Thank you to all who posted in this thread! Yes cassette is still alive. There are 11 decks in my collection. A bit of a nut!
Had or have 2 x Nakamichi CR4, 5 Pioneers(2x 3head, 1x digital noise reduction system),Sony wm 870, some other Sony..., 2x Kenwood, 2 Aiwa walkmans, 1x Yamaha kx 400, Denon drm 3 head..., Sharp Optonica, Technics rs AZ 7, 3x some other Technics...2× Panasonic walkman, 1 x Crown walkman, Nikko walkman, Realistic STC 33 and of course Telefunken tc 450M. Yet I can't forget my cheap but made in Japan Elekta radio cassette player I had in highschool.I thought at some moment Elekta dissapeared just like one of many small companies, until 2019 when moving to Crawley I saw 2 huge buildings with Elekta logo on top of them...They are now the best in brain sugical x ray machines.One of the most enigmatic electronics companies ...
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Well, at least you don't have a stack of MacIntosh MC2300's like this guy...... each one is rated for 600 watts and weighs 128 pounds.
I have a Yamahahahahaha KX-W492 that I got from a used goods store for 35$. After I tweeked the speed it's pretty good. Sure, I have to play back the tapes I recorded in Dolby C without it to get treble, but whatever. Not worth the money to have it serviced IMHO.
Do radio / cassette units count?
3 of those.
And 7 double decks. meaning 14 mechanisms, so 17 players, two are mono.
And a DVD / cassette boom box at the tech.
Only two checked to work, no parts available for the rest.
3 of those.
And 7 double decks. meaning 14 mechanisms, so 17 players, two are mono.
And a DVD / cassette boom box at the tech.
Only two checked to work, no parts available for the rest.
Indeed....
I have my classic Panasonic Platinum Series RX-5600 from 1980 - of course fully restored and modded by me.
It plays nice, like new.
I understand they're going for big prices these days.
And no, I ain't lookin to sell it LOL!
Yamaha KX-W392 double cassette deck: I still have some Goon Shows and FM radio recordings which I haven't yet transferred to CD.
Almost without exception, our pre-recorded cassettes are rubbish. The only one which sounded almost OK was the BBC Jimi Hendrix set which was recorded on TDK rather than whatever was cheapest.
The double deck made it easy to copy (mimes slap on wrist) a recording, still works well. Not so a Luxman, which croaked after a few years.
Geoff
Almost without exception, our pre-recorded cassettes are rubbish. The only one which sounded almost OK was the BBC Jimi Hendrix set which was recorded on TDK rather than whatever was cheapest.
The double deck made it easy to copy (mimes slap on wrist) a recording, still works well. Not so a Luxman, which croaked after a few years.
Geoff
Sony TCK-61 since new... works fine .
Recently pulled it out of ~15 yrs storage .
Bought a couple of still sealed 5 Packs of Maxell Chrome tapes from local thrift shop for 2$ each.
Tapes work surprisingly well in my cars' HK audio system.
Far better than most any factory Automobile sound system I've yet heard.
Recently pulled it out of ~15 yrs storage .
Bought a couple of still sealed 5 Packs of Maxell Chrome tapes from local thrift shop for 2$ each.
Tapes work surprisingly well in my cars' HK audio system.
Far better than most any factory Automobile sound system I've yet heard.
Some decks were so good that you'd never consider buying a dac if you had one...Unfortunately they go for huge prices these days...I've seen guys collecting 20 Nakamichi Dragon...then they put one on Ebay for at least 10....20 times the money they paid ...and I know a lot of guys pretending they paid the original price when in fact they got them for 20 bucks in a thrift store or charity shop...I myself bought two CR 4 for 5 bucks each...then sold them for 100 bucks each, but now they ask for horrendous prices mainly because buying "audiophile" dac's became a very expensive sport...everything is overpriced by at least 10 times today. We should only wait until the last nak tape head wears out...then they loose all the value as there's no equivalent manufacturing for those tapeheads.
I had the TCK-61 Limited Edition, sold it last year, together with a some TDK MAXG tapes.
Awesome deck (with the rare option for FerroCr tapes, which I have never come across anywhere). Allround high quality deck, there are times I miss them!
Enjoyed my Akai GX-75 Mk II but got rid of it decades ago. Never looked back but one thing is still in memory... recording new music from radio. It had something special for some reason, probably because there were no other sources for new music than radio and record shops far away. Also exchanging tapes with friends was nice. It was a job to adjust azimuth and bias on all decks in our circle. Same counted for Dolby B/C noise reduction that worked out differently on various decks so we skipped that alltogether. The guy that bought a then expensive TDK demagnetizing cassette was king of the hill.
A few years ago I noticed I still had various metal tapes sealed in box. Threw them away only to discover they are quite expensive nowadays. When I offered my original adjustment tapes and special tools for decks I got a lot of people that were interested. It completely went past me that cassette was hip again.
A few years ago I noticed I still had various metal tapes sealed in box. Threw them away only to discover they are quite expensive nowadays. When I offered my original adjustment tapes and special tools for decks I got a lot of people that were interested. It completely went past me that cassette was hip again.
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Just a pressing plant also offering cassettes:
https://www.deepgrooves.eu/cassettes/
Just to show it's that hot to have 🙂
https://www.deepgrooves.eu/cassettes/
Just to show it's that hot to have 🙂
Sony TC-186SD here. I like the classic design, the heavy metal chassis with wooden side panels, the simplicity and overall good performance. Especially useful is the switchable limiter for live recordings. Fully calibrated, and not turned on in the past five years 
Good to know the glass heads never wear out with such heavy use. I still have a lot of unopened TDK SA-X cassettes for future use 😛
Good to know the glass heads never wear out with such heavy use. I still have a lot of unopened TDK SA-X cassettes for future use 😛
I routinely use a double-well Technics cassette deck to dub cassettes into my computer for editing into discrete tracks for a CD burn. This is done as an integral part of the music review process for cassette releases for the radio station where I do a volunteer DJ gig. The CDs are much easier to deal with for the jock on the air., though for die-hards, the cassette is made available for play as well. The Technics is overdue for new belts and pinch roller... I may pony up for a new deck that has an integral A-D and USB output. There are 2 options - Marantz (relatively cheap) and Tascam (expensive!).