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dug out the old cassette deck...

Rockmeister

Rockmeister

pfm Member
1986 Yamaha K340 in black. Stripped it down, cleaned it up, checked the roller and belt and plugged it in.
To my amazement (it's been 'under the stairs' for 20 years) it works!
I'd just forgotten that tape sounds just great!
I never recorded with Dolby and always made sure the recording was well saturated.
Also under the stairs a box of about 120 cassettes ! Mostly good chrome from TDK (SA in the main I think) and a couple of dozen pre recorded.

I made a film of it all playing but unsure if it will play here. Navigate to my Flikr stream tho and take a quick look if you are into this stuff.

I think the heads will need de-magnitising and a better clean but otherwise, it sounds great. bang goes another 5 weekends. hahahha.

IMG_0448 by John Dutfield, on Flickr

IMG_0449 by John Dutfield, on Flickr
 
AudioAl said:
I viewd your video but no sound playing ?

TAPE it's the future you know :D:cool:
Click to expand...
No sound on the first of the strip down, but on the second one, starting with a view of the tannoy there is and it works fine...just checked.
Do I remember you are into the format?
I started in 1977 with a Pioneer 9191 and that stayed until CD happened when I traded it in (foolish boy) but then the next year bought this. Only a 2 head deck but excellent SQ and, as proven here, reliable and well made.

Some of the oldest tapes have some drop out, but most seem fine.
 
Nice!

Cassettes in 2022 make absolutely no sense, but it gives you something to do in addition to simply re-playing music.

Agreed on not recording with dolby NR if your deck can cope with without it, it was simply not needed for me as hiss was rather low and without having to record too hot either.
 
Nice that. Sounds alright too.

Indeed, cassettes make no sense now but they're just great aren't they. Moving wheels, flashing lights, damped ejects, flipping the tape over in one hand, rewinding with a Bic.

I've bought more decks (and tapes) this year than in the previous 30, and hoping to pick up another one on Thursday. No need for them but they're such lovely things and once they're gone they won't be coming back, so why not eh.
 
hahahaha. Me too lol
I never owned a Nakamichi but they were sold in the store where I worked on weekends. Kind owners allowed me to record tapes on theur CR 7 which I RAN home to try, only to think what????
I think I remember hearing that Nakamichi recordings were 'different' (bias??) a bit like Deutsche Gramaphone used a different RIAA curve from everyone else so, in both cases, unless you had the right set up for replay they didn't sound as good as they should.
 
Despite drooling over them in shops (eject button first, obvs.) I've never as much as put a tape in a Nak, let alone played or recorded one, so I don't know if that's a thing as such. Maybe it's as simple as the decks not being in exact azimuth / alignment as each other?

Would be nice to pick up a few and find out, but prices have gone way up. My head was very much turned by the Dragon that briefly appeared in the classifieds here a few weeks back, but at 3 grand it's very difficult to justify. Talk over on Tapeheads suggests perhaps the market top has been reached and prices could start to come down, but who knows.

Oh, and FWIW the ex-Yamaha tech who runs the site says don't bother demagnetising your deck as it makes no difference.
 
deebster said:
Despite drooling over them in shops (eject button first, obvs.) I've never as much as put a tape in a Nak, let alone played or recorded one, so I don't know if that's a thing as such. Maybe it's as simple as the decks not being in exact azimuth / alignment as each other?

Would be nice to pick up a few and find out, but prices have gone way up. My head was very much turned by the Dragon that briefly appeared in the classifieds here a few weeks back, but at 3 grand it's very difficult to justify. Talk over on Tapeheads suggests perhaps the market top has been reached and prices could start to come down, but who knows.

Oh, and FWIW the ex-Yamaha tech who runs the site says don't bother demagnetising your deck as it makes no difference.
Click to expand...

Oh? OK. I admit that I was never sure i heard much so? hahaha. OK
One less expense lol ta.
 
I bought a little-used Yamaha KX-580 from a PFM member some years ago, mainly to listen to my large
collection of radio plays.
It’s still used to catch a radio programme, as there’s always a tape ready inside.
I know, you can catch up on BBC Sounds...
 
Absolutely no need for cassettes these days. It's been at least 20 years since I had a car in which cassettes could be played. Yet I keep a Nakamichi and a collection of NOS cassettes to feed it once in a while. There is something satisfying in making mix-tapes from my Tidal subscription.
 
Nakamichi LX-3 (2-head)/LX-5 (3-head), both dual capstan. Cassette tape machine lust starts here. Damped eject plus damped extra controls access panel. Ohhh, Matron!

I got mine for CDN$50. from a friend who was ditching both cassette and his LPs (and his LP12) in favour of CD, this well over 30 years ago now. Needs a service (on the bucket list of things to do).

magnitofon.jpg
 
AudioAl said:
Just had a rebuild on my Dragon.
Click to expand...
Having worked for an authorized dealership post uni, I've still some recordings here that were made on LX-7, LX-9 and Dragon. All recordings were indistinguishable from one another using the same tapes and sources. Just slightly more effort to fully optimize prep for that 'perfect' recording with the top LX models. No Dolby, recorded just hot enough to know better, low enough to get away with.

The first gen real time copies of Nakamichi master recordings still resonate within my mind. Little could touch these demo tapes for sound quality when played on any Nak dual cap 'Silent Mechanism' (aka 'Diffused Resonance Transport System'). We were provided one such transport mech within a perspex box in order to better explain the advantages of this to punters, however, one simply needed to push play to make a sale. CD was yet to happen.
 
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