Hello everyone, I finally found a local store that sells cassette and VCR equipment near me. The only one I know of locally. They also do repairs, so I might be in luck in case my Walkman ever needs fixing. They currently have in stock a Technics RS-M280. It's fully maintained and up to speed, and they've told me its a professional grade deck. I saw a few on ebay. They're all listed for at least 1k euros. They're selling it for 500 euros. Seems like a good deal, right? Does anyone have any experience with this deck, or know anything about it? Is it a "grail" level deck like the Sony TC-K970ES and other Nakamichi decks? I'm looking for a good deck to reliably record tapes for my Walkman, but also provide great audio quality when I listen to tapes at home, while not being total garbage or extremely expensive. This one seems like a good find and I'd like to know if that's really the case. Thank you in advance! TreezZ PS: Here's a picture of it:
This is an excellent deck, probably all-time Technics' top 5 machines. It is a fully featured 3-header, top-of-the-line at its time. If it has been recently serviced and by a tech that knows what they are doing, it is well-priced. However, should problems develop (and they can, unfortunately), this model is known to be difficult to work on. Here is some reading material: https://www.tapeheads.net/threads/is-the-technics-rs-m280-hard-to-restore.103383/ Good luck!
Thank you for replying! It'd be cool to get it. But since I made that post, I managed to get a cassette deck which belonged to my dad, so the justification I had to get that Technics one has declined. But who knows? Thank you again!
wow I'm sure i gave 1 of these away a few years ago but i also had it for free....i'm sure its a great deck but ebay has insane prices as usual lol the world has gone mad lol
I'm kind of thinking the same, that's big money for a deck, I recently posted a working Onkyo I got for $13 USD (the exchange is about even) and last year a $35 AKAI. Over here you can still find nice decks for under $100 USD but the supply is starting to dry up, three-head decks can be very difficult to find locally. I do like Technics Decks alot and have a few but none with three-heads
for me Mr x there is only so far you can go with a cassette deck, it does not improve the sound like an amp can or a good pair of speakers or a good eq can....for example all amps sound shite to me without an eq but that is just me.... i remember now i gave several cassette decks away along with that technics and the others were better than the technics imho some even had dolby s.....i have a couple of decks left a high end sony from 81 an aiwa and another all way higher than the technics, forgive me can't remember mn's
Luckily I have a large grab bag of equipment and can do some mixing and matching but your right, most equipment needs the right match to sound great. I haven't listened through Technics Anything in a long time I should cue up a tape deck for some new belts and get the ball rolling.
well just found the sony aint seen it in years....it's a tc k81 gunna stick it on my pioneer lad and yup it has 3 heads
It has a very good deck mechanism but they need patience to change the head block loading belt! Same mech as the 255X & 250X & very few other models! I love the decks, super stable transport & HUGE heavy flywheel! These decks are old now & working or not have little real value but you know how it goes on auction sites! I can service & repair the transports on these models if anyone needs one doing! My RS-M255X from 1982 lomg since sold on I had it for 35 years, 2 rebelts & 1 new capstan motor in that time!! Best 2 header I ever owned & the same mechanism!
