken-care of XK-S7000 Thanks for your response, and bringing it here too. I need to take some time with my Techie M85. I'm not getting what I believe it can do out of it. While it works OK, it's veiled vs my other decks, And more specifically the speed is a bit fluttery. I'd imagine this is where sorting the flywheel comes in, and replacing the caps

It's difficult to compare decks - the decks I've experienced so far are different to those you have and I suspect that the Revox B215 and Studer A710 don't necessarily compare. Just as the Nak ZX-7 and Cassette Deck 1 may not... until we manage to get a bunch of decent deck in the same room it'll remain a matter for subjectivity and personal experience it won't stop us seeking audio nirvana though will it?

Cheers!

[Alex Nikitin]

One of these days I will get to hear a fully taken-care of XK-S7000 Thanks for your response, and bringing it here too. I need to take some time with my Techie M85. I'm not getting what I believe it can do out of it. While it works OK, it's veiled vs my other decks, And more specifically the speed is a bit fluttery. I'd imagine this is where sorting the flywheel comes in, and replacing the caps

It's difficult to compare decks - the decks I've experienced so far are different to those you have and I suspect that the Revox B215 and Studer A710 don't necessarily compare. Just as the Nak ZX-7 and Cassette Deck 1 may not... until we manage to get a bunch of decent deck in the same room it'll remain a matter for subjectivity and personal experience it won't stop us seeking audio nirvana though will it?

Cheers!

Nick,

It looks like your RS-M85 has got a trouble with the mech. On my 85/88 the W&F is very low - probably in the area of 0.07% DIN. It is very likely that an idler tyre causing it, or the DD motor itself. I had to clean the tyre and roughen it with a bit of sandpaper to get it to work properly on my units. It is not that difficult to get to - just remove the screen behind the tape compartment (4 small screws) and there it is. It is possible to remove the idler without much further disassembling. Also my Technics RS-M88/85 decks took some time to run in - probably they weren't powered for quite a while. You also need to clean all the signal switches, especially the record switch inside with a contact cleaner spray. That is probably a minimum requirement .

Cheers

Alex

[David Price]

I have to say that this is all a bit academic, as we can't rewind to 1979 (or whenever) and buy new factory-fresh perfectly set up examples, tragically!

A Nak CR-7 is still a very good bet, simply because Bowers & Wilkins in the UK have lots of parts to rebuild them with, and all the perishable rubber bits upon which the deck's performance depends. They also have all the set-up manuals etc. so they can get them very close to 'new' again. They're about the only people who can offer this service in the UK for cassette decks, when you take into account a large supply of New Old Stock factory replacement parts.

I've found the CR-7 (B&W rebuilt at a cost of £250) to be one of the very best decks around. A couple of Sony direct drives had better transports but worse heads. The CR-7's only issue is the rather dry sounding record/replay electronics. Methinks Alex or Dave could give one of those a very nice work over with Black Gates, et al. Would love to hear one fettled like this one day...

[Dave Cawley]

I sold my CR7, just didn't like it, but it wasn't a good one anyway, been around the block... . But how about a Revox B-215, new and different sendust head and a completely new set of electronics on new PCB's. Simply the very ultimate? P.O.A..

Regards

Dave

[Spectral Morn]

I sold my CR7, just didn't like it, but it wasn't a good one anyway, been around the block... . But how about a Revox B-215, new and different sendust head and a completely new set of electronics on new PCB's. Simply the very ultimate? P.O.A..

Regards

Dave

I think I spotted your Cr7 on E-bay a week or so ago. Same model etc American spec. Seller did not show the back of it (no visible serial number). Asking WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY more than he got it from you...assuming it is the same one.


Regards D S D L

[Beechwoods]

Neil - I think it was a different one - it had a remote, I don't remember Dave mentioning a remote

[Spectral Morn]

Neil - I think it was a different one - it had a remote, I don't remember Dave mentioning a remote

You could be right.


Regards D S D L

[Alex Nikitin]

Today I found few minutes to record a couple of fragments from a good quality pre-recorded cassette played back on my Revox B215-S, first in its original configuration (4000 series chips installed) and second in a modified state (74HC series chips installed). Each file is a WAV 96 kHz 24 bit, 1 min 17 sec long - zipped and 42 Mb in size. No other changes were made to the deck. For a reference the third file is of the same fragment played on Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1. I had to increase the volume on the last file by 3 dB in CoolEdit 2000 so the volume would match files from the Revox. No other processing was done on recorded files.

Alex

[TheMooN]

Looks most Interesting Alex ~ Now if I could only find out which chuffin codex is missing I might be able to hear something