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Didnt realise how good cassettes could sound

when I tried to get back in to tape replay a couple of years ago it took me a while to realise that old tapes are constantly shedding (very much more so than when they were new obvs), and that alone can cause many of the replay problems encountered even with old unserviced decks (i.e. slow-down / muffling) etc.

What brands were you having issues with? I’ve been really lucky with cassettes, I tended to buy Japanese stuff (TDK, Maxell, That’s) and they all seem fine without any shedding. With open reel I’ve certainly had issues with Ampex, Scotch (Ampex), Radio Shack (Ampex) etc, but again the Japanese stuff seems fine. I actually ended up baking an old Ampex master which got it to play well enough to digitise it. The food dehumidifier could be a really good option here if it is big enough to take a 7” reel!
 
Naks are special, and can make the compact cassette sound better than it has any right to. Even the humble TDK-D (early pre-90s formulation) can sound surprisingly close to the source when properly calibrated and recorded on a Nak. Most of my stash of NOS cassettes are type 1 TDKs (D, AD and AD-Xs), which are plenty good enough to feed my Nak and keep it going.
 
The quality from a decent correctly biased high-end three head deck can be surprisingly good. Annoyingly I could never afford/justify one at the time I used cassette. The best I had was a Sony Walkman Pro (still got one). A lovely thing, but just not in the same league as a three-head Nak, Revox etc. I was amazed watching ‘Cassette Comeback’ on YouTube at the quality he could get out of a humble TDK D on his Dragon, ZX9, Revox etc. If anything a nicer sound than the source as that minuscule percentage of analogue compression can help a digital file (he always used YouTube’s copyright-free library). Certainly gave me a lot more respect for cassette as a format. I never used it recreationally at the time, my tapes are all old band demos etc. I never did ‘mix tapes’ etc, way too much the vinyl junkie for that!

PS One thing ‘Cassette Comeback’ taught me is in hindsight I think I prefer the sound of a really good ferric to a high-bias/chrome or metal type. I guess now the attraction is the inherent ‘cassetteness’ of the sound, that slight warmth and thump. A perfect copy is so easy digitally it becomes unattractive. It is one reason I’m really reluctant to work on my ancient Akai 4000DB reel to real - it just sounds so good! It adds analogue!
 
The quality from a decent correctly biased high-end three head deck can be surprisingly good.
I've owned three 3-headers along my journey.

The first was a Teac A-770 in early 1980s. It was good enough to get close to the source with Type 2 tapes, but it didn't floor me.

Then came a Nak 1.5 in early 1990s, which was jaw-droppingly good compared to what I've had before. I regrettably sold it to buy some more Naim kit.

I missed cassettes so much I bought a Pioneer CT-95 in the late 90s to fill the void. The Pioneer was technically brilliant, and made great recordings. Somehow, it didn't have the groove of the Nak.

About two or three years ago, my Nak 1.5 (at least I think it was mine - had the same Tapon plug I installed) reappeared for auction. We've been reunited since.
 
Yes but….machines that don’t work properly without significant intervention and regular servicing, media with inconsistent sound quality - that’s exactly what people want out of this hobby. Heaven! and saves on having to fork out thousands for dumb accessories that don’t actually make a difference.

Useful advise for cassette deck ownrers...

Power them up and exercise ALL the functions at least every three months.

I found / rescued a Nakamichi Dragon discarded in a waste contaIner,

When I tried it out, the play mech would not complete its load cycle.

I opened it up and just behind the front panel on the inside was a large plastic cog that was trying to turn, I gave it a gentle push with my index finger, the load cycle completed and worked perfectly every time I pressed the play button afterwards.

What a lucky find eh?

I figured out that the original owner had neglected his Nak for ages, in a preference for playing CDs
 
When I was at college I used to record vinyl onto R2R and thence to cassette. (401/SME3012/V15; Revox, Aiwa and other cassette machines). Always highly acceptable results then but I wonder what the opinion would be now. My poor neglected 3 head Denon is probably beyond redemption now assuming I can find it in the dust.
 
A lot of tape deck transport issues are down to sticky/solid ancient grease that ideally needs cleaning right off. This was the case with my WMD6C, there’s a thread here in the classic room detailing my strip-down and clean. The grease on the pivot that enabled an idler to move between fast-wind functions had frozen absolutely solid. I did the belts and drive idler, which likely wasn’t necessary, and it has run fine ever since.
 
Yes, a lot of 80’s Sony cassette decks suffer from that, as well as CD players like the good old CDP-101 (of which I have three, all working fine after a good clean).
 
My Akai 4000DB was the same, the grease on the pivot that enabled the pinch-roller to be tensioned against the capstan had frozen which reduced the tension and made for slippage and speed instability. Took a little figuring out, but diluting/cleaning off the grease with naphtha sorted it.
 
What brands were you having issues with? I’ve been really lucky with cassettes, I tended to buy Japanese stuff (TDK, Maxell, That’s) and they all seem fine without any shedding. With open reel I’ve certainly had issues with Ampex, Scotch (Ampex), Radio Shack (Ampex) etc, but again the Japanese stuff seems fine. I actually ended up baking an old Ampex master which got it to play well enough to digitise it. The food dehumidifier could be a really good option here if it is big enough to take a 7” reel!

I think even the cheapest kind I've got would indeed take a 7inch reel - but I am talking, in terms of direct experience, only about small format:

I hoovered up a load of pre-recorded (commercial releases) from ebay: from the late '60s (a 'Pepper' - which actually sounded great when it played ok - didn't heat that one, although I still have it, and should give it a go) through to the late 80s (a few 90s I think).
So - not the higher quality tapes for home-recording which I assume you're referring to ... ?

I made a post in another thread a while back - I'm not sure what I'm talking about is sticky shed syndrome as per Open Reel tapes as such - although the sound issues, and 'cure' are effectively the same. So it's still linked to shedding - just with small format tapes, it's not so dramatically obvious and ... er ... sticky.

I gave up on it due to 'costs' ('tric and enviro), and also the tedium factor tbh (mostly that) - and that was before the huge s**t-fest we're in now.

But honestly - I can only say it worked for me, short-term at least. To begin with I was blaming the decks (all picked up used from ebay / cash-convertors etc).
It's probable that they did need servicing and thus may have been compounding the problem (in terms of 'slow-down' anyway), but the heating (round about 60 degrees for 8hrs or so, as per tape-heads advice) did get all the ones I tried playing.
 
I've just been listening to an old Sony UX-S C90 Type ll cassette on my Denon 510 deck. I didn't know this humble machine could sound so good.

Seems to be the best sounding tape I have found so far, from my loft collection. Great dynamics, depth and stability.

Doubt if I will get too many more new UX-S's though.
They're about 20 quid a pop plus another 20 postage from far away.

Must be made of gold!
 
Yes, a lot of 80’s Sony cassette decks suffer from that, as well as CD players like the good old CDP-101 (of which I have three, all working fine after a good clean).

The grand old Sony CDP 101 need the loading sled lubricated else they fail!

I have had two of these heavy lovely lumps playing up until lubed
 
I had an Aiwa ADF-810 3 head deck which I loved to bits. At 200 quid retail it was a steal. I used almost exclusively TDK AR and would FF-RW every new tape before use, then set up bias and sensitivity of each individual tape by ear. I got, to these ears, remarkably close to the original.
As I recall, I bought a CD Recorder when I got a car with a CDP. Around 2006.
The Aiwa went into the loft. When I got it out for a play, I made the mistake of putting a tape into fast forward straight away and of course it tangled and jammed. Since there was also a broken power switch, I just binned it.
 
I think I had it out of the loft for a good while before useing it, so it was probably up to room temp, but running at normal speed might have let the belts and wheels sort themselves out. Still no way of knowing what would have happened when I ran it fast though.
 


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