Topic: Rec for cass decks

[super-phat-al]

Just picked up 200 analog tapes from Bri.  Now i need a nice deck to use to transfer.  I have a deck but dont wanna use it for transfers.  looking in the high school student budget.

[leegeddy]

Just picked up 200 analog tapes from Bri.  Now i need a nice deck to use to transfer.  I have a deck but dont wanna use it for transfers.  looking in the high school student budget.

i use a Nakamichi deck. the model choices are endless, mostly dictated by how much you're willing to spend.  

marc

[jpschust]

also the old denons are great

[jlykos]

I have a Sony ES and it is a tank.  Highly recommended!

[Tim]

is that a 3 head sony Jamie?

I had one of those back in the day, really nice...

Al - you should be able to find some decent decks for a good price, just sniff around...

[jlykos]

is that a 3 head sony Jamie?

I had one of those back in the day, really nice...

Al - you should be able to find some decent decks for a good price, just sniff around...

Yes, it is the KA2ES.  Three heads and an absolute tank.  One of the best equipment purchases I ever made.

[zowie]

I have an LX-3 bought for about $60.  It's "head" and shoulders above the late 80s Denon I owned previously -- smoother highs, much more low level detail, better pitch stability.  I've even started listening to my old cassettes again for enjoyment, although I only bought it to do some transfers.

[coop]

    i have a nakamici MR-2 that i posted in the yard sale a while back - no takers. it works fine, and has been sitting in it's box for about 7 months. it is all yours for 75.00
    let me know via PM. take care
  coop

[leegeddy]

i've transferred many masters and low gen tapes for friends.  

IMHO, the single most important feature one needs to pull the best signal from a tape is the Head Azimuth alignment.

deck makers such as Nakamichi and Tascam made them in the past.  i can tell you from recent experience that getting the correct alignment of the playback head is essential in bring out the full potential in a recording.

i use a Nak CR-7A for all my tape transfers, and the unit has served me well for close to 15years.

marc

[leegeddy]

Will a cassette deck such as those mentioned above make a noticeable difference in a transfer to a pc?  i transferred quite a few cassettes this past year and i got decidedly mixed results(using the cassette deck from my old aiwa all in one college stereo).  if spending 75 on a cassette deck will really help then that is great.  any other tips and suggestions?  
i tried putting my ad-20 in the mix and that didn't help much.  other than that i couldn't think of much to try.

absolutely!!  your playback cassette deck is the most important equipment in your transfer, IMO.  

here's an offer for ya:  send me 1 cassette that you want transferred.  i'll put it to a DAT and send them back to you.  you make your own Cassette > DAT transfer and make a comparison.  

if you don't hear a significant difference, then i'll happily offer you my apologies for wasting your time and TS's bandwidth.  

i think you'll be quite surprised

marc

[zowie]

Agreed.

Of course, if the tape is horrendous the deck matters much less.

[VA_TAPER]

http://www.archive.org/audio/etree-details-db.php?id=5342

SBD+Aud Matrix->Cassette + 12 years->Nakamichi RX-505->Sony DTC-A6

transfer came out quite nice!!

[zowie]

Only if your DAT has better converters than your sound card.  If you have a good card (USB, or whatever), then no.

I transfer tapes (and most other sources) with a CDR-W33, Sony's pro CD recorder that has SBM and also a limiter and eq.  Good sound, and big advantage convenience-wize since it's in my stereo rack with the cassette deck.  I can then pop the discs in the computer and do whatever else I might want with them (e.g., noise reduction).  But I might stop this method since recently upgrading to 24/96 capability on my computer.

[Chuck]

I kept my old Sony D-6 (a portable Dolby C cassette deck). I also have a Nak BX-2 home cassette deck. When I want to transfer one of my masters I use the D-6 and do the A/D with the AD-1000.
Point being:
I use the exact same deck I recorded with to do the transfer. This is the ideal situation. For tapes I did not record myself I use the BX-2.