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Evolution of cassette decks (1970s Akai & Marantz vs 1980s Technics etc)

ToTo Man

ToTo Man

the band not the dog
Adding a reel-to-reel to my system has inspired me to dust-off my cassette decks. I have four of them: a majestic Akai GXC-570D (1975-1978?), a very cool looking Marantz 5220 (1974?) and two rather boring by comparison Technics RS-B11W twin-decks (1984-1985?). One of the Technics has been in the family since new and was used by me almost everyday for a period of about 7 years (fond memories :)), the second I picked up on eBay for beer money.

I had really high hopes for the Akai, being a TOTL deck, but when I bought it around 15yrs ago it had issues, the main one being gooey pinch rollers. After two unsuccessful trips to my then go-to local tech that ended in a rather acrimonious parting of ways after he returned the deck to me in a poorer operational state (he basically shaved the rubber away to almost nothing which made wow and flutter intolerable!), I sent the butchered rollers over to Terry DeWitt in the States to be re-rubbered. Meanwhile I sourced and installed a new drive belt. The restored rollers cured the warble issue but I still wasn't blown away with the sound of the deck, it didn't match up to my Technics RS-B11W, so it's been parked on the shelf ever since.

I'd gladly pay to have the 570D refurb'd by a cassette deck expert if I knew it would improve its performance, but what if what I'm hearing is simply the limitations of 1970s cassette deck technology?

I tried the GXC-570 again yesterday after a ten year hiatus, cleaning the heads and capstans with IPA and demagnetising the entire transport path with my TEAC E-3 demagger (the latter of which I hadn't done previously). Everything still works ok (belt and rollers still look good and all transport functions and other buttons working), but the performance is still much as I remember it; a bit underwhelming.

If I upload some audio clips of the GXC-570D and Technics RS-B11W playing the same tapes, would it be possible to speculate on whether the 570D’s performance is simply of its time or if there are audible issues that could be fixed?

PS - I haven’t dared test the Marantz 5220 as I suspect it will be in need of new belts. If anyone could walk me through how to change the belts on a 5220 I'd be much obliged! ;)
 
As far as I can tell as time went on build quality went down (dramatically), but technology advanced. Even so I’d expect a perfectly working example of a high-end three-head machine like the Akai to beat a low-end twin cassette such as the Technics.

Many issues may be easily attributed to age, e.g. wow/flutter belts, idlers etc, noise and poor frequency response worn heads, failed capacitors etc. It can likely be improved, but it will never handle metal tapes, have Dolby C, S, HX Pro or whatever as it is of its era. I’d still expect the fact the Akai is a three-head machine to be an enormous advantage as it can be tweaked on the fly for best bias and EQ. There is also the possibility that whoever had at it for service did something as simple as knocking the azimuth off or similar. It is a beautiful machine (though not as astonishingly cool as the 5220, which is the best looking cassette deck ever IMHO), so may well be worth restoring if the heads are good and you can find a genuinely good pinch roller.

PS I have a similar Technics in sitting in Cassette Deck Mountain, an RS-T265, which is later, likely even flimsier, and manages to pack two auto-reverse decks in for whatever reason. It was part of the bargain eBay ‘radiogram’ listing that landed me a pair of Tannoys for peanuts. In fairness to it it actually sounds very good and seems to work perfectly, I was surprised by both, though I have zero nostalgia for this era. For me a cassette deck has to be either a ‘70s silver-face or a Walkman Pro. I have to admit I don’t even care that they can sound a bit ‘cassettey’ as that’s all part of that nostalgia. I’d never consider using the medium for anything serious. Any appeal is purely the nice machinery and history to me, the sound quality of even the very best will never equal what I could get from my Mac and Focusrite I/O box.
 
I slightly regret, for history and nostalgia reasons, all the early (73-76 ish) up market Akai decks I've skipped over the years... Top loaders all of 'em. Haven't even seen one for about 20 years but they were being given away or were a fiver back in the day.. GXC75D etc etc
 
Tony L said:
It is a beautiful machine (though not as astonishingly cool as the 5220, which is the best looking cassette deck ever IMHO)...
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For me that honour belongs to the Yamaha TC 800.

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Tony L said:
As far as I can tell as time went on build quality went down (dramatically), but technology advanced. Even so I’d expect a perfectly working example of a high-end three-head machine like the Akai to beat a low-end twin cassette such as the Technics.

Many issues may be easily attributed to age, e.g. wow/flutter belts, idlers etc, noise and poor frequency response worn heads, failed capacitors etc. It can likely be improved, but it will never handle metal tapes, have Dolby C, S, HX Pro or whatever as it is of its era. I’d still expect the fact the Akai is a three-head machine to be an enormous advantage as it can be tweaked on the fly for best bias and EQ. There is also the possibility that whoever had at it for service did something as simple as knocking the azimuth off or similar. It is a beautiful machine (though not as astonishingly cool as the 5220, which is the best looking cassette deck ever IMHO), so may well be worth restoring if the heads are good and you can find a genuinely good pinch roller.

PS I have a similar Technics in sitting in Cassette Deck Mountain, an RS-T265, which is later, likely even flimsier, and manages to pack two auto-reverse decks in for whatever reason. It was part of the bargain eBay ‘radiogram’ listing that landed me a pair of Tannoys for peanuts. In fairness to it it actually sounds very good and seems to work perfectly, I was very surprised by both, though I have zero nostalgia for this era. For me a cassette deck has to be either a ‘70s silver-face or a Walkman Pro. I have to admit I don’t even care that they can sound a bit ‘cassettey’ as that’s all part of that nostalgia. I’d never consider using the medium for anything serious. Any appeal is purely the nice machinery and history to me, the sound quality of even the very best will never equal what I could get from my Mac and Focusrite I/O box.
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I might have spoken too soon re the Technics and be remembering it with rose-tinted glasses, as I've just got it back out the cupboard and it's not as spectacular sounding as I remember, though admittedly I've only tried it with the onboard headphone output (I'll hook it up to my hifi tomorrow after I've demagged it). Interestingly the best sounding tapes on it are the Maxell UR ferrics I recorded on it in the mid-2000s. The TDK SAs I did in the late 90s seem to have lost their top-end by comparison and almost all have several seconds of pre-echo print through! I guess that's what I get for leaving them stand for 20+ years and not FF them periodically.

PS - I've never quite understood the appeal of Dolby B or how it's supposed to work. Whenever I've turned it on when playing a shop-bought pre-recorded cassette with the Dolby B logo it sounds like the music is underwater, - HF is rolled off and I hear a 'pumping' sensation. This happens with both the Technics and the Akai.
 
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ToTo Man said:
PS - I've never quite understood the appeal of Dolby B or how it's supposed to worth. Whenever I've turned it on when playing a shop-bought pre-recorded cassette with the Dolby B logo it makes it sound like the music is underwater, - HF gets rolled off and I get a 'pumping' sensation. This happens with both the Technics and the Akai.
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On the vast majority of decks it is simply horrible IMO, exactly as you describe. I get the impression that it works ok on top-end Naks etc, but it needs to be calibrated.

I actually bought a couple of NOS pre-recorded cassettes the other day as ECM were knocking a few titles they’d found out cheap, so I bought a couple of Keith Jarrett albums (Bye Bye Blackbird and Tribute) just to have something other than old band demos to assess cassette decks with. ECM were more upmarket than most so they are chrome, but they certainly sound better on my WM-D6C with Dolby off despite allegedly being B encoded. I suspect I need to get that deck properly calibrated to be honest, I got it to work by replacing all the belts and idlers and re-lubing a stuck bit so the transport is fine, pitch good etc, but it doesn’t sound too amazing. The Akai 4000DB open reel kicks it into the weeds, but I guess it would. That thing sounds great, it definitely adds something to the sound (weight/kick), so not neutral/transparent, but it’s good! I’d happily use it as a mastering effect with some purely computer-assembled music.
 
Tony L said:
On the vast majority of decks it is simply horrible IMO, exactly as you describe. I get the impression that it works ok on top-end Naks etc, but it needs to be calibrated.

I actually bought a couple of NOS pre-recorded cassettes the other day as ECM were knocking a few titles they’d found out cheap, so I bought a couple of Keith Jarrett albums (Bye Bye Blackbird and Tribute) just to have something other than old band demos to assess cassette decks with. ECM were more upmarket than most so they are chrome, but they certainly sound better on my WM-D6C with Dolby off despite allegedly being B encoded. I suspect I need to get that deck properly calibrated to be honest, I got it to work by replacing all the belts and idlers and re-lubing a stuck bit so the transport is fine, pitch good etc, but it doesn’t sound too amazing. The Akai 4000DB open reel kicks it into the weeds, but I guess it would. That thing sounds great, it definitely adds something to the sound (weight/kick), so not neutral/transparent, but it’s good! I’d happily use it as a mastering effect with some purely computer-assembled music.
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Is playing a Dolby-B encoded tape with Dolby OFF supposed to result in artificially boosted highs? Comparing the same album bought on cassette with its vinyl or CD counterpart, I always found the tonal balance to be most similar when Dolby was OFF and didn't notice boosted highs on the tape version. The only way I got boosted HF was to incorrectly set the tape position to Normal Fe when playing a Type II tape.
 
ToTo Man said:
Is playing a Dolby-B encoded tape with Dolby OFF supposed to result in artificially boosted highs? Comparing the same album bought on cassette with their vinyl or CD counterpart, I always found the tonal balance to be remarkably similar when Dolby was OFF and didn't notice boosted highs on the tape version.
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Yes, as I understand things it works by boosting the top end on recording and then cutting it on playback, the intended effect being that tape hiss is suppressed/muted in the process. The better the tape and tape deck the better it should work as part of what we are describing is the inherent treble roll-off of the slow-speed narrow tape that is cassette. Some cassette decks really are good though, e.g. I’m floored by the quality the YouTube Cassette Comeback bloke can get out of a bog standard TDK D or whatever on his Nak ZX-9 or Dragon. I’ve certainly never had a deck in anything like that league.
 
If I remember correctly the amount of treble boost was level dependent. So the quieter the music the more boost was added, and hence more hiss was cut when the reverse happened on replay. The Philips version (DNL?) was much cruder - again that’s from memory, I could be wrong.

I had the same Sony pro Walkman and always thought it a very competent player.

I recorded new albums for in car use and usually used TDL AD for that, I never really rated TDK D, but would sometimes use it if a recording was destined for the car. My usual tape for recording off air was TDK SA, I still have some concerts from the 70s and 80s recorded onto them, I must dig them out sometime.
 
Stunsworth said:
I had the same Sony pro Walkman and always thought it a very competent player.
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I’m pretty sure it is, but with the caveat ‘competent for cassette’. I remember my first one back in the ‘80s never worried my record deck or CD player much, and the current one doesn’t either, and both those benchmarks are correspondingly higher now. Even so the WM-D6C does nothing obviously ‘wrong’ it has very good stable pitch (I deliberately bought some Jarrett for the piano, and it being brilliant, obviously), doesn’t obviously hiss or anything. It is very good, but it just doesn’t have anything like the scale, depth, weight and slam of an obsessively restored TD-124 or a £2.6k DPA DAC, and in fairness neither would I expect it to. It’s a portable cassette deck!

PS I’ve never agreed with those that argued these played in the same ballpark as a Nak. They just don’t.
 
Listening to the 570D some more on 'phones I can detect what sounds like mild image wandering from left to right and back again, most noticeable with centrally panned instruments like vocals. I'll post some clips tomorrow.

PS - A headphone output with no volume control is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, - the Akai's is too quiet and the Technics' too bloody loud!
 
I would say the Akai and Technics are easy to improve, the Akai was made at a time when the format was improving rapdily and only Nakamichi and Sony (i.e. the TC-177) made decks that could get up to 20Khz. 90% of the decks out thre aren't really hifi, many of the 90's ones sound like cheap cd players but good performance and pleasing sound quality can be had if you know what to look for. Good performance starts with something like an Aiwa AD-F800 or maybe one of the 2-head DD technics decks (RS-B555 etc). Even a 2-head Nakamichi from the 80' (480 onwards) gives great sound quality. All need full servicing by a competent technician to sound their best. Some of them can be upgraded easily, bipolar signal path capacitors being one of the first things to do.
 
There is a review of the Akai here https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-High-Fidelity/70s/High-Fidelity-1977-02.pdf. It really was a flagship model, in the top-10 of most expensive decks in 1976, along there with Nak, Tandberg, Sony, and TEAC. Exotic, extremely-engineered transport.

Probably worth restoring, but with that wandering stereo image you describe the transport certainly needs attention. And perhaps the heads are shot. Microscopic investigation may be needed, or at least a run with a frequency response tape.

Even then it may sound oldfashioned. The cassette world was the wild west in the 70s. There were standards, yes, but everyone interpreted them freely to gain an advantage here or there. That only calmed down after 1981. Moreover, the Akai's target tapes will be quite far removed from the tapes that dominated the 80s and 90s. All of this can be redressed with the careful redesign of the playback and record eq amplifiers. After that this may be a decent deck, but it will be a lot of effort.
 
Can someone recommend me a site where I can download royalty-free lossless music that has 20Hz-20kHz bandwidth and isn't slammed with dynamic compression? I downloaded a few samples from bensound but they're mp3 files and they sound like mp3 files. They top out at 15kHz-18kHz and are very loudly mastered. I suppose 15kHz is adequate for testing cassette decks but I'd ideally like some material with a bit more dynamic range. Some piano music would be good too for testing W&F.
 
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