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

[Alex Nikitin]

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

The files are plain WAVs and should not require a codec. However your soundcard needs to be capable of 96 kHz 24 bit to play these files. Edited out - Audacity playback quality is not good enough...

Cheers

Alex

[TheMooN]

Ahhh !!! That will be my Philips Acoustic Edge wheezing away at 48KHz then Thanks for the heads up re Audacity Alex

[Alex Nikitin]

Ahhh !!! That will be my Philips Acoustic Edge wheezing away at 48KHz then Thanks for the heads up re Audacity Alex

I will edit my comment above about Audacity. I've downloaded it, tried to play back my files with it and the quality of the sound is not good. When I am listening through my CoolEdit 2000 the sound quality is much better. I may need to investigate it further (as I do own commercial CoolEdit I've never tried the Audacity before). On Audacity the quality is poor and I can not readily hear the difference between files . Sorry. On my machine Windows Media Player also refuses to play 96 kHz 24 bit... .

Alex

[Alex Nikitin]

A bit more about the Audacity - the playback of 24-bit files is limited to 16 bits only. And in 16 bits you can not hear the difference between decks!



Alex

[Beechwoods]

If you have a Mac then Cog is a great music player. Just make sure your Audio Midi settings are set to the right word length and bit rate, or it'll resample without you realising. And I should say that I don't know about more recent Macs, but by 1st Gen Dual G5's soundcard won't go above 24/48 so this little lot's being copied to CF card for playback on my Tascam HD-P2

[DSJR]

A bit more about the Audacity - the playback of 24-bit files is limited to 16 bits only. And in 16 bits you can not hear the difference between decks!



Alex

We're only talking about differences in the noise floor aren't we? I mean, 96db is at least 30db better than any cassette decks can manage...

Must be something else..

[Beechwoods]

You can hear it in the wire brushes, the air around the instruments, and the acoustic bass in particular. There's definitely more depth and openness around the modified machine. And you're right that it's pretty imperceptible when resampled.

The Nak does sound limp by comparison, and more low-level 'fizzy' noise in the background. My ZX-7 is more like your Revox in terms of noise.

Lovely recordings. With sound like that you just want to keep listening! Nice choice of music too

[Alex Nikitin]

We're only talking about differences in the noise floor aren't we? I mean, 96db is at least 30db better than any cassette decks can manage...

Must be something else..

That is a common misconception, and my files show very clearly that 16 bit is just not at all enough for even a medium quality cassette recording. It has nothing to do with the noise level and everything - with the ambience and resolution. More than 16 bits means more precision on all levels, not just a lower noise . Same goes for 44.1 kHz sample rate - 88.2 or 96 kHz is much better.

Alex

[Alex Nikitin]

Here are two more files with the same bit of jazz (42 Mb each, 96 kHz 24 bit):

First - playback on unmodified Sony TC-K677ES

Second - the same deck after I've took out the infamous 4066 CMOS switch and replaced it with an alternative of much better quality.

I now suspect an industry-wide conspiracy to reduce the quality of cassette decks in 1990-s. Almost every deck from that time was equipped with 4066 in the signal path and sounded just like a crappy CD-player. That looks to me as a deliberate act of sabotage . Anyway, now I know how to treat this CMOS syndrome...



Alex

[Tolstoi]

Hi,
a friend of mine has a big Sony machine I believe it's from the late eighties with those wooden side panels. Can't remember the model name. Quite heavy machine. After years of analogue abstinence I heard that tape deck and my jaw really dropped down immediately. What a great sound.

Cheers

Joerg