Tape Decks



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Tape Decks

Postby ibarakishi » Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:42 am

As the title says, this year i will be searching possibly for a tape deck. Had one in the past, but don't have one anymore. I will primarily be using this for doing releases of music that i am involved or helping in some way with here. Probably this will mostly involve sending out audio from my computer to the tape deck to record on tape, but obviously will like to use it for playing back and listening to music as well.

I know that these are all over ebay, but probably my highest priorities at this point is having it be a machine that is
1.) of good quality
2.) somewhat easy to service on my own and problem solve when the time comes that something breaks, if at all possible
3.) something that won't break in the foreseeable future if possible
4.) has two slots for two tapes to dub from a master if needed
5.) isn't crazy expensive or crazy huge

I know that there are decks like the Pyle for about 70 USD and the ION brand that is around 100 USD new on sites like amazon and ebay, but i thought i would ask here for people's experiences and what they thought too. Or even if anyone had one that they didn't use anymore that was a workhorse and wanted to let go of someday, that would be fortunate as well. Anyways, all thoughts and experiences welcomed, or what to stay away from/look out for would be great too
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Re: Tape Decks

Postby Psyre » Sat Mar 17, 2018 9:43 pm

Dual decks are going to be of a lower quality than a single deck, from my experience. My favorite run of the mill decks are Yamaha followed by JVC. My preferred deck is my Nakamichi RX-202, they are not of the same caliber as the RX-505 or Dragon, but still leagues better than my other decks. I got my RX-202 for cheap and it needed repair which wasn't easy. I imagine a lot may have auto rotate issues, so that may disqualify that choice for you.

Remember, you will lose some detail when dubbing on a dual deck, I think it's better to just dub from the OG file each time, if that's going to be your source anyway.

Out of the 12 or 13 decks I've had, my 3 top recommendations would be
Naka Rx-202
Yamaha KX-530 (the KX-630 is a 3-head and probably phenomenal)
JVC TD-W209 (dual deck and a high seller, should be cheap)
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Re: Tape Decks

Postby ibarakishi » Sun Mar 18, 2018 5:47 am

thanks for the input Psyre, this helps a lot. Not being a duel deck isn't a huge deal, but would be nice if possible. If they usually have more issues, then i might actually stay away from those for now. Single would be more than enough, because like you said i will mostly be dubbing from the original file each time anyways. I will have to take some time now and look through your recommendations and see what comes up
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Re: Tape Decks

Postby crochambeau » Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:46 pm

I'm a fan of single well decks without auto-reverse. Less alignment issues when the head is not a rotating assembly.

Akai Super GX heads also sound good, but decades can put wear on things so familiarizing yourself with the way heads should LOOK is a good thing for local used markets.
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Re: Tape Decks

Postby WORMDIRT » Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:45 pm

Buy a capstan belt for whatever you end up ordering. When the belts go out it's a pain to have to wait a while for a new one to come in. I have the RCA sct-560 and it's sounds pretty good for dubbing, would recommend.
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Re: Tape Decks

Postby ibarakishi » Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:29 am

looking like a single deck it will be then, and good idea about the belt WORMDIRT. will have to do that
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