Best Cassette Recorder? Hidden Gems?

[Goblin]

Don't bother. The person who said this simply does not know what they are talking about or is giving deliberately misleading information.
It reflects badly on the publication that it published the article containing it.

Thanks guys for the responses, I probably would have tried to find an angle to what he was saying till the end of times.

Not that I'm not aware of bizzwords buzzwords and people just straight lying (hello spec sheets of lots of products), but that was a mystery on itself. (What the *&@@^% is he trying to say??)

 

[Goblin]

That sales manager I mentioned followed me around at his first AES show. Memorized every word I said that sounded techy and repeated it in his bloviating. I had to follow around and clean up after him because at the AES show most people understood what those words really meant.

JR

lmao, that's funny.

 

[Goblin]

There was a professional cassette duplicator (master to 10 copy decks simultaneously) for sale over here a few months ago for only 250€. I sent the ad to a friend who sells cassettes of his music after the show. He didn't buy it. Unfortunately, it's gone.

He sells way more cassettes than CD's. Duplicates these himself with two decks running in parallel.

Yeah, running decks in parallel I have read and seen it's not so bad, you know, it even passes the quality standard of most people who are not making lotsa money selling cassettes. They just have to be the same model, and they have to be serviced monthly or even bi-monthly, as far I as I know, because it's not what they were made for. Once you get to know a deck servicing them is a breeze, or so it seems.

 

[Goblin]

Thanks Ian, that model looks super durable and desirable. Plus works with metal tapes, and two other ones, super useful. For sure will look for it and keep an eye on that model.

major snippage

I would recommend the Technics RS-B565 I have one myself and it sounds great and is very reliable. Should be available on eBay. Here is a basic spec:

Technics RS-B565 Stereo Cassette Deck Manual | HiFi Engine

Cheers

Ian

Hey, lots of those in Ebay in good conditions. Might as well get one in good condition from a trusted seller, instead of the Tascam 600$ model, or other non-recommended one. It's not like that Tascam model has good reviews and specs. Before pulling the trigger will check on up here. Really cool. They're going for like 130 pounds in good conditions, that's heaven sent. Down here in vnzla every month laws change on what, where and how you can order and ship and buy from using a company, but I can definitively find a company that is currently doing that, facilitating buying from eBay. Will read up on that deck for sure.

Really good deal. Thanks!

 

[cyrano]

I use a TEAC V-500X for cassette tape transfers.

Mainly because it has Dolby B and C and even DBX noise reduction. The DBX can be used for external sources too, if you come across one of the rare vinyl discs with DBX noise reduction...

Since I only use it every now and then, shelf life is important. I've had about a dozen others before, but noticed they need to be used regurarly. If not, the grease hardens and the tape transport doesn't work very well.

The most important when buying a used deck is the condition of the heads. And that's next to impossible to see in photos.

 

[Goblin]

I use a TEAC V-500X for cassette tape transfers.

Mainly because it has Dolby B and C and even DBX noise reduction. The DBX can be used for external sources too, if you come across one of the rare vinyl discs with DBX noise reduction...

Since I only use it every now and then, shelf life is important. I've had about a dozen others before, but noticed they need to be used regurarly. If not, the grease hardens and the tape transport doesn't work very well.

The most important when buying a used deck is the condition of the heads. And that's next to impossible to see in photos.

That model look's very good indeed as well, not many for sale on Ebay tho.

 

[Tubetec]

I never liked cassette dolby of any kind , I also found the normal formulation tapes saturate nicer than chrome or metal , and cause less wear on the heads .

 

[cyrano]

I never liked cassette dolby of any kind , I also found the normal formulation tapes saturate nicer than chrome or metal , and cause less wear on the heads .

"Normal" is all you can buy these days. Cr, FeCr and Metal no longer can be manufactured. The knowledge is gone and the raw materials unavailable.

 

[tulippx]

"Normal" is all you can buy these days. Cr, FeCr and Metal no longer can be manufactured. The knowledge is gone and the raw materials unavailable.

FWIT, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the PortaStudio, one can buy hi-bias cobalt cassette tapes on the Tascam USA website. Pricey, but sexy! MASTER 424 Studio Cassette | OVERVIEW | TASCAM - United States

 

[cyrano]

That's obviously news to me. Smells like a marketing scam. What is a "cobalt oxide type II" tape?

Cobalt is expensive and highly toxic. I know, don't eat your tape. However, it seems nanoparticles do exhibit weak magnetic properties:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304885313005660
"Available in the U.S. Only"...

Any idea about price?

 

[ruffrecords]

"Normal" is all you can buy these days. Cr, FeCr and Metal no longer can be manufactured. The knowledge is gone and the raw materials unavailable.

There seems to be plenty of NOS type II cassettes around.

Cheers

Ian

 

[cyrano]

There seems to be plenty of NOS type II cassettes around.

Cheers

Ian

Yes, Ian, but it's old stock. You can even still find NOS TDK metal cassettes if you're willing to pay the price. I don't want to pay >75€ for one cassette.

In fact, I don't buy cassettes at all, but I had a few hundred SONY Fe cassettes until recently. I gave them to a friend who still releases his music on cassettes. I've just bought a Revox two track A77 IV though, so I'm looking at some RTR tape. Fortunately these are still available, even if the price is a bit steep (65€ for a 18 cm reel). A very rare NOS Maxell or TDK metal tape reel will easily fetch 250€ these days. Even a used one sells for next to 200€.

For new Fe tape, see:

https://www.recordingthemasters.com/

 

[ruffrecords]

Yes, Ian, but it's old stock. You can even still find NOS TDK metal cassettes if you're willing to pay the price. I don't want to pay >75€ for one cassette.

Yes, I said it was NOS. Unopened Chrome C90s are available on eBay for less than £10

In fact, I don't buy cassettes at all, but I had a few hundred SONY Fe cassettes until recently. I gave them to a friend who still releases his music on cassettes. I've just bought a Revox two track A77 IV though, so I'm looking at some RTR tape. Fortunately these are still available, even if the price is a bit steep (65€ for a 18 cm reel). A very rare NOS Maxell or TDK metal tape reel will easily fetch 250€ these days. Even a used one sells for next to 200€.

For new Fe tape, see:

https://www.recordingthemasters.com/

Brand new Fe cassettes are still readily available for a lot less than £2. I don't know how effective Dolby HXpro is with them.

Reel to reel tape is definitely in short supply but there is NOS stock available too. Given the prices you quoted for 7 inch reels I have a couple of unopened Radio shack 1800ft rells I might put on eBay and make a killing. I also have quite a few reels of BBC approved Racal Zonal tapes of the same size.

Reel to Reel Audio Tape: Retro Style Media

This above place has metal cassettes for £19.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Whoops]

There seems to be plenty of NOS type II cassettes around.

Cheers

Ian

I was going to say exactly what Ian said.

It doesn't matter which tape type you need being it Cr, FeCr and Metal, there's plenty of NOS, never opened boxes of those cassettes available for purchase. Just look in Ebay.

Few years ago I needed to buy "Type II" cassette tapes for my Akai 4 track recorder and I had no problems in buying as much NOS tapes as I wanted.

You can be sure that there's a tremendous amount of warehouses full of NOS cassettes around the World

 

[cyrano]

It's obvious I didn't look for good/better prices. The 65€ I quoted for a 7" reel is for a 900m pancake.

The prices I quoted were from memory, and only the ones I noticed. You can get NOS stuff at a far more reasonable price if you're not in a hurry.

Sorry for all the mistakes. Gonna whip my memory a bit now.

 

[cyrano]

Could be this tape, also available from Thomann in Europe:

https://www.thomann.de/be/atr_magnetics_cobalt_gold_type_ii_cassette.htm
However, at 24€ a piece + shipping, hardly a bargain.

 

[Whoops]

Wow, that's expensive for sure.
I'm not really knowledgeable regarding cassette tape formulations so I don't know if Cobalt is good or not, but for the price I suppose it's a good material for tape.
I've seen for same many Type II cassettes that are "Chrome" probably that's Chromium based, are those any good?

When I bought the cassettes for my Akai 4 track recorder 5 years ago, I've paid 45€ for 12 units of TDK SA-X, those were NOS never opened.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I'm not really knowledgeable regarding cassette tape formulations so I don't know if Cobalt is good or not, but for the price I suppose it's a good material for tape.
I've seen for same many Type II cassettes that are "Chrome" probably that's Chromium based, are those any good?

When cassette was a domnant media, HiFi magazines ran tests of the various offers on the market.
Cobalt and chrome were slightly superior to ferric oxide in terms of S/N for a given distortion (the standard for evaluation of S/N was at 3% THD), and metal was the best.
Anyway, this is better than any explanation I can scratch out of my head:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette_tape_types_and_formulations

 

[HP200CD]

How would all these NOS cassettes not suffer from flaking oxide and lack of lubrication, dried out substrate, like other decades old tapes?

 

[Newmarket]

How would all these NOS cassettes not suffer from flaking oxide and lack of lubrication, dried out substrate, like other decades old tapes?

Good question. I guess it would depend s lot on how they have been stored since manufacture.