cassettes worth revisiting?
Comments
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i hear what you're all saying. i'm not looking to spend a lot of money on one.. but yeah for nostalgia reason's it might be fun to have a cassette deck in the system. if I don't like it.. i'm only out $30 to $50 tops.
I guess there was a Nak deck that was superior to the Dragon.. i provided a link a few posts back. I want THAT deck.
PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin: -
danger boy wrote: »i hear what you're all saying. i'm not looking to spend a lot of money on one.. but yeah for nostalgia reason's it might be fun to have a cassette deck in the system. if I don't like it.. i'm only out $30 to $50 tops.
I guess there was a Nak deck that was superior to the Dragon.. i provided a link a few posts back. I want THAT deck.
You are talking about the ZX9 and while a stellar piece then and highly collectible now; the Dragon was the ultimate for audiophiles. The ZX9 is a very close 2nd and perhaps even a dead tie. The greatest thing about the Dragon was the automatic playback azimuth adjustment which was micro processor controlled. It could sense what angle the azimuth was at on all kinds of tapes recorded on other machines and automatically set the playback azimuth in the Dragon to match. Thus allowing it to play back any tape made on any deck with the best sound possible.
The ZX9 didn't have this capability. There was a beautiful Gold colored edition of the ZX9 that looks ultra cool but it was just for show. The Dragon was the ultimate deck. Retail in 1987 was $2500.00, I paid a customer of mine, that wanted to trade his in with only about 20 hours on it because his wife could never figure out how to use it, $500. I sold it 3 years later for $750.
Ahhhhhh the memories!!!!"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
The Dragon also had 3 test tones for each channel and it would automatically take a 30 second recording of the self generated test tones and set the bias for each channel for each and very tape you put in the machine prior to making a recording.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
Plus it was auto reverse and it sounded the same in either direction because of the auto azimuth feature."Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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ROTFLMAO!!! Go George!:D
I still have my tape deck, it's in my signature 18yrs old & still going strong. I use it every once in a while since some stuff as George says will probably never make it to cd.
Just like everything else, it is all up to the master recording copy that you end up with. If it's a copy of a copy of a messed up master it's going to rot big time. If it was a good copy it will sound all right.George Grand wrote: »There is a cassette deck in every rig I have. Too much great music to be found for a dime that will probably never make it onto cd.
Most of you wouldn't dirty your hands with cassette. But the truth is, most of you probably couldn't tell the difference between a cd, piece of vinyl, or well recorded cassette.Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2 -
You are talking about the ZX9 and while a stellar piece then and highly collectible now; the Dragon was the ultimate for audiophiles.!
nope the one i want is the Nak CR-7E check out the link...
PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin: -
I own or I did own a Akia GX-F95 cassette tape player once. Made really nice recording tapes.... I let someone to borrow it and I never seen it again..
http://www.vintagecassette.com/Akai/GX-F95
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danger boy wrote: »nope the one i want is the Nak CR-7E check out the link...
The CR 7-E (E for european) was the deck below the Dragon. It didn't have near the features or the motor's or sound as the Dragon. The Dragon has a specially manufactured record and playback head that no other Nak used. Still a great deck and it has a "manual" azimuth adjustment but you have to adjust by ear. I sold a lot of CR 7's rather than Dragons because they were 90% the tape deck of the Dragon but about 40% less in price. Retail on the CR 7 at the same time of the Dragon was about $1700 vs. $2500 fro the Dragon
Still a great machine but falls short of the Dragon as the ultimate deck Nak and IMO, anyone ever put out."Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul! -
The one nice feature the CR7 had over the Dragon was the real time tape counter. The Dragon used a 4 digit digital counter but the CR7 could calculate both the real time and the time left on the cassette."Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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danger boy wrote: »I have trouble throwing out old electronics. Just last weekend I threw out my very first JC Penney mono VCR.
That's just sick. -
Some pre-recorded cassettes were very well done, but the majority were handsome and weren't even close to critical listening. A real good piece of blank tape, a decent source and preamp, and you could make some very good sounding cassettes that when played on the same machine that recorded them could sound astonishingly good.
There are great Onkyo decks out there. Beautiful old Teacs. I got a real nice Sony ES in one rig. A Tandberg in another rig.
Nak's are overrated. I like them cause they sell for big money. I believe that is due to notoriety, and not ultimate performance. I personally think the Nak's don't sound any better than the ones that DON'T flip your cassettes around for you. I sold every one I got my hands on. -
George Grand wrote: »Some pre-recorded cassettes were very well done, but the majority were handsome and weren't even close to critical listening. A real good piece of blank tape, a decent source and preamp, and you could make some very good sounding cassettes that when played on the same machine that recorded them could sound astonishingly good.
Couldn't agree with you more. I personally did own a few Naks in my cassette days, including one (not the Dragon) that flipped the tape around. I can't speak as to Nak vs. other quality decks, I never did any critical comparisons.
But I was amazed at the lack of quality that many pre-recorded cassettes had. I remember several tests I did with just a consumer quality Technics TT and recorded vinyl onto cassette, and then compared to a store bought copy of the same cassette. My own recordings almost always blew away the store bought ones.Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance. -
George Grand wrote: »Some pre-recorded cassettes were very well done, but the majority were handsome and weren't even close to critical listening. A real good piece of blank tape, a decent source and preamp, and you could make some very good sounding cassettes that when played on the same machine that recorded them could sound astonishingly good.
There are great Onkyo decks out there. Beautiful old Teacs. I got a real nice Sony ES in one rig. A Tandberg in another rig.
Nak's are overrated. I like them cause they sell for big money. I believe that is due to notoriety, and not ultimate performance. I personally think the Nak's don't sound any better than the ones that DON'T flip your cassettes around for you. I sold every one I got my hands on.
Agree with the first part. I'm quite sure you've owned more cassette decks then I have but I've been through my share and NAK is always a great performer, IMHO. Sure some of the Tandberg's, Teac's could put up a good fight, but the NAK, for a short period of time, was engineered like no other. Nothing over hyped about them, they brought the goods and they were the real deal. Nak's glory day were from about 1976-1987 and I'm sure by the late 80's many other manufacturers had brought their standards higher to meet Naks.
Nak solved many of the fundamental deficiencies with cassette tape and no one else seemed to be motivated to follow suit. The (3) most critical components in making a great cassette tape are the azimuth angle you record the information at, the gap used in the record/playback head and getting the bias exactly correct for every tape every time. Nak were innovators in these critical areas and that's why they were among the best. Also using multiple direct drive quartz PLL synchronized motors and the latest precision micro-processor controls before anyone else at the time.
I could go on and on, but for critical recording there were few, if any, better than a Nakamichi. Other certainly were formidable but always seemed to fall a bit short ultimately. Many of the later decks from about 1987 thru the demise of the cassette deck and ultimately Nakamichi they rested on their past and really looked to maximize profits by making and assembling an inferior product.
H9"Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
