Speaker Cable

joe logston

hi smglbrth,
yes the onkyo dose sound close to cd
im surprize how good

got a onkyo ta-440 with dolby a-b, nr, hx pro filters.

hi wade, keep the monster cables
you got monster speaker cables and do you have monster interconnect cable to

Wade Spradley

I have some of the less expensive monster interconnect cables, but they fit pretty tight to the RCA connectors on some of my equipment. So I tend to use them carefully. Right now I am working on getting re-setup. Since my stuff is in storage. And playing around with some of the older audio gear is fun. I've had a few freinds that had some Onkyo stuff and they swear by it. But this was in the early 90's. It wasn't too bad either from what I remember. Just more expensive than what I was budgeting for at the time.

joe logston

i got a older onkyo integra tx- ds-939 receiver, ( thats a keeper.) i have it in my bedroom system with the onkyo tape deck

burdette

You aren't going to be able to extract a better signal off of a tape than was originally laid down. If you made tapes on the old Marantz, there is a definite limitation on how good they can sound now, regardless of new signal processing or dynamic expanders or anything else. You can't create a 20-20k response off a tape that has was recorded at 30-16k. Plus, recorded signal on a cassette simply wears out and the sound starts to degrade.

If you want to play old tapes on the Marantz that were recorded on the Marantz, probably the BEST thing you can do is to have the heads aligned... and if you're really concerned about it and can find a tech to do it, "align" the heads with the old tapes you want to play. THAT will squeeze the last bit of performance out of the tape as it is. Replacing rubber parts of the drive would also be a good idea. All that goes for the Yamaha, too.

The "better" high frequencies some people think they hear with Dolby B rather than C, or when playing encoded tapes with no unencoding, is illusion. Unless of course you *like* listening to tape hiss and construing it as high frequency response.

Dolby HX Pro, in my opinion, was what gave cassettes an extra few years of life.

I've used Dolby S.. never been impressed. Same with the standard DBX systems built-in to decks.

If you want to make NEW 'tapes' for some reason, and are going to play them only at home, I recommend using a hifi VCR as the audio tape deck. Audio response blows away cassettes... plus you get a MUCH longer tape length. I've used a VCR as my "editing" cassette deck for years and years (such as when taking songs off cassette to put ultimately on another cassette), because you get MUCH lower degradation when copying.

I think Aiwa, hands down, made the best bang-for-the-buck decks in the 80s and early 90s.. until they faltered and started using inferior parts (I think Sony started supplying). I really like Onkyo stuff, but their 80s/90s cassette decks didn't match the Aiwas... nor did the Yamahas or HKs or Teacs or pretty much anything except a few Nak models.

Bottom line.. if you want to listen to old tapes on the same machine that made the tapes, get a tech to set the heads appropriately for those tapes. NOT the best set-up if you want to make tapes to play on other players, but the best thing you can do if the tapes stay at home.

I own a 3-head/dc Aiwa deck (my second) and we have a 3-head/dc Sony deck that I ended up with after buying a cheaper Sony deck... had problems.. repairs.. problems.. bitching.. replacement with an upgrade.

Tour2ma

Agree with what you wrote brudette, excepting that if you've never heard what a good equalizer and a dbx dynamic range expander, like the 3bx, can do to an old dolby B tape.. you need to.

While it's no substitute for CD, it can make irreplaceable old tape recordings very listenable.

burdette

I haven't heard it.. so I'll take your word for it. The vast majority of my music used to be on cassette. I still have a lot of stuff *only* on tape that I don't listen to THAT often and would never consider buying on CD. MOST of the MP3s I've downloaded are songs I like, have on tape, but not on CD. Back in the day, even after CDs came out, yet cassettes still had some strong life left, I enjoyed making tapes (from either LP or CD) that sounded BETTER than the prerecorded version you could buy. That used to blow people away. With a good cassette, a good 3-hd deck, Dolby C and with HX Pro, it wasn't hard at all to make a tape that the vast majority of people could not tell from the original CD. And as I said, the prerecorded tape didn't stand a chance.. like comparing AM to FM radio.

Anyway.... sort of fun to talk tape decks. Even though I hardly EVER use either one of ours, there is still something hanging on from my younger days that feels good about having a nice deck.

Actually.. I sing with a group of men, and one of my decks has found new life recording our rehersals (to work on the mix) and then recording the performances just to have a copy. One of the guys is a retired radio station owner, and he dropped the dough a couple of years ago for us to have mics, speakers and an amp... and then suddently we have to worry about levels and mixing...

joe logston

the only reasion i got the onkyo tape deck is that at that time i had a car that had a tape player in it, and i copied cd music for the tape deck thats in the car, and there is a lot of folks that still do that
and i was impressed with recored taps that the onkyo made. yes that whats bad about the recorded taps they deteriate fast. but you can just make more, and in a car you cant here all the distortion thats on a tape like you can at home.
i had a kenwood deck yrs. ago thats wend the frist cassets came out it was an improvement over fm radio, at that time i aways wanted a reel to reel tap recorder but didnt get one

Wade Spradley

Thanks for the insight.

I have used a VCR for making music tapes and it definitely was an improvement. But, call it what you may, I have had this Marantz deck for a while, and it has not really been used so I figure its due. Its been in storage a long time, except for the occasional time I have pulled it out to check it functionality with a tape or two. It was my first real piece of stereo equipment that has made it through too many moves to count. Especially with my dad having been in the service and now I am too. It was bought used in Dec 1980 at the Ramstein AB BX in West Germany, and is dual voltage. I got it for Xmas. Being a 17 year old teenager at the time.

You might call it a teenage relapse of not getting to use the equipment you dreamed of. Because I did not have the money to afford what I really wanted to get. I listened to plenty of tapes through the headphone jack of the deck, and did not really get to hear it from a speaker standpoint. So I am assembling a modest vintage stereo system on a budget. Due to being in an apartment that has thin walls I can only play it at a moderate level when I finally get it assembled.

When I get the system set up it will consist of the following components.

Polk Audio Monitor 7 series 2 speakers
NAD C521i CD Deck
Marantz Model 5030B Cassette Deck
Marantz Model 2225B Stereo Receiver
JVC SEA-80 10 Band Graphic Equalizer
DBX II Model 128 Dynamic Range Enhancer Noise Reduction System
DBX 200XG Program Route Selector
Monster XG Speaker Wire
Monster Basic Interconnects

While modest, it should prove entertaining until I can get some digs where I can expand the volume a bit more.

Tour2ma

I used to use my hi-fi VCR as well for audio. Other than cueing, it's pretty cool. The spinning drum produces a remarkably high effective recording speed, even when the transport is set to EP. Easily the equal or better of 7.5 ips for the old reel to reel.

Have actually thought of recording hours of the digital music channels I use as background while on the 'puter, etc. Then can edit down to cassettes or CDR's for "hits" listening... beats Time Life...

Wade Spradley

What's fun about the use of VCR recording, especially TV shows is that, I like to record the intro to Star Trek and Babylon 5 onto cassette tape, before recordable CDrom was available. Making a compilation tape to listen to the differeant intro's from each season. Which made it fun having conversations with friends about it too. Not to mention mixing some of the favorite tracks from soundtrack cd's in there too.