[st5150]

Hi, can anyone recomend some good online resources for audiophile worthy cassette players?

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by st5150 Hi, can anyone recomend some good online resources for audiophile worthy cassette players?

"Cassette players" as in portable, Walkman-type models? Or are you looking for full-blown recorders for stationary use?

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[st5150]

Hi lini. I was thinking more along the line of full blown players, but I wouldn't mind learning more about some good portables as well.

I have a large box full of cassettes. I'm looking to archive them as .flac files on my computer, so naturally I need a high quality player.

 

[Uncle Erik]

You would want the Nakamichi Dragon. Best cassette player ever. They come up here and there on ebay and go in the $600-$800 range. Bidding is usually competitive, too.

If you want to spend a little less, Nakamichi's other decks are pretty good, and I've seen some excellent ones from Tandberg.

Personally, I use a Harmon/Kardon TD420. I don't know what they go for (it was a gift from a good friend), but it's an excellent deck and does well with the small collection of cassettes I have.

You know, if you're just looking to archive your cassettes into FLAC, you might want to go for the Dragon. Archive everything, and then put it back on eBay. You'd probably get your money right back.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by st5150 Hi lini. I was thinking more along the line of full blown players, but I wouldn't mind learning more about some good portables as well.

Well, mere high quality cassette players in full size practically never existed (at least to my knowledge) - these were always recorders as well. Plenty of good ones in the mid-80s - practically every well known hifi manufacturer at least had one very good tape at the top end, but not all held their quality over time.

So whether the Dragon was really the best ever would probably be highly debated by owners of Tandberg TDC3014As, quite a few Luxman owners (especially of the K-03/04, I'd assume

) et cetera. And some Akai owners, and some Sony owners, ASC owners, Teac owners, Revox owners - even some Dual owners and so on... Well, blah.

Anyway, in your case, spending much on one of the best vintage bombers is probably overkill. Instead, you might want to look into one of the more recent Yamaha decks with "Play Trim" function - while not as sophisticated as Nakamichi's NAAC function with multi-segment head, those Play-Trim Yamahas would make sense for your purpose, as they allow some tweaking of the sound for playback in order to adapt on cassettes that were recorded on other decks. Over here they still offer the KX-493 new for ~ 180 Euro. If you want something better (on the whole - not necessarily for your purpose) and more versatile, especially for recording purposes, which should also be new, I'd recommend to check the professional side and look for this Tascam: http://www.tascam.com/Products/112mkII.html

On the portable side, on the whole, the best ever top-models came with Dolby C. Though I deem my Sony WM-D6C less good than its fame, and the high-range player-only WM-DC2 also sounds rather bland to my ears. I like the cheaper Aiwa HS-PC202MkIII I got a bit later on much better as a portable player. *thinks again* Oh, well, probably the even better best ever portable top-models were actually some bigger sized pro-models (Marantz/Superscope, Sony...).

Anyway, high quality cassette tape sure is an alluring vintage audio topic - nevertheless, I'd still advise not to dig too deeply into it - I think the poor and diminishing choice of new blank high quality cassettes speaks against investing more than necessary to perform your task.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[speedemon86]

Does anybody know about the Yamaha kx-r430? It's old as dirt but I love it to death. I don't know what the "official" judgment on it would be however.

 

[Audiofiler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by st5150 Hi, can anyone recomend some good online resources for audiophile worthy cassette players?

the Nakamichi Dragon, version one (the first release)
they are not cheap, and quite worth it..

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audiofiler the Nakamichi Dragon, version one (the first release) they are not cheap, and quite worth it..

Word. For less money look at a top of the line Teac, Aiwa, or Mitsubishi.

 

[st5150]

Thank you for the advice everyone. Can someone chime in on the Tascam 112mkII ? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

 

[timoteus]

The Dragon is a very expensive unit that has a rep for making cassettes that only sound good when played back on the Dragon. You would be buying a piece that if it broke you would basically be screwed. Besides, there are plenty of people that don't believe the Nakamichis are the best way to go, then or now.

From everything I've heard, the Tascams are great units and they look good too.

So far I've resisted the urge to get back into cassettes. There have been many cases of blanks under the bridge and many good memories. But if I was to start back up I would get a Pioneer CT-F900.
http://thevintageknob.org/PIONEER/CTF900/CTF900.html
It's a rock solid unit that can be brought back to life should anything go wrong. Three heads and solenoid controls. It doesn't record metal tapes, but unless you're willing to pay $20 - $50 for a metal blank that won't matter.

I would urge you to ask your questions in the Turntables & Tape forum at audiokarma.org where you will get the best possible advice. There are members there that can rebuild, recap, align, service and refurb cassette units. They even have connections for acquiring newly machined capstans and newly manufactured rollers that will replace parts that are no longer made or available.

 

[Junky_Stereo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by st5150 Hi, can anyone recomend some good online resources for audiophile worthy cassette players?

Due...please...just stop it.

 

[ojnihs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junky_Stereo Due...please...just stop it.

What's your problem?

 

[redshifter]

also consider the old sony pro walkman. there are two models, the d6c and d3. i have the d3 and still use it (i have a cache of new sony xl2s tapes i use and record analog from vinyl). sounds damn good to me.

 

[chadbang]

You want and incredible deck that sounds almost identical to the source you're recording. Get one of the vintage Naks ... and you don't have to spend a fortune. In fact, they're practically giving them away. *sniff, I loved cassettes* Avoid the Dragon (very complex and finicky). For a great, great sounding deck, made in Japan and one of the last of the "classic" nakamichi quality builds, after months of research, I bought an LX-3. You can get them cheap as hell. An example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=290017611675

Amazing decks. I paid $50 for mine. And a lot of work went into figuring which was the ultimate for quality/price point. But I share my sweat here. Just make sure it was owned by an audiophile wholoved and pampered it. Always read between the lines on ebay.