In response to...
JiggaD369 said:
im looking for cassette player to add onto my system. what are some high quality players? new or old.
IMHO, older isn't necessarily the way to go...after all it is a mechanical unit...things do wear out, heads, belts, pulleys to name some...getting parts for vintage machines(as much as I love the older, sturdier, REAL Hi-Fi stuff) can be problematic...plus you never really know what kind of abuse the transport has been subjected to...
The transport logic on my TEAC A650 failed(REALLY a good machine with a host of features), and pending some exploratory surgery, I found myself in the market, so I'll share some info gleaned in the process...
Onkyo has a twin transport dubbing deck, reasonably priced, they only have the one, but I forget the model, maybe RW-44??...Metal construction, not often found these days...under $200USD...might be all you require to try the medium...
Marantz has the SD-4050(which I recently purchased) also a twin-well, it's a bit more expensive than the Onkyo, but it has a 3-year USA warranty and a speed control(my deciding factor)...also a remote(of dubious value) the SOP DolbyB/C and HX...seems to work quite well...under $300 USD...as an aside, they also repackage the same unit with a rack-mount and give it another ID, charge some more bucks and drop the warranty period to a year at their D/M pro site....???...a word of caution...the first sample developed some processor problems within the first 10 days...a trip to my authorized dealer resulted in a new unit, which has been trouble free...
Denon has a few with more features(also other pro-type @ D/M Pro), SONY also(I'd stick with the ES line), TEAC(used to be really good stuff, can't vouch for the current crop) and TASCAM...
TASCAM has more pro-oriented gear w/ single transports, user adjustable azimuth and other such requirements...and they do become pricier and hard to locate...at least in the real world...but they are built for commercial apps...if I can't rescue my ol' TEAC, that's probably the way I may go.
jimHJJ(...FWIW...)