Anyone buy a cassette deck lately?

[MachineTrout069]

As always, do please direct me to the right thread and/or section if this is already being discussed or if this isn’t the right place to post but: Has anyone picked up a new tape deck in the last few years? i know a lot of us here are of the age that we’ve got some of our old tapes laying around, and last week i dug into my storage and found the treasure-trove….. which quickly led to the realization that the Tascam Porta 02 mkII that i bought 20+ years ago does not have a parts-list readily available, and my old console deck is nowhere to be seen. i usually don’t mind buying gear used since i do know how to fix electronics, but parts for old decks are NOT reliably easy to come by anymore, so i’m open to shelling out a bit more for something current (i.e. “covered by a warranty”).

The receiver is a Sansui 771, older than i am and sounds better than it has in decades thanks to a recent round of Deoxit, but the tape inputs aren’t getting the love they deserve! Any pointers are really, really appreciated. Thanks everybody!

 

[Tatzmann]

I was after a Tascam 246 and a Fostex R8 for a while recently...always looking for cassette multitrackers or mixdown decks. Had quite a couple very nice offers for 1/2" machines, like a TSR-8 and 16, but i'm not going to do 1/2" or larger anymore.

My Tascam 122 and 112mkii are down atm, but its just the belts and lubrication. Last year i did alot of belts and cleaning/lubricating/minor repairs on all my other machines, have still to do a capstanmotor repair on a 464.

Bought some digital trackers this year for fun, a Tascam DP24 and a 2488neo that i like alot.

What tapes do you like? I settled for Maxell quite early on, UD, UDXL, XLII and use the 35-90 1/4 inch on my 388 and mixdown reels.

No stickyshed at all with Maxell, knock on wood.

 

[MachineTrout069]

I was after a Tascam 246 and a Fostex R8 for a while recently...always looking for cassette multitrackers or mixdown decks. Had quite a couple very nice offers for 1/2" machines, like a TSR-8 and 16, but i'm not going to do 1/2" or larger anymore.

My Tascam 122 and 112mkii are down atm, but its just the belts and lubrication. Last year i did alot of belts and cleaning/lubricating/minor repairs on all my other machines, have still to do a capstanmotor repair on a 464.

Bought some digital trackers this year for fun, a Tascam DP24 and a 2488neo that i like alot.

What tapes do you like? I settled for Maxell quite early on, UD, UDXL, XLII and use the 35-90 1/4 inch on my 388 and mixdown reels.

No stickyshed at all with Maxell, knock on wood.

Ah, my apologies for the confusing post - i actually meant "cassette" cassettes, rather than reel-to-reel Sadly i won't be ready to bring one of those home anytime soon, at least not before we can upgrade our living space first - but i really appreciate the input! Thank you!

 

[Dogs of Doom]

people treat them like gold...

too expensive for what they are. people even try to sell broken ones for hundreds of dollars...

if I wanted a broken one, I'd just fix one of the ones I've got (in storage)...

 

[DirtySteve]

I'm old...I miss cassettes. I miss having to fast forward or rewind to just the right spot to hear the song I was looking for. I miss having to clean the heads. I miss having to have a pencil or pen on hand to wind it back up when the player ate it. Ah the good old days!

 

[MachineTrout069]

people treat them like gold...

too expensive for what they are. people even try to sell broken ones for hundreds of dollars...

if I wanted a broken one, I'd just fix one of the ones I've got (in storage)...

Right? i’m not about to spend a grand or more on it - i just want to be able to play my old Sabbath, Slayer, and Madonna tapes again! i don’t see why it has to be this difficult. The best deal i can find on a name i recognize is around $600 USD, and i’m sorry, but that’s ridiculous.

 

[DirtySteve]

Y'all thought I was joking and I was in my post, but I really do miss cassettes. They sounded better, they were fun. I still have a box full of 'em and nothing to play them on.

 

[BlueX]

I recently serviced my TEAC cassette deck from the '80-ies, so I could again play my home-recorded cassettes from the '70-ies and '80-ies. They still sound good, so I definitely think it's worth getting a player.

New production seems expensive and mediocre (see link below), but if you keep looking you might find a decent deal on a good used one. There are specialized shops around here that still sell spare parts, for some brands.

You could have a look here. Some sellers are open to international shipping.

Kassettdäck | Köp & sälj begagnat & oanvänt på Tradera

Köp och sälj Kassettdäck enkelt och hållbart på Tradera. Stort utbud av begagnade och oanvända saker på Sveriges största cirkulära marknadsplats

www.tradera.com

Teac W-1200 Thoughts?

Hello Folks! So this is the last component tape deck on the market of any quality. What are folks thoughts? https://teac-usa.com/cassete-deck-cd-players/w-1200-dual-cassette-deck I'm sick of shipping tape decks around for repair only to have them smashed by the USPS. Considering buying one...

www.tapeheads.net

 

[Lo-Tek]

This looks decent for just playing old cassettes ($180.00) -
Pyle Pro PT649D Rackmountable Dual Cassette Player

There seem to be lots of boomboxes for sale still at cheaper prices. We still have an old boombox with working cassette. Unlike Steve I don't miss cassettes. Vinyl or CDs sound better to me.

 

[MachineTrout069]

Y'all thought I was joking and I was in my post, but I really do miss cassettes. They sounded better, they were fun. I still have a box full of 'em and nothing to play them on.

i legitimately do love the sound, and if nothing else, most of mine are from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s when i was just starting to buy my own music (we were poor, so CDs were not a thing for me until the late 90s and i continued buying tapes even then). So, they have a ton of sentimental value - a couple days ago i played my old copy of "Five Man Acoustical Jam" and was like "Damn, i've had this tape for over 30 years - can't believe it still sounds so good!"

I recently serviced my TEAC cassette deck from the '80-ies, so I could again play my home-recorded cassettes from the '70-ies and '80-ies. They still sound good, so I definitely think it's worth getting a player.

New production seems expensive and mediocre (see link below), but if you keep looking you might find a decent deal on a good used one. There are specialized shops around here that still sell spare parts, for some brands.

You could have a look here. Some sellers are open to international shipping.

Man, i WISH i could figure out what i did with my old Sony deck - that thing was a beast, and i'm betting it's easier to find parts for, too! What i'm using now (and grateful that it does work, mostly) is a low-end Tascam 4-track that i bought at GC around 2002, but those were rather cheaply built AND not really popular enough for their parts to be documented very well. Starting to consider international markets too, if i can keep the shipping costs reasonable....

This looks decent for just playing old cassettes ($180.00) -
Pyle Pro PT649D Rackmountable Dual Cassette Player

There seem to be lots of boomboxes for sale still at cheaper prices. We still have an old boombox with working cassette. Unlike Steve I don't miss cassettes. Vinyl or CDs sound better to me.

i did see that one, and it seems worthy of consideration - but i haven't gotten far enough to start reading reviews yet. It might do the job, i'm just hoping it will hold up for a few decades without eating any of my tapes! If the quality is there though, that's at least the general idea - i need something with outputs that i can plug into the RCA inputs on that old Sansui receiver. Might dig further into that option if it looks like the least-painful route

 

[What?]

I almost bought a cassette 4-track again many times over the years. I still think cassette has a nice character to it, and I enjoyed using a 4-track and listening to cassette back in the day. But digital and a daw is infinitely more flexible and featureful. And finding parts for an old 4-track when needed sounds like a pain.

 

[MachineTrout069]

I almost bought a cassette 4-track again many times over the years. I still think cassette has a nice character to it, and I enjoyed using a 4-track and listening to cassette back in the day. But digital and a daw is infinitely more flexible and featureful. And finding parts for an old 4-track when needed sounds like a pain.

SUCH a pain! While i do like the character of cassettes, i'm not gonna pretend that it's the same as reel-to-reel tape - it's just not. For recording, i don't bother with the 4-track Tascam anymore - just straight into the Scarlett and from there into the DAW (usually REAPER, but i'm playing around with MixBus as it really does sound great for mixing). But, i do love being able to play my old tapes - i just wish i could rewind them reliably!

 

[What?]

SUCH a pain! While i do like the character of cassettes, i'm not gonna pretend that it's the same as reel-to-reel tape - it's just not. For recording, i don't bother with the 4-track Tascam anymore - just straight into the Scarlett and from there into the DAW (usually REAPER, but i'm playing around with MixBus as it really does sound great for mixing). But, i do love being able to play my old tapes - i just wish i could rewind them reliably!

Yea, cassette isn't reel-to-reel, but it has it's own character that I like the sound of for listening and recording. I had a Tascam 424 mkII back in the day, and I really liked the sound of it. I wonder if the sound of it would hold up today after spending years with a daw and plugins.

I would just RIP those cassettes to digital and be done with it.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

my biggest beef w/ cassettes & open reel tape, is they are not a good archival medium. The glues that they used to bond the metal particles to the plastic film do not hold up very well, & unfortunately, even the most professional brands, seemed to perform worse in this matter.

This makes for issues w/ the machines as well, as all that gunk gets cluttered in the transport, capstan & heads... (sticky tape syndrome, or tape shed)

On top of that, the #1 thing to happen to tape decks over time, is the belts deteriorate. Even if they don't fall apart & disintegrate, they can harden in the shape of the pulleys & make for inconsistent travel (same goes for belt-drive turntables). Makes the wow & flutter spec's on the machine go way out the window...

of course, you have typical electronic stuff like cap maintenance, etc., but, the rubber belts, & the adhesives used on the tape make it a problematic archival solution...

Thankfully, you can buy a used food dehydrator & fashion yourself a tape baking oven, but, there's a process & you'll only get 1 or 2 good runs on the tape after that, if you get any at all...

dropouts are probable regardless of how well the adhesive held up over the years.

 

[Gunner64]

If I'm going to keep a tape machine running, it's going to be a reel to Reel deck. I have several from Teac, Akai, Pioneer.

The Pioneer is a RT 1050 2 track 15 ips studio quality deck that has sound quality very close to cd's. I have the super rare 4 track head block for it as well which just plugs in after unplugging the 2 track block. It's a great deck. The best tape deck I have ever used.

I sold all my cassette decks, and I had some decent ones..top of the line Pioneer, JVC, Nakamici units. In my experience cassette format deteriorates more quickly than reel tape.

I even had upper quality 8 track decks..remember? The kind that switched programs in the middle of a song?...lol, who thought that was a good Idea?

 

[adam183]

I bought an open front sansui deck fairly recent similar to this

sansui SC-1330, didn't pay much, works fine.​

also have a sansui receiver.

 

[Gunner64]

I bought an open front sansui deck fairly recent similar to this

sansui SC-1330, didn't pay much, works fine.​

also have a sansui receiver.

I love the old stuff as well. The Sansui G series receivers are some of the best ever made.

I had a Sansui G9000 and that thing had some of the best sound quality and power of any of the 70s receivers I have had. Sounded much better that The Pioneer SX1980 I had at the time. I should have kept that one.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

Sansui was a great company, that didn't get much US distribution.

The only times, I ever heard of them, in the '70s, was from people who were in the Armed Services who were stationed over in SE Asia & visited Japan, or somewhere that had them, & brought them back...

Not that you couldn't find them here, in the States, but, only at certain retailers & the selection wasn't like what the guys brought back...

 

[adam183]

I love the old stuff as well. The Sansui G series receivers are some of the best ever made.

I had a Sansui G9000 and that thing had some of the best sound quality and power of any of the 70s receivers I have had. Sounded much better that The Pioneer SX1980 I had at the time. I should have kept that one.

I love Kenwood stuff, my favourite item being my ge-1100, got qute a good collection of equalizers, as I love the displays, have had some awesome sansui ones as well.
I used to have one of these Technics SH-3434, should never have sold it.