[krayzie]

Okay, I've done a search on the net and found out what it does... but my tape deck does not have this feature (probably too old) and wonders if it does indeed improve tape recordings (audiable differences)???

I've took redshifter's advice earlier and turned off Dolby NR during recordings and the soundstage seems wider as a result, wonderful! Tape hiss is only more noticeble when there's no sound (blanks between songs), still only using Sony SMMs with excellent results.

My R90 is gathering dust lately... hehe

 

[Duncan]

Before getting my Denon DRM-540 (A well reviewed deck of its time) I had an ancient Hitachi Deck... I bought it for $5 because it didn't play tapes... I stripped it down, replaced a couple of the drive belts, and then it was as sweet as a nut... it didn't have HX-Pro, but it (ironically) seemed to go higher towards (and into) the red... more cleanly than my Denon that DOES have HX-PRO, So... I don't know if its a case, much like PCDP/PMDP amps, where the newer they are the less power they have, and HX-Pro is a kind of compromise?

As to why the Hitachi deck went if it was so good... It wasn't a full-logic deck, and after months, if not years of repeated use and repair both the play, and record buttons snapped off on the same day... not a lot of use then

nevermind

 

[krayzie]

Wow 5 bucks for a deck!?! I think the belts' probably cost another few bucks and bam! ya got a new workhorse...

I went back to the pawn store the other day and checked out the other tape decks... I saw this old Sansui machine where it's built like an enormous tank where everything's metal with analog gauges, but what striked me was its "direct loading system" where there's no tape loading tray, just flip down a cover on top of the head assembly, stick the tape into position and the machine goes to work. Pretty neat!

Also, I've noticed that with new tape decks, even with Denons and Yamahas their tape heads are sooooo small, same size as the one in my mini hifi and yet the heads on my old Yamaha is huge! I wonder if the newer smaller ones would hinder performance...

 

[redshifter]

krayzie,

i'm glad you got good results turning the dolby off. i found the maxell mxs90 to have very low noise, although i'm sure the smm are better (at 4x the price they should be).

what source are you using? cd? next time you're in the pawn shop get yourself a decent turntable (you could even hit rat shack for a starter tt for $99) and try doing a full analog tape. for me, having an analog source is the whole reason to use analog tape.

 

[Audio Redneck]

krazie, I don't think you are missing much. I use my deck (Sony TC-K611S) pretty regularly for making practice tapes for my wife and some for the car. Before this one, I used various Teacs and Pioneers and I don't think HX-Pro does that much for me. Other features like 3 heads and a manual bias control are worth more to me. The Dolby S is better than B 'n C, but is (mostly) only available on Sonys and I wouldn't buy a deck for JUST that either.

(Here comes my $.02)
Sooooo....if your only thinking about HX-Pro, don't bother. If you are looking for other features, most late '80s+ decks will have it. So if you find an old NAK for the right price that doesn't have HX-Pro, don't let that be the determining factor.

So do you own one of those little gems in your avatar?

 

[gloco]

I dunno, i always used Dolby C NR on my tapes and they sounded far better than without it. I even ran some tests recording a part of a song with the NR off then on, bam...you could notice the difference immediately (everything just sounded cleaner with the NR on), and all this with High Bias and Metal tapes.

 

[Audio Redneck]

Quote:

Originally posted by gloco I dunno, i always used Dolby C NR on my tapes and they sounded far better than without it. I even ran some tests recording a part of a song with the NR off then on, bam...you could notice the difference immediately (everything just sounded cleaner with the NR on), and all this with High Bias and Metal tapes.

So you don't find the highs are muffled with the Dolby C? Dolby S does an OK job, but it still (to me) sounds like there is a blanket over the the speaker.

Out of curiosity, I was looking at your equipment on your profile: which cans do you prefer for listening to tapes? (and what deck(s) do you have)