Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2009 3:36:18 GMT
"Your not still using that!" I hear you say?
Yep, still love this recording format, IMHO it is the only one that can capture the soul of a vinyl recording.
Reason for mentioning is that I have just finished bringing an old Denon DR-M44HX back from the dead. The victim of liquid damage, I snapped it off ebay for tuppence (almost literally).
Most the damage/attention was in the transport, thankfully, as I'm happy as a sandboy fiddling with the mechanical side of things, decks, vcrs, TTs, washing machines etc!
This one is now sweetly reproducing a tape I recorded on a previous 44 from my late teens, still sounds fresh. Good bit of Creedance, compared it to a CD of the same, NAH, tape (recorded down from a good TT) does it for me.
I've recently been cutting down my cassette deck collection, too many to bore you with, but couldn't resist this one. I think it may stay for office use.
Anybody else living in the past?
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pagan
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How do I activate my account?
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Post by pagan on Jan 24, 2009 12:10:39 GMT
I still have a Nakamichi CR-1 sitting around.
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Post by PinkFloyd on Jan 24, 2009 12:17:17 GMT
I used to LOVE taping things (3 head machines) and really miss pushing the MOL on metal tapes.... that was fun...... sadly, my TEAC deck went missing in the house removal van so I don't have a deck anymore.... have a few unused metal tapes kicking about though and some cool ones too, those Sony ones with the ceramic shell and some TEAC jobs with the gold spools inside..... nice tapes though my "everyday standard" was the good old TDK MA (nice tapes) get the recording bias and MOL right and they made a bloody good recording.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2009 17:41:24 GMT
^ Nice tapes Miguel! I have not found any of those in ages. Brilliant for recording acoustic music on a 3 head Nak. with no dolby, I still have some fresh MA 's.
My old workhorse was the Maxell XLIIs (series 2 if your picky!), which the Denons and Revoxs' love. Again, getting thin on the ground now.
The popular tape I never got on with was TDK SA, especially if you store it in a car for while, they deteriorate quickly, I've lost some fav. recordings I've been unable to replace due to poxy SA. (the kind that were already tough to find when you bagged a recording of it)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2009 21:46:06 GMT
Chris
I preferred the Metal Alloy (MA-R) tapes over the Super Avilyn (SA) The Nakamichi decks were indeed fabulous, with response useable to 30kHz. They were also VERY tweakable ,as regards improved channel separation and extended frequency response. It just got too hard to readily locate spare heads and pinch rollers locally. (before Internet!)
I preferred MA-R, but didn't much like using Dolby.
Alex
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robertkd
Been here a while! 
Electronics Engineer from sunny Queensland
Posts: 111
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Post by robertkd on Jan 24, 2009 22:01:16 GMT
sorry it just wasn't in the race unless the tape moved at 7.5 ips or preferably 15 ips with track widths almost as wide as cassette tape  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2009 22:08:59 GMT
Robert
Not everybody could afford that kind of gear, or it's upkeep. The Nakamichi decks were about as good as you could get in a normal consumer deck,and helped changed the perception that the Philips designed cassette tape was only for dictation purposes etc., and low quality music storage.
Alex
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Post by PinkFloyd on Jan 24, 2009 22:55:00 GMT
;D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2009 0:17:17 GMT
sorry it just wasn't in the race unless the tape moved at 7.5 ips or preferably 15 ips with track widths almost as wide as cassette tape I'll just see if I can squeeze that in the car unit/walkman If it had happened maybe the the iPhone would look more like this.....  |
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XTRProf
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Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
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Post by XTRProf on Jan 28, 2009 9:47:18 GMT
I dun live in the past but I have a bunch of Philips, etc, etc, cassettes to get rid of. My preference in ascending order of merit are: 1) BASF Ferrochrome 2) Maxell Metal 3) TDK MA-R (with AL metal casing I think) 3) TDK MA 4) Maxell XL2 (similar to TDK SA) 5) TDK SA 6) BASF Chrome The worst sounding that I have tested are: 1) Agfa 2) Memorex 3) 3M Yeah, Agfa, 3M and Memorex are supposed to be used in the professional recording arena, man!!!!!!!!!!! Surprisingly, Hitachi are pretty good sounding although I have tested only the normal ferro oxide variant. So not in my list of bad sounding tapes. All are C60 as they are thicker tapes than the C90 variant. I may have missed something as that was really a very very long time ago. My favourite cassette deck was my friend Tascam Professional cassette deck with 3 heads. Knock the hell sonically out of the Naka whether Dragon or the 1000 or 900 model. Naka, good as they are, are really no fight with the Tascam decks as they use FETs in their audio cricuits. So my preference are: 1) Tascam Professional 2) Naka 3) Aiwa 4) Yamaha Yes, the Tascam is still making professional decks whereas Naka is more or less dead although they are still around. ;D |
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toad
Been here a while!
I am the Super Toad, the Original Toad, the Whole Toad and nothing BUT the toad.... don't forget it!
Posts: 1,223
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Post by toad on Jan 28, 2009 11:46:20 GMT
Did anyone ever use Sony UX Pros. I preferred them to any of the Metal tapes I tried. I notice they are still available on Ebay. Way cheaper than what I used to pay too...
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XTRProf
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Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
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Post by XTRProf on Jan 28, 2009 12:00:29 GMT
Did anyone ever use Sony UX Pros. I preferred them to any of the Metal tapes I tried. I notice they are still available on Ebay. Way cheaper than what I used to pay too... Sorry, not to offend, the Sony tapes are not as good as what I had listed. |
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rickcr42
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Rest in peace my good friend.
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Post by rickcr42 on Jan 28, 2009 16:36:35 GMT
I drool over the 100ZXL Limited "gold".If there is a better looking tape deck on the planet earth I have not yet seen it  I always meant to obtain a "1000" (not the gold,the basic version) but ended up with th 600 "Wedge" instead,a deck that has mostly pleased me bu that is about to be replaced with a Yamaha TC-800GL,another "wedge" type deck  I have and do like the cassette format mostly because it was the first truly portable audio format,one that will give you 95% of the "music" you would get with any other format if set up.A real bitch with "open mic" recording (live performance) but even that doable with the right processing and why it was once my preferred backup recorder taking a parallel feed from my board just in case the RTR deck foobarred preventing a total performance loss (you can't TiVo real life events  ) |
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toad
Been here a while!
I am the Super Toad, the Original Toad, the Whole Toad and nothing BUT the toad.... don't forget it!
Posts: 1,223
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Post by toad on Jan 28, 2009 19:19:38 GMT
Did anyone ever use Sony UX Pros. I preferred them to any of the Metal tapes I tried. I notice they are still available on Ebay. Way cheaper than what I used to pay too... Sorry, not to offend, the Sony tapes are not as good as what I had listed. None taken. I do however know that the UX Pros are way more dynamic than at least the TDK SA and BASF Chrome that you listed imho |
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pjc68
Been here a while!
You dissin me?
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Post by pjc68 on Aug 6, 2009 23:44:42 GMT
I still have a yamaha kx580 special edition in mint condition, with some tdk sa90 chrome tapes (unused).  made some good recordings with that deck. |
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