I ask because a friend wants to give me his old receiver which doesn’t have a tape loop and my current one does. I have a three head deck, if I use his old receiver which has just tape in and tape out, and switch from ‘source’ to ‘tape’ on my cassette deck will I hear what’s being recorded on tape? Thanks.
Great question, I don't know how many work arounds there are if you don't have a monitor switch. Send the signal to another set of RCA inputs (and switch between the source and tape deck to monitor) or listen through the tape deck's headphone jack? Good luck, hopefully he's giving you something cool.
I've got one of these that works for multiple machines. http://www.wiredwood.co.uk/wordpress/sony-tapecorder-selector-sb-300/
Simple answer, yes you need a tape loop. The unit linked above by Mister X, allows you to link up multiple tape decks but it still needs a tape loop to work in the first place.