cassettes

[mantis]

I have a Tape Deck that sits along side of all the other gear I don't use anymore. I broke it out a few years ago to listen to a few tapes. The quality is terrible compared to the quality of today. A brand new tape with perfectly clean heads has pretty good sound until you play that tape a few times.
I don't hold on to the past , Vinyl , 8 tracks and Tapes stay where they should , in the past.

[mhardy6647]

heh. Eight-tracks...

[maggiefan]

Wow, that pic brings back some memories. I had a 700 back in '72 or '73 maybe. It really had the "cool" factor going on.

[Toolfan66]

Here is a 1000 for sale

http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/3584932247.html

[mhardy6647]

Nakamichi themselves would have probably said that the 1000ZXL and/or the Dragon surpassed the original 1000.

I'd love to have a 700 or a 1000... but they're so 1970s - note the padded vinyl covered cassette door on the 1000 ;-) It's like a vinyl top on a 1977 LTD Brougham :-)

The wedge-shaped 600 (two head) deck was pretty cool, too...

[Msabot1]

Had one of those Tecniques DBX units,can't remember the model,was big and heavy!! Used to record my MFSL albums and give em as gifts for birthdays and such...made great recordings and I still have some in one of those shoeboxes. One in particular is U2 at Red Rocks that I got off a simulcast on TV. Gonna have to find that one.

[mhardy6647]

Had one of those Tecniques DBX units,can't remember the model,was big and heavy!! Used to record my MFSL albums and give em as gifts for birthdays and such...made great recordings and I still have some in one of those shoeboxes. One in particular is U2 at Red Rocks that I got off a simulcast on TV. Gonna have to find that one.

Couple of dBX equipped Technics decks have passed through here - but they were lower-end, lesser decks. Not awful (Matsu****a/Technics made generally quite decent cassette decks) but nothin' to write home about, either.

Curious as to which model you might have had?

[cnh]

I thought dbx recordings were supposed to compensate for the so so quality of the Technics compared to higher models, in that dbx played on the same machine that it was recorded on trumped Dolby B and C and whatever else "higher" end machines had on them? You just couldn't play them anywhere else and expect much?

cnh

[George Grand]

I have a Tape Deck that sits along side of all the other gear I don't use anymore. I broke it out a few years ago to listen to a few tapes. The quality is terrible compared to the quality of today. A brand new tape with perfectly clean heads has pretty good sound until you play that tape a few times.
I don't hold on to the past , Vinyl , 8 tracks and Tapes stay where they should , in the past.

Still not getting the BIG picture.

Tandberg cassette decks are top flight machines.

[mhardy6647]

Yup,that they were/are.
Only Tandbergs at my house are reel to reels, so I've got nothing else to add, unfortunately (or fortunately).

[Danny Tse]

IME any and all of the Sony three-head decks were all quite respectable

The TC-K670 was rated 20-20K Hz with metal tapes. The transport mechanism was rock steady and dead quiet. It certainly trumped the Sony ES auto-reverse cassette deck I had before.

Btw, my sister still have a case of brand-new, unopened Sony Metal Master (the one with the ceramic shell) cassette blank tapes.

[Keiko]

heh. Eight-tracks...

You've really outdone yourself this time, Mr. H.

[Keiko]

Canned pic, but have a Yamaha KX-W900U in my main rig.

[Msabot1]

At the time was on a budget...today is somewhat different than in 81! All I remember that it was big and silver, the DBX was an encoder that compensated for noise on playback! You could use tapes recorded with DBX on other gear,worked out well too! Gave lots of em as gifts with no complaints...still have a few like that Red Rocks one I taped off that simulcast! believe old MTV is where I recorded that!

[Keiko]

Vinyl , 8 tracks and Tapes stay where they should , in the past.

I'd say that's open for conjecture. I'd stake my lowly Technics SL-1210M5G up against any digital source and give it a run for the money.

Bring it!

[George Grand]

I'd say that's open for conjecture. I'd stake my lowly Technics SL-1210M5G up against any digital source and give it a run for the money.

Bring it!

I'd say, there's probably more than one customer that has dragged a turntable or cassette deck out of a closet, and plugged it into the new receiver he just installed, no matter what he told them, after he left the premises. And had fun.

[Rivrrat]

I have an old Carver TDR-1500 taking up space in the closet. I just went through our old A/V armoire and found the remote and rack mount ears. I was surprised they were that easy to find.

[ericks0ns]

Enjoying all the analog tape love here . After several failed attempts at getting a working Dragon, I opted instead for a restored Nak Cr-7a from ESL. I was also lucky enough to snag a Revox H1 (Not the H11) from an overseas owner in good condition. And I tracked down an Akai GFX-71 just for nostalgia. That was the one I always wanted to buy from"Crazy Eddie" but could not afford back in 1982. And I have a few 8 tracks as well. But no question the restored NAK sounds the best.

[mhardy6647]

The topline Nakamichis and the Tandbergs, in my experience, are somewhat touchy and require (especially the Naks) some routine primping and preening to work to their full potential. They're sort of the Italian sports cars - or trophy wives - of analog audio decks :-)

[Msabot1]

I remember those'Crazy Eddie' ads on TV....buy the way I found that Red Rocks tape...found one of a concert Roxy Music did in Paris! Both of em still sound super after all this time...imagine that!

[Keiko]

I'd say, there's probably more than one customer that has dragged a turntable or cassette deck out of a closet, and plugged it into the new receiver he just installed, no matter what he told them, after he left the premises. And had fun.

And that's what it's all about anyway. Having fun and enjoying the music, no matter the source. Time to spin me some Grand vinyl.

[mhardy6647]

[cnh]

I remember those'Crazy Eddie' ads on TV....buy the way I found that Red Rocks tape...found one of a concert Roxy Music did in Paris! Both of em still sound super after all this time...imagine that!

Excuse a brief aside; but do any of you Jersey/N.Y. guys remember the famous Crazy Eddie Thanksgiving TV ad where the guy comes on dressed as a Turkey and does his normal routine without uttering one word in English, he gobble, gobbles the entire commercial and ends with a big Our Prices are insane! in Gobble language. Man, oh man, my roommates and I were dying on the floor with that! He had such a big following by that point that even Turkeys were not off limits. One of the great "Crazy" moments for those that were there.

Now back to tapes. Which are certainly not "dead"!

cnh

[Msabot1]

Hey...what happend to ol CRAZY EDDIE ? I got a big kick out of his adds!!

[mhardy6647]

institutionalized ;-)

[Msabot1]

And why am I not surprised??? LMAO

[teekay0007]

Question: What are the hours of operation and how much is admission to the Mark Hardy Audio Museum/Playground?


Ooh, ooh!....and a followup....can we touch and play with the equipment, or is it a strictly guided tour/demo kind of a place?

[mhardy6647]

Admission's free - you just have to take a piece of crap... umm, I mean, an exhibit with you in order to leave! :-)

Now... me... I want to visit the Kenneth Swauger Museum. His stuff is much cooler on average than mine...