Are there any decent newly produced cassette decks

ptl

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I have not listened to cassettes for many years but discovered my deck wasn't working when I casually switched it on and tried to record something.

I have had the deck from the early 70s but it has now passed.. I have started to look for a replacement and having heard of Nakamichi have fancied one. Prices of desirable ones -Dragon, CR7E 1000ZXL etc seem extraordinarily expensive. Other makes also seem overpriced considering they can be 25 to 30 years old.

I have recently read an article which implied that not only is vinyl having a major revival, but cassette sales have substantially increased.

My question is what are people using to play the new cassettes on, I can only find advertised new the Teac W1200 Twin Deck (not well reviewed) and the Teac AD850 CD Player Cassette Deck. Are there any other good quality modern decks, or are all those people using 25 to 30 year old items.

PTL
 
There's really nothing to rival the 90s top end machines. The Aiwa XK007 or 009 were just fantastic and could truly make recordings that were almost identical to the source material. Expect to pay the thick end of £1000 for one - more than they were new!

Modern Teac decks are designed for use in playback systems for gyms and dance studios and are neither good quality or well built. Denon made some combo decks back in the mid 2000s that were OK, but the CD players were always the weak point on them.

 
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I have not listened to cassettes for many years but discovered my deck wasn't working when I casually switched it on and tried to record something.

I have had the deck from the early 70s but it has now passed.. I have started to look for a replacement and having heard of Nakamichi have fancied one. Prices of desirable ones -Dragon, CR7E 1000ZXL etc seem extraordinarily expensive. Other makes also seem overpriced considering they can be 25 to 30 years old.

I have recently read an article which implied that not only is vinyl having a major revival, but cassette sales have substantially increased.

My question is what are people using to play the new cassettes on, I can only find advertised new the Teac W1200 Twin Deck (not well reviewed) and the Teac AD850 CD Player Cassette Deck. Are there any other good quality modern decks, or are all those people using 25 to 30 year old items.

PTL
Not many good new machines on the market now unfortunately, Nakamichi are of course very desirable units but they are expensive, you might also consider one of the later Yamaha decks, they are pretty robust with good transports and also sound very good. One's like this KX-580 can be had for about £80.
It funny how times change, I remember taking my Perfectly good working Marantz SD-45 cassette deck to cash converters about 7 years ago and struggled to get £10 for it. I really regret giving it to them now but I couldn't be bothered to cart it back home again.
 
I'm using a 1988 Technics, have a 1995 Aiwa in working order and a 1990 Nakamichi that I recently stopped using. The Technics is quite pleasing on my system.
So I guess those of us still playing tapes rely on what they have that works well. The biggest problem I encounter is tape quality after such a time and abuse (using decks in the past that chewed them up and spat them out).
If your deck was any good look into getting it repaired.
It bothers me a bit as what you are looking at where £2000 or more at the time and are now collectors items. So are you serious or just fishing?
 
@ptl - what's your budget? And are you looking for a 2-head or 3-head deck?

I am lucky enough to own a Nakamichi DR-10. It was £800 in its day and Richer Sounds were clearing the last of their stock - £300 new!

It's easily the best sounding tape deck I've ever owned, having worked my way through an Akai 2-head, Yamaha 2-head and Aiwa 3-head (which was very good, but when the Nak came up I jumped at it).

I wouldn't buy new and would definitely recommend secondhand. Yamaha is easily the most affordable depending on your budget:


Quite a few from Germany that have been fully serviced and worn out parts replaced, some even come with a 1 year warranty.
 
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Irrelevant to the OP's question, in the mid / late 90's bought a Cassette Player from a mate. Had a small growing CD collection but Cassette in the car. £10-15 for a big tank like unit, it had been passed round his pals for a few years. Didn't know the brand assumed it was a Dixons or similar own brand. A few months later I got a CD in the car and sold the cassette player on happy at the £5 or so profit I'd made.

Around 2010. working with a guy into hifi who had spent ££££ over the years. Told me he just sold an old cassette player to an enthusiast in Japan for £500. Showed me a picture. Same as I'd sold - Nakamichi :thumbsdow:thumbsdow
 
Gentlemen, thank you for all your replies. As regards budget, I would probably go up to £250. I don't really understand the comment about fishing, I was just asking a general question.

PTL
 
To be fair, £250 is an rather low budget, I initially understood a rather higher price class.

Since even the Teac W-1200 and Tascam 202 are over your budget and below your expectations, you'll need to scour the classifieds / eBay for something in reasonable condition. Yamaha, Technics or Pioneer may fit the bill.
 
Sorry this is an old thread but until recently I was lucky enough to have two Yamaha KX-580 decks. I sold one in a clearcut of an old Audiolab system I had to make way for my Wilson Benesch speakers..... but anyway, for the money the KX-580 is easily worth a look. Dolby HX and all the trimmings, and you can buy an aftermarket remote for it as well if you so wish. Yes we all want a Dragon, but then you can buy a lot of things with the change between a Dragon and a KX-580 🤔



I hope the OP got sorted 👍
 
Some of the top end Japanese made TEAC machines were rather good and even some of the high end Kenwoods also, prices are getting silly tho now.
 
Tapes are making a bit of a comeback, funnily enough, so it doesn't surprise me that the market for quality players has also increased and the values have gone up.

I know they receive lots of criticism on purely sound quality grounds, but I think a well-recorded Chrome tape played back on a decent deck using Dolby B (reduces the background hiss without killing the dynamics) sounds just fine.

Certainly better than music on a phone using crappy in-ear headphones.
 
You can't go far wrong with 80s/90s Pioneer/Sony/Technics or other well known brands from the era. A well maintained deck with quality, good condition cassettes can sound pretty good!
If you're looking for audiophile quality sound, then cassette probably isn't the best place to start looking 🤨
 
I have a Sony TC-K661S I inherited from my brother-in-law which doesn't sound too shabby. Using metal tape the sound quality isn't too far off when comparing the same recording made on my DAT recorder.

If they turn up on on auction sites they are quite reasonably priced.
 
I have a Sony TC-K661S I inherited from my brother-in-law which doesn't sound too shabby. Using metal tape the sound quality isn't too far off when comparing the same recording made on my DAT recorder.

If they turn up on on auction sites they are quite reasonably priced.
Agreed, I had a Marantz SD63 and using That's metal tapes wasn't far off CD quality.
 
I think perhaps we have our rose tinted spectacles on when considering cassette tape. Yes, it could sound very good, but even the best machines with the best noise reduction never got close to the dynamic range of even CD, let alone high resolution formats.

What cassette and indeed all magnetic media does very well is gracefully handle overloads. Unlike harsh digital distortion, analogue tape distortion is normally gentle and more akin to peak compression. This is not unpleasant to the ear and has been used as a recording technique in the past.
 
Agreed, nostalgia plays a part to our memory of the sound we had back as kids with our bedroom mix tapes! A decent deck with decent cassettes sounds, well, decent. Never going to be the quality of digital but as mentioned, far easier on the ears when it comes to distortion 🤗
 
Back in the day I always reckoned tape sounded better on a cheap system than vinyl. That led to a schoolboy error when I got my first car buying cassettes for a couple of years instead of vinyl. Numerous first week releases of what became classics lost as a result. Live n Learn 🤦🏻
 
I know I'm off topic a little here but can I record paradise radio onto sony minidisk and cassette? recorder?
 

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