I'm looking to purchase a tape deck. these are the one's i'm leaning towards
Sony TC-K808ES
Sony TC-K909ES
Nakamichi CR-3
Nakamichi CR-4E
I'm a little leery buying a NAK in case it needs repairs.
any help would be much appreciated
All of those are solid machines, and all three head. The NAKs have better sound quality.
Tape machines are complex, and problems are to be expected. The NAKs are actually easier to work on than the Sony's.
In order to keep machines at the peak of performance frequent adjustments and calibrations are necessary.
The more sophisticated semi pro machines like those are more problematic then consumer grade machines, because of complexity.
Tape machines come before internet sales, and either the customer was expected to have the knowledge and necessary test equipment for maintaining them, or the dealer tweaked them at regular intervals. Those days are long passed.
Excellent reel to reel and cassette reproduction is now pretty much restricted to those with the know how and equipment to keep the machines at peak perfection.
Cassettes are even more trouble then reel to reel, as the tape speed is so slow and the track widths narrow. That means minute changes in head alignment, record and playback Eq, record bias, and tape tension, have a much greater deleterious effects than on reel to reel machines and they are bad enough.
What is your reason for interest in analog tape and cassette tape in particular?
