Having seen quite a few Youtube videos recently about the fact that if you buy a new cassette deck these days you are going to get a Tanashin mechanism (or even worse a poor copy of one) and no Dolby, has made me think it is time to get something better than my existing systems for playing the many tapes I have and keep finding. At the moment I don't anticipate wanting to record cassettes. the tapes I would be playing were mainly recorded on low end equipment or were pre-recorded. I just want to get the best from what is on them. This has made me wonder how high quality personal stereos compare with mid range hifi cassette decks. People are enthusiastic about the WM-D6C but how does it compare with something like a Yamaha KX393 HiFi deck which would be fraction of the price. Having gone down this rabbit hole I have spent hours browsing cassette decks on Ebay and reading reviews of decks on Tapeheads etc. I did buy a fancy Technics deck with Amorphous Heads and Auto Reverse from 1984 which was a mistake as it wasn't working that well when received and after trying to fix it it now doesn't work at all It seems that the last true hifi cassette decks like the Yamaha KX393 were on the market until around 2004. For about twice the price of one of those I could get an older bottom of the range Nakamichi. Are they worth the extra money ? Some considerations are reliability, parts availability, and ease of maintenance. I am wondering if that might be better getting a simple Piano Key deck like the early Nakamichis (which are actually the cheapest) rather than a processor driven soft touch deck like the Technics, where you are rather stuck if pressing play doesn't do anything. The most I would be prepared to spend is about £150 which would be the price of a low end Nakamichi, although there are plenty of other decks with good reviews available for less. What does anyone else think ?
+1 to that! and WITHOUT auto-Reverse, of course! I am quite happy with Yamaha KX-330 purchased locally for $45 cash last year. Bought new belt from marrscommunications.com, but never even bothered to install. After cleaning and rubber rejuvenation, it plays up to specs and gives more than enough quality for boombox replay:
Thanks Jorge. That is the sort of deck I have been thinking about. The prices on ebay are a bit higher but aren't silly. Yes, in hindsight Auto reverse was a big mistake. Another thing to go wrong, which it rapidly did.
It takes more than just a mechanism to make a good tape deck, everything around the mechanism makes a difference too. Did you know the condition of the Technics before you bought it? Was it described as being a bit suspect? If it was you knew what you was getting and if not? You should have sent it back as not as described. Comparing the sound quality of high-end personal stereo against mid range home deck, you may only hear the difference if the rest of your setup can reveal the difference. If your setup is not up to the job, you may not hear a difference. Anything you buy whether bottom end Nakamichi or higher end something else, is only worth it if it’s working well. I would never get anything piano keyed, because they are very old. As far as I know piano keyed cassette decks have not been made since the 70’s, you would be better off getting a newer Tanashin stuff at least it would be supported and have a warrantee. Low end Nakamichi like a CR-1 or CR-2 are well worth the money as long as they are serviced and working well. These so called low end machines are very good machines.
hemm ... what I'm about to say will make some cringe .... I've had this system for six years, paid 45 euros in a local market ... all three didn't work (now ok) .... Technics SL- D303 Sony TC-WR870 ... JVC R-S77. I use them on a daily basis, I'm certainly not a good example of an esoteric system .... I can already hear the sound purists scream and roll over .... I would never have considered a double cassette with autoreverse having already a TC-k555es and a JVC KD -A7 ... but they were all together and the seller did not want to divide them ... over time I must say that I have re-evaluated the double cassettes with autoreverse for their practicality
https://www.vintagecassette.com/yamaha/kx-330/forsale https://www.cassettedeck.org/yamaha/kx-330 I believe this site can help you
Here's my observations Longman, I don't have a dedicated listening area, most of my critical listening is in a shop after 10 pm with a few suds in me. The music sounds wonderful, especially if I just changed a belt. The room and the enviroment are pretty harsh. With a personal player with headphones, the sound is so close that you can find the imperfections much easier, sometimes it' a lower end player or a slightly off old tape. When it's so close to my head it's very annoying. It's too bad your not closer, I could hook you up. Nakamichi only had like three piano key models and those are really old, I'd get the 550 but only because it's a field recorder. I just checked your ebay listings and you guys really don't have a lot of selection, tape decks were huge over here and I used to see mid-level all of the time, if I hit garage sales and thrift stores I could probably find 10 that would work for you for a few dollars.
Taking into account your WM-D6C mention and price range I would recommend to take look at Technics RS-BX707 , not a direct comparison but it matches the quartz servo motor (differentiating with direct drive capstan from D6C's disc drive) and Dolby C but also it has three heads and three motors (one for the door) and a few other features. Recently one sold for a low 70 euros another one for 130 euros and one for sale now for around your price range. I have a Yamaha K-300 from the NS series (Natural Sound) a no frills very well sounding deck and among many in my collection the daily use winner is Technics RS-M255x , also worth to look if condition and price is right.
Thanks for all the replies. I think the problem is that the newest decent tape decks are over fifteen years old so the condition will vary a lot. There is certainly plenty of choice out there. Looking on Ebay tonight there were 1647 for sale, varying from under £20 Buy it Now for some of the ones that match a particular Mini System to £4000 for a fully serviced Luxman 5K50. Back to reliability, over 25% are listed as "For parts or not working". That is partly why I started researching decks. How many working ones will be available in ten years time and what will the prices be like. Some of the ones that do supposed work look as if they were pulled from the WEE pile at the local tip. They probably were. The Technics was sold as untested and only cost me £30 so I will put that down to experience. Cosmetically it is in excellent condition, looking as if it had come straight from the factory. It might be something simple as it did work after a fashion when received. Something that appealed to me is that it only uses one belt and that appears O.K. I also won't be buying a modern Tanashin based deck yet as I have about a dozen decks here in boomboxes etc that would probably outperform one. Whether they still will in ten years time I don't know. I could be tempted by a Yamaha deck as I have read good things about them on other formats. Next time I might try and buy locally. Even if I bought from somewhere like Cash Converters they would probably give a few days guarantee while with Ebay the hassle of returning something can be more than is worth it.
That's always an interesting thing to discuss. In my experience and tests, I learnt several things: When I first tested my standard and 'super-D6C' made by Dr Walkman by combining best parts of all 3 units, I had a good equipment but not the right one. I was using a GRADO SR325 headphones which sound very bright and made me conclude some things that were not 100% right. Later when I acquired my Sennheiser HD650, and specially the HD800 and the AKG 702 which sound very neutral I learnt that I should use these instead of the 325 to make sound tests and obtain 100% correct conclusions. My 'Super-D6C' sounds impressive, a lot better than a standard D6C, but in my opinion is not up to the results of a high-end deck, although it's very close. That's a key point: there are BIG differences in sound between the several generations of D6C, being the newer worse and the earlier better. The best one is the first with the hyperbolic head, which sounds much better than the rest. The first one IS up to the level of a midrange deck, but the newer generations aren't. I don't have a K393 but I have a K930 which performs admirably, really. It's one of my most neutral sounding decks, with almost a flat response from lower bass to the top end with almost any cassette I've tried. Even european ones, like BASF (which tend to perform worse in japanese decks). I bet the differences between them are not in the head but in some features lacking (manual bias, auto bias...) so the sound should be very close between them. It probably sounds similar to a 1st generation D6C and it has better VU meters. I see it has manual Bias and auto Bias, as well as PlayTrim, which is great for playing other's tapes. So if you don't need portability, go for the deck. I'd recommend also a midrange SONY like a K570 which performs great and it's very cheap also but it doesn't have PlayTrim (that's a REALLY good feature, believe me).
Hello Longman, Yes I am glad I bought my Teac single deck years ago and it has Dolby B-C and DBX . Anyway I have a couple Teac units plus a couple Nakamichi decks too and really nice Pioneer .
