Top 10 holy grail cassette decks?

Second round:

Akai GXC-570DII
A&D GX-Z9100EX
Sansui SC-5110
Technics RS-M95
Philips N5748
SAE C101
Denon DN-790R
Yamaha KX-950
Aurex PC-X88AD
Onkyo TA-6711
Sharp RT-7100

Again, these machines only well calibrated, de-magnetized, recapped, lubricated, etc, etc, etc...


and not one of those would ever make my list. and again I am a huge Akai and A&d fan, stilll not on my list.
 
I had a CTF-1000, great deck, not top 10,

and the Nakamichi 670zx is one of the last VU meter decks, definitely the last VU nak.

it came out 2 years after the CT-F1000.

the CT-F1000 unfortunately isnt a holy grail at all though, neither is the 1250, personally I would prefer the 1000 if I had to choose.
 
if you ask me the number one best deck ever made, I would say that IF it was ever built the way Luxman claimed it was, would be the X-3K.

apparently the deck drew the tape out from the shell and onto a separated transport.
 
While the Tandberg machines are grails (they sound superb and easily the best of cassette). I can not recommend them due to their very short to non existent spare parts and difficulty of servicing and high maintenance. If you can find one which is in correct operating order, they are beautiful machines, but many need work. Few in the USA can correctly repair one. Re: Technics! There are at least two no holds barred Technics cassette decks which in good order will stand comparison to any cassette machine ever made. That 2 box machine deserves grail status. It's easily the equal of the ReVox and Studer in many ways. I would also add the Bang & Olufsen Beocord 8000 and the Eumig deck to the lineup of grail decks. And lastly on my Grail list for historical significance would be the redoubtable Advent 201, the first cassette deck to ever be regarded as acceptable for hi-fi use and which paved the way for the entire medium. And the only machine on the list which is USA made.

Hi Kent, is Technics RS-9900 the model you had in mind?

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=198585
 
No mention of any Akai decks yet? I own an Akai GXC-570DII that, although may not necessarily be a "holy grail", I believe it was Akai's TOTL (at $900) and has to be one of the best-looking cassette decks ever!

I had one before i bought my Nakamichi 680zx... It was a nice deck for sure.
 
Several that I suppose ought to be brought up on the bench and worked on. I have a pair NAK-1000'S on the shelf. Then there's the TANDBERG 3034 that needs some help finding a lo-level buzz in the playback, and the SONY with SR that, when it was working, was a rock.
 
The only bloody Nakamichi that could EVER integrates my list, would be the super-nice DR-1...

dr-1.jpg


You ask me "Why?" I don't know... For me it's the best of the best Naks... :yes:
 
I had a B&O Beocord 8004 that was a real nice deck, even had Dolby HX Pro. The thing was super big, not really a piece to keep in the rack.

Nakamichi really leads the pack IMHO, I'd probably choose the 680.
 
Amusing:

Apparently some cassette decks must improve with age because most of the units mentioned were not the best even when new.

I might also add that quality tape has become rather expensive, thank you collectors, so that decks requiring high end metal tapes to perform their best are becoming increasingly impractical. Even a relatively modest collection of tapes such as the TDK-MAR can easily exceed the value of the deck!

If all that isn't enough, metal tape tends to have lower S/N ratio and higher distortion then type-II tape. However, metal tape can be driven harder than other types giving them an advantage when setting proper recording levels is difficult or even impossible, such as when recording live events.

Having said all this, let's face it; most people are recording from vinyl or some other source that barely taxes the potential of any high quality cassette deck. I mean if recordings made with no noise reduction or even Dolby-B are considered to be excellent by many, even preferable to Dolby-C and DBX encoded recordings, then absolute performance must not be the most important criteria for determining exactly what constitutes the, "Holy Grail," of cassette decks.
 
Apparently some cassette decks must improve with age because most of the units mentioned were not the best even when new.

I might also add that quality tape has become rather expensive, thank you collectors, so that decks requiring high end metal tapes to perform their best are becoming increasingly impractical. Even a relatively modest collection of tapes such as the TDK-MAR can easily exceed the value of the deck!

If all that isn't enough, metal tape tends to have lower S/N ratio and higher distortion then type-II tape. However, metal tape can be driven harder than other types giving them an advantage when setting proper recording levels is difficult or even impossible, such as when recording live events.


any deck that "requires" high end tape to perform, is generally a lower end deck. the best decks, and surely any that would be on the top 10 list would perform amazing with standard type 1 tape.
 
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