Topic: Ultimate analog cassette > 24 bit set up?

[mhibbs]

Right now I am looking at the Sony ES TC-KA1ESA, a single well cassette deck.

However, are there cassette decks better than this?

Oh yeah there are better decks, the Nakamichi Dragon is a good example of one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3073607205

[leegeddy]

here's a CR-7A

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3072561200&category=4784

i paid around $900 for mine in 1990. i've seen the CR-7A go for around $700 these days.

marc

[dklein]

oh man...those pictures are great.  The Dragon is just a beautiful piece of machinery.  Nakamichi was so into the craft in those days, not 'lifestyle' electronics that they went into.

I bought a 505 - that 3 head deck that flips your tape around.  It was cool and still works great.  I used to sell the stuff and we could buy Nak stuff direct for 40% of the retail price (after passing your Nakamich product knowledge test!)  

[leegeddy]

>>Nakamichi was so into the craft in those days, not 'lifestyle' electronics that they went into.

i lost all interest in their new direction.  the cassette days obviously died with the cd era, but i still love some of those tape recordings

>>I bought a 505 - that 3 head deck that flips your tape around.  It was cool and still works great.  I used to sell the stuff and we could buy Nak stuff direct for 40% of the retail price (after passing your Nakamich product knowledge test!)  

ahh, those uni-directional auto reverse decks were quite innovative for their time. the 505 is a great machine from what i've seen.

i bought my first Nak deck in '86/'87 or so. it was the TD-500, which was a car Tuner/Deck w/ manual azimuth alignment!!  i paid a small fortune for that damn tape deck and then i upgraded it to the TD-700 (basically the same deck with search functions).   the CR-3A was my first 3 head home deck which i quicky upgraded to a CR-7A few years later.   love those old Naks!!

marc

[BobW]

Def an older Nak if you can find a well maintained one in good shape.
Head alignment adjustment would be a great feature, if you are trying to match a lost deck.

On the D/A:
If portability isn't an issue, what about a Rosetta ?
Apogee does make some good sounding stuff and they are getting reasonable.  Some folks will tell you Benchmark, others Grace.  I'd bet you'd be very happy with any of the three from an analog source with as much noise as cassette.