What was the last cassette tape you bought?

Barclay James Harvest: Gone to Earth

Genesis: Live

Genesis: Nursery Cryme

Marillion: Clutching at Straws

Marillion: Fugazi

Marillion: Real to Reel

Peter Gabriel: First & Second Album

Tangerine Dream: Phaedra

are these tapes new? mean, did you buy it on amazon new or is this "NOS" ;-)

Used in very good condition from that well known auction site.

cool- thanks! just checked some prices at amazon....they are not that cheap compared to vinyl ....

Bad news, the Revox deck arrived faulty. Seller agreed to take it back and giving me a full refund, he even paid for the return shipping.

Good news, found a Dutch company who will completely restore and modify my Sony deck with new and better electrical parts for a even better sound. They offer two years warranty on parts and labor so it's a no brainer.

Sorry to hear about the Revox Drikus. Getting the Sony properly sorted sounds like a good plan, although I’ve always found that Nakamichis have been my favoured decks for getting the best from pre-recorded cassettes. Maybe Something to do with their replay response and lifting the pressure pad? Otherwise the NAD 6300 is a good choice. IIRC it shares heads with the Revox and has a useful play trim function to help dull sounding pre-recorded tapes. This feature is shared with cheaper Yamaha decks, and for an inexpensive deck the KX-580SE is s great choice. 

Anyway, I hope the Sony rebuild goes well. Fun thread.

I seem to be getting nowhere getting a deck. Send the Sony deck to the Dutch company yesterday, was offered today but no one was home so they delivered it to a parcel pick-up point nearby. Now he refuses to get the parcel from the shop even after I offered to pay for his transport costs! Looked up his so called company and it turns out nothing but an ordinary terraced house in a small street... Contacted the courier service, parcel has to be returned asap.

Got my eye on a 1993 Nakamichi DR-1 now. Serviced in December 2017 and in mint condition. Comes in the original packaging. Is this deck any good?

Just found a recently serviced Dragon in mint condition for a reasonable price. Asked the seller for some additional pics in clear light because as you can see below, the pics on the site are a bit arty farty darky.

Drikus posted:

Just found a recently serviced Dragon in mint condition for a reasonable price. Asked the seller for some additional pics in clear light because as you can see below, the pics on the site are a bit arty farty darky.

Looks clean and nice btw.....

I'm not so much of a fan of the DR-1.  Despite the useful playback azimuth control, for some reason the examples I have heard sounded a bit hard and lacking something of the old Nak magic.  However, the preceding Cassette Deck 1 sounded much better, and the 1.5 is also nice and worth getting too.  A BX-300 is an excellent deck, just so long as it hasn't been worn out - many are, so be careful.

The Dragon is perhaps the ultimate deck for playing back pre-recorded cassettes thanks to its NAAC auto azimuth system combined with the classic asymmetric resonance diffused dual capstan transport.  If the condition is good and the price is right within your budget, that would be my pick for your purposes.

Drikus

I would go for a BX 300 E and get it serviced by B&W down in Worthing.Its got a lovely reel to reel sound about it.I have a CR 7 E and a BX 300 and the CR 7 E is very clean sounding but lacks the soul of the BX 300.Sorry not very good at discribing sound quality but it's all the Nak you will need and you could save alot of cash over a Dragon

Cheers Ian

Just done an image search and here is the BX 300 E.It packs so much into a smaller Nak......Dirkus if you want to really lash out with the cash.....a ZX9 is the one.....but if you don't the BX 300 E is the biz in my opinion

Coincidentally, in the main system I have a ZX-9 as my main deck and a BX-300E as secondary deck.

Do take extra care though when looking for a BX-300.  It has always been a very highly regarded deck, and a popular one too, so usually plenty around.  However, it was also popular in somewhat less salubrious circles, so plenty have had a hard life and good though the heads are, they do wear with use. However, find a good one, privately owned from new, preferably recently serviced, and you may well have something of a bargain in that, although it's one of the first Sankyo era Naks,  you effectively get all the Nak "goodies" - 3 heads, dual capstans, pressure pad lifter, direct drive etc.. - and even a few extras such as the pitch control. Performance is superb, better than 99.9% of other cassette decks.  And of you're wondering, yes, that remaining 0.1% includes the ZX-9, which is simply phenomenal for a cassette deck, and sounds more like a good R2R.  Interestingly, the BX-300E was called the ZX-5 in its home country.   and performance-wise I reckon it's fully deserving to be part of the ZX range.

Richard Dane posted:

I'm not so much of a fan of the DR-1.  Despite the useful playback azimuth control, for some reason the examples I have heard sounded a bit hard and lacking something of the old Nak magic.  However, the preceding Cassette Deck 1 sounded much better, and the 1.5 is also nice and worth getting too.  A BX-300 is an excellent deck, just so long as it hasn't been worn out - many are, so be careful.

The Dragon is perhaps the ultimate deck for playing back pre-recorded cassettes thanks to its NAAC auto azimuth system combined with the classic asymmetric resonance diffused dual capstan transport.  If the condition is good and the price is right within your budget, that would be my pick for your purposes.

No DR-1 then, thanks for the info.

The Dragon will be used solely with pre-recorded cassettes so that's the ultimate machine for me. The condition seems good but the pic are too dark to have a good look so I asked the seller for some additional pics. Price is just within my budget but he accept offers so there's room to haggle.

Tabby cat posted:

Drikus

I would go for a BX 300 E and get it serviced by B&W down in Worthing.Its got a lovely reel to reel sound about it.I have a CR 7 E and a BX 300 and the CR 7 E is very clean sounding but lacks the soul of the BX 300.Sorry not very good at discribing sound quality but it's all the Nak you will need and you could save alot of cash over a Dragon

Cheers Ian

 

But I want a Dragon .

Tabby cat posted:

Just done an image search and here is the BX 300 E.It packs so much into a smaller Nak......Dirkus if you want to really lash out with the cash.....a ZX9 is the one.....but if you don't the BX 300 E is the biz in my opinion

The seller also got two ZX-9's for sale but the Dragon is the best for playback of pre-recorded cassettes I'm told so that will be my first choice.

Richard Dane posted:

Coincidentally, in the main system I have a ZX-9 as my main deck and a BX-300E as secondary deck.

Do take extra care though when looking for a BX-300.  It has always been a very highly regarded deck, and a popular one too, so usually plenty around.  However, it was also popular in somewhat less salubrious circles, so plenty have had a hard life and good though the heads are, they do wear with use. However, find a good one, privately owned from new, preferably recently serviced, and you may well have something of a bargain in that, although it's one of the first Sankyo era Naks,  you effectively get all the Nak "goodies" - 3 heads, dual capstans, pressure pad lifter, direct drive etc.. - and even a few extras such as the pitch control. Performance is superb, better than 99.9% of other cassette decks.  And of you're wondering, yes, that remaining 0.1% includes the ZX-9, which is simply phenomenal for a cassette deck, and sounds more like a good R2R.  Interestingly, the BX-300E was called the ZX-5 in its home country.   and performance-wise I reckon it's fully deserving to be part of the ZX range.

Why did you prefer a ZX-9 over a Dragon?

Drikus

If you can afford the Dragon I would go for it.Aesthetically its one of the sexiest piece of HI-FI I've ever seen......but sound its got to be the ZX9....nice place to be.Good luck with your purchase.Let us know what you go for.