looking for a decent tape deck

pkrl5758

New Member
Hello everyone!

I am actually looking for some good, decent tape deck to transfer my old cassettes. I spent lot of time, reading many articles but I found no good solution yet as there are as much different reports as types of decks available. However, my initial typos are Denon, Technics and Aiwa brands.

Which model/type of deck you would recommend? Important note that many of them have some issues with azimuth alignment and some of them are reported to have serious issues with components that causing of serious interferences in output signals.

Went thru fine discussion over Tapehads net forums here http://www.tapeheads.net/archive/index.php/t-14026.html and found also other models have similar problems (I couldn't register so cannot ask anyone from there).

Thx in advance,
Paul
 
Define "decent" in terms of price and/or level of performance. My first recommendation would be a TEAC/Tascam 3 head deck, but they can get kind of pricey. Other than that, the Nak decks are awesome--shameless plug, since I own a Nak Dragon, and they can be quite pricey as well, and a mechanical nightmare if not maintained/restored. The TEAC/Tascam decks are workhorses and are pretty reliable and offer great performance.
 
Well, I don't mind spend some $ if deck is good, that's obvious but of course I am just keen to get something that is just good and allows to transfer tapes w/o any serious problems mentioned above.
 
Not sure of your budget. But for recording,you can't really better a Nakamichi ZX-7,ZX-9,or CR-7. If playing back pre-recorded cassettes is a no.1 priority,then a Nakamichi 681ZX/682ZX,Dragon or Technics RS-9900 would be excellent choices indeed. The latter Technics gives a lovely warm tube like sound.
 
How 'bout something that can playback and recording tapes in equival quality?

My suggestion of the Nakamichi Tape Deck 2 goes into this direction on a limited budget. Of course, if you are willing to spend more money, a Nakamichi CR-7 (as has been already suggested) is a superb performer.
 
How much it would costs if servised, worked fine/clean? I am based in EU so shipping from US will eat more $. Any advice from Euro tapeheads out there?
 
The prices I'm familiar with are 1000+ euros for a CR7 and 100+ for a Cassette Deck 2, roughly. The condition is something to be evaluated case by case, but I bought a couple of decks in Europe and worked just fine since the beginning.
 
Paul

We need to know your budget otherwise we're going round in circles.

The deck which will give you the maximum confidence will have been servised by a technician who has a siutable track record. Members here can comment from their experiences. These decks, by their very nature, will have been worth servicing so, to a great extent, someone in the know has already selected a good deck from the bunch. They will almost certainly be more expensive than if you were to buy a deck second hand from its owner. But there's a risk with the this latter route.

I've bought both my decks second hand. The Pioneer was £40 & the Nakamichi was £150. I prefer the operation/ergometrics of the former - without a doubt. I would struggle to differentiate between the two in a blind test but my ears have had their best days.
 
I can spend $1000, no problem, but I am not sure if I really need a high end deck if I want to just transfer the old tapes properly in very good quality. I've read lot about Naka decks and I know they're one of the best tape decks and most of people are highly recommending them but as said, I am not sure if it's neccessary to buy a very expensive tape deck just for transferring cassettes in home quality standards. I am not recording on tapes anymore and if I do, I will do this very occasionally now.

My good friend has Naka RX-202 for sale, he wants ca. 200 euros for that. The deck has been used very occasionally in the past, it's just like new, near mint condition. I also can purchase Piooner CT-W910R for a very reasonable price that is just like new also. Both machines haven't been opened/repaired so I need to expect some service when I get any of them as belts or idlers may be not in the best condition after all these years but everythinng else should be still in a good condition.
 
Buy a brand new Tascam CC-222 MK IV from Amazon. Record to cd or tape Play tape or cd. even has a phono stage and you can plug a TT directly in to it. New, nothing to repair or replace. Less than half of your budget too.
 
The Nakamichi CR-7 is a great transfer machine with the auto-azimuth. The CR-7 is known to loose the outside rubber portion of the drive idler, which can be replaced with a small rubber "O" ring. Good as new.
 
And maybe the most important thing I should asked at the start: we all know that every tape sounds best when it's recorded on the same gear, with exact same head azimuth setting etc. If most of my tapes have been taped on various tape decks, do I need a high end tape deck model to get the best quality? I read that Naka CR-7 is somewhat better in terms of quality than famous Dragon but still I am not sure if I need such an expensive gear to keep the quality I could get from much less expensive tape deck.

What do you think guys? As said, these tapes have been recorded many years ago and most of them shares just average quality audio, they aren't studio quality stuff, most of them are either home made or radio quality standards with more or less hiss or other noises.
 
The Tascam supports Normal, Cro2 Hi Bias and Metal tape. It will do a fine job for you. You are not going to make an "average" sounding tape sound better than "average" no matter what you record it on. Switchable for Euro voltage as well.
 
The JVC KD-V6 is a great deck that sounds awesome...three heads. I was able to pick up one on Ebay for $40.
The key is trying to find one that has not been used a lot.
 
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