I believe in cassettes now. Sony tc-k870es

I believe in cassettes now. Sony tc-k870es

I was lamenting about my broken Aiwa cassette player and opting for another, purely for cosmetics, when ST member Grateful said not to fuss with them and go after a 3-head unit, or certain Nakamichi 2 heads.

Well, AK friend MJarve was kind enough to send me a 3 head Sony tc-k870es, and although I liked the Aiwa, I've never, NEVER heard a tape sound so good.

Clean, no hiss, and just heavenly sounding. The smooth presentation rivals my best DACs, and is as pleasant to listen to as my Pioneer RT-909 and various record players.



Thank you, Mr. Jarve, and Grateful. I'm now aware of how nice a cassette can sound.

NOW? Wasn't the time to believe in cassettes about 25 years ago?
I have a Nakamichi deck I should get refurbed and give them another try.
But I have SO much vinyl and CD...

I know just what you mean, as I compared a vintage Technics which I had bought for my dad with a more modern Denon unit. The Technics is going to the DAV. I like Denons.

Laz

that's good to hear, delihaus! now how about you mosey on over to WWW.TAPEHEADS.NET and see if they can pervert you all the way with their NAKAMICHI DRAGONs and TDK MA-XGs? there's a lot of swell folks over there, and i'm deeply hoping to rejoin them next month if matt deems me worthy to...

I must admit my experience with many a vintage to semi-mosern cassette player over the yesrs was fun but not up to the level of enjoyment a nice DAC, TT with decent stylus, or reel to reel could provide. And I've heard nice decks in set-ups that were fantastic, but this was the rare exception.

Putting a quality cassette player into my personal system allowed me a better grasp of quality that can be attained, however, with a top-notch deck. One that was clearer and a more honest example of cassette capabilities.

I am glad you like that deck, as I have that same Sony deck myself. It fits in well in my Sony ES stack of gear.

Sony made great decks all the way from Walkman units on up. Glad to hear you got a good one. I've never had an ES unit, but Sony decks hold a special place on my shelves.

and i've had nothing but beautiful results using a virgin 1990 TDK MA-XG with my PIONEER CT-W910R dual deck to record choice cuts from the soundtrack of the "Bubblegum Crisis" Anime (Japanese Animation) series, with my PIONEER PD-91 CDP as the source. i swear that the resultant recording is nearly indistinguishable from the source CD! a solid deck, plus an unparelelled cassette blank like the MA-XG series, equals total magic!! that cassette blank series, and this deck of mine, which is IMO PIONEER's very best dual deck in their history, and the best deck i could ever have short of a CT-S800/91, have singlehandedly turned compact cassette from something that i had once largely regarded as the ass-end of my system, to a worthy component of it to be justly proud of!!

This post has been edited by MacGyver on December 27, 2008 09:12 am

I can only concur that tape is a "must have" for any system. My favorite and flagship deck is my Denon DN-790R. Many of the Yamaha decks are equally impressive. I have a KX-930 three head and a KX-300U. Even that lowly two-head deck makes some sweet recordings. My one remaining "wish list" deck is a KX-690. Someday I hope to get a good one.

Very Cool Paul!! Now you can start to make some great tape complations of all your favorite recordings. And you don't have to keep going over to the TT and CDP as much, welcome to the madness. There's lot's of great tapes to be had at decent prices (like all things in this hobby) I personally like to buy large lot's of used high quality type II and metal tapes for cheap $'s. Really nice Sony ES !!

Maybe you guys can help me with this issue.
I never had a great tape deck. The one and only i remember i had was an Akai, but don't remember the model, what i do remember well was that i had a better sound coming from a home recorded tape than from a pre-recorded one. Can someone explain me why this happens, even today?

because the record companies always used the cheapest bulk blank cassette stock they could find for prerecorded cassette manufacture. even the lowest rung offerings of the major blank tape manufacturers were usually far better than the average pre-recorded tape. maximum profit, minimum effert, to be sure. every company had their own scientists in japan to develop their unique product lines. meanwhile, record companies and the like could get mass quantities of third world manufactured, piss-poor formulation cassette blanks. i have actually heard some that couldn't even reproduce voice without it sounding like someone talking under a thick blanket. i honestly wouldn't be the least suprised to find out that the record companies' custom cassette recording enhancements such as CAPITOL's "XDR" and MCA's "HQ" were specifically developed to somehow wrest barely acceptable performance from substandard cassette tape. in sum, yes indeed, a competant cassette deck and the majority of blanks made by the major tape companies are full well capable of far better results then the monolithic record giants' expensive high-speed mass recorders and crap-ass blanks ever were...

This post has been edited by MacGyver on December 27, 2008 03:29 pm

because the record companies always used the cheapest bulk blank cassette stock they could find for prerecorded cassette manufacture. even the lowest rung offerings of the major blank tape manufacturers were usually far better than the average pre-recorded tape. maximum profit, minimum effert, to be sure. every company had their own scientists in japan to develop their unique product lines. meanwhile, record companies and the like could get mass quantities of third world manufactured, piss-poor formulation cassette blanks. i have actually heard some that couldn't even reproduce voice without it sounding like someone talking under a thick blanket. i honestly wouldn't be the least suprised to find out that the record companies' custom cassette recording enhancements such as CAPITOL's "XDR" and MCA's "HQ" were specifically developed to somehow wrest barely acceptable performance from substandard cassette tape. in sum, yes indeed, a competant cassette deck and the majority of blanks made by the major tape companies are full well capable of far better results then the monolithic record giants' expensive high-speed mass recorders and crap-ass blanks ever were...

I concur with you. Tanx.

because the record companies always used the cheapest bulk blank cassette stock they could find for prerecorded cassette manufacture. even the lowest rung offerings of the major blank tape manufacturers were usually far better than the average pre-recorded tape. maximum profit, minimum effert, to be sure. every company had their own scientists in japan to develop their unique product lines. meanwhile, record companies and the like could get mass quantities of third world manufactured, piss-poor formulation cassette blanks. i have actually heard some that couldn't even reproduce voice without it sounding like someone talking under a thick blanket. i honestly wouldn't be the least suprised to find out that the record companies' custom cassette recording enhancements such as CAPITOL's "XDR" and MCA's "HQ" were specifically developed to somehow wrest barely acceptable performance from substandard cassette tape. in sum, yes indeed, a competant cassette deck and the majority of blanks made by the major tape companies are full well capable of far better results then the monolithic record giants' expensive high-speed mass recorders and crap-ass blanks ever were...

+1

I really liked the cassette format and loved the look of the TOTL cassette decks back in the '80's. I had a nice Harman Kardon 3 head deck, and it made great recordings on TDK metal tape. I gave it away when I moved to Oregon in late '95.

I'm recording today. I bought a 2 head LX3 that supposidly didn't play. I have to say I'm astonished at the sound quality. The reason I like it so much Is because it seems to take the edge off of my cds.
I don't know if it makes a difference ; but everything I record off of is going thru a tube somewhere.