Suggestions for a new cassette deck? (Really.)

[steve]

I think you will be struggling to find anything as good as your old Nakamichi, they are just not being made any more.

You can still get pretty good cassette decks, but at a price. For example:

Dennon DN-780R

20 Hz - 18 kHz, ±3 dB (at –20 dB, metal tape )
SNR 74 dB (Dolby C on, 3 % THD by CCIR/ARM)
Dolby B/C/Off
Dolby Hx Pro

UK price ~ £400
US price ~$600
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Marantz SD 4050

Frequency response (record/playback, -20 dB, metal tape) 25Hz-18kHz±3 dB
Signal to noise ratio (Dolby C NR on) >74dB

UK price ~ £175
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[hellosailor]

Alas, both discontinued at any price.

But some misguided search engines got me close with some decks that ARE still sold--at least, in theory.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5 ... sette.html
One Teac W-865R, with very nice specs on paper at least and not a bad price at all.

And another Denon DRW-585
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-DRW-585-Dua ... B0000BZHFQ

Both worth looking into!

"A ray of light at the end of the tunnel" Or the oncoming train?<G>

[later]
Denon has no idea what they made, they've pulled their web pages and said find what you can where you can. (Hmmm...)
Teac/Tascam literally doesn't answer their phones, but the specs and price ($200US) on the W865R, apparently sold under both brand names, aren't bad!

Technical Specifications:

Heads: Deck1: 1 Erase and 1 Record/Playback (rotating)
Deck 2: 1 Erase and 1 Record/Playback (rotating)

Motor: 2 DC Servo motors (1ea. Deck)
Wow & Flutter: 0.09% (WRMS)
Frequency Response: 25 - 19,000 Hz (Metal)
25 - 18,000 Hz (CrO2)
25 - 17,000 Hz (Normal)
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 59 dB (NR off, 3% THD level, Weighted)
69 dB (Dolby B NR on, over 5kHz)
79 dB (Dolby C NR on, over 1kHz)


It looks like a clear winner, unless anyone knows of a problem with this. Tascam also makes some nice units at 3X the price that will record a tape directly to CD, same quality, which in many ways would be very nice. (DO IT NOW, audacity cleanup on the files later.) But the wallet says no, I may not.<G>

[waxcylinder]

I don't think you'd save that much time recording direct to CD and doing the cleanup later in Audacity - versus record with cheaper deck into Audacity, clean-up if necessary and then burn to CD. So I would definitely go for the cheaper option (I also have a preference for pieces of kit that are relatively simple and straightforward - which would also stter me towards a straight cassette deck rather than the combination device)

You should be able to hear as you record whether you need any clean up or not - I make myself a cribsheet as I transcribe each recording, noting the times where any editing/cleaning may be required.

WC

[hellosailor]

Saving time, only in the sense that I could run 250 tapes (x 2 sides) = some 400 hours where the process could mainly happen by itself, without my manual supervision or having it run on the computer. And then just copy the Cd's (which would be backup media at that point, which I'd have to make anyway in some form, again manual time on the computer) into the hard drive.

The vast majority of them won't require cleanup, a few here and there will, but once they are digital--I can do that a bit here and there, instead of making a larger short-term task out of it.

Still, the wallet says "No", the cheaper Tascam/Teac seems like quite enough of a way to go.

[waxcylinder]

The other questions that you have to ask yourself are:

Q1) when you've finished the digitization (either direct to CD or via the computer) - do you want to keep the tapes and the tape deck?

If no, then

Q2) which of the two devices will be most easy to sell on afterwards and at what price? If the you think combination device will have a higher retained value, then it may make economic sense to buy that and sell it on.

The other thing that you will probably want to purchase is a backup disc or discs. I currently backup my WAV files to a pair of discs (one a 250gb disc and the other is a 1TB disc configured as a pair of RAID array mirror-image 500gb discs (it is actually physically two discs in the box). The RAID disc is also used to back up my iTunes libraries.

WC

[hellosailor]

No question there, I'll be digitizing to hard drive and backing up to cd & dvd.

Buying a $200 deck versus buying a $700 deck, the odds are I can't lose anywhere near as much with the $200 deck.<G> Whether I'd keep the tapes and deck afterwards, I won't know for a year or more, but EVENTUALLY they just take up too much space as opposed to a couple of terabyte drives. (Which are getting incredibly cheap.) Might keep the deck "just in case" but I strongly suspect I'll send it and the tapes to a new home.

As George Carlin said, TOO MUCH STUFF.

[vinyldavid]

OK....so you want to know about cassette decks?

Get a used one.

Teac/Tascam made the last GOOD ones. Now they only make crap.

For personal use, I use an Akai GX912, and it sounds GREAT to me, however, they are not all that common.

i'd just recommend getting your Nak rebuilt, as a taoe will always sound the best when played back on the deck that itw as recorded on. This is especially important if you used any sort of Noise Reduction, as no deck is exactly the same and the difference IS noticeable. Or you can get another Nak. They're still around used.

[steve]

One word of caution about second hand tape decks. If the heads are worn, the sound quality will suffer a great deal, and the replacement costs of tape heads can be very expensive.

[hellosailor]

Steve, that's one of the reasons why I said up front I'M NOT INTERESTED IN USED DECKS.

Knowing that TEAC/TASCAM made some good decks, and then made some not so good decks (ROFL) really adds nothing, unless someone specifies how to tell which deck falls into the good or bad group.

FIxing the old Nak is economically unfeasible, two "gourmets" no longer will fix them, the third (who has the best rep & lowest price) even says the same thing, at 1/3 the other guys price, it is just not worth fixing. And, that there are good and bad Nak decks out there--even if I were to play the "used deck gamble" with them. Which I'm not.

I may settle for a borrowed used deck which at least can be borrowed and inspected without enriching UPS, and if it works, just accept whatever loss of quality comes with it. The folks who can fix decks charge like surgeons, the folks who claim to sell decks--often seem surprised to find they either have no stock, or what they have could have been made by FischerPrice as toys.

Go figure.

[steve]

Steve, that's one of the reasons why I said up front I'M NOT INTERESTED IN USED DECKS.

Yes, I know - I've been following this conversation from the start. My last comment was not really for you, but for anyone picking up this thread late on. Good luck with your quest.
Steve