Thanks for all of your replies. I have learned a lot about these devices. The cassette deck I have is only good for playing tapes out of the left side. A family member broke the eject on the right side and I am fairly sure it can't be fixed. I am going to give this deck to a friend after I buy a new one.
I found a site called
www.vintagecassette.com and I was shocked at some of the MSRPs on the high end models. What does a decent deck go for used?
I decided to go for a single deck like recommended and later get a second later. I checked out the TC-K15 and it looks like a pretty good vintage deck. Does this model come in black? It wouldn't kill me to have silver, but if I have the option I would choose black.
I haven't considered recording through my PC. I have no clue where to start, but I will research that option as well.
I do have one more question though. I have seen metal tapes. Should I look for a deck that can record onto these?
Thanks.
Dustin
I don't know if it comes in black or not.
The problem with cassette machines is that they are really marginal as to the quality of the sound reproduction. The reason is tape saturation leading to distortion.
Now the problem is that the track width is less than 1/16", and the tape speed is only 1 7/8 ips. The slower the tape the more high frequency EQ has to be applied in recording to keep signal to noise acceptable. The bottom line is that tape cassette machines only give a flat response at -20db. As the modulation increases the tape saturates and the high frequencies roll off, as well as producing significant distortion. It takes an open reel two track machine with 1/4' tape running at 15 ips to get flat response in the audio band out to 20 kHz.
Now better tape formulations, have better signal to noise and can be modulated harder before saturating, and need less HF boost, and so have better signal to noise. Type I ferric tapes are the lowest quality, type II bias chrome tapes are much better and metal tapes are a little better yet.
Few use cassette machines for recording any longer, that are mainly used to play existing libraries and archiving.
Recording systems that use computer hard drives are much superior, and that is what I use almost exclusively now, unless a customer wants an open reel or cassette dub.
Now a tape recorder of any type that is any good, needs to be a really good piece of precision engineering among other things. Good tape recorders of any stripe have always been very high ticket items. In tape machines the difference in sound quality between the run of the mill and excellent machines is huge.
The best machines have a very high standard of construction, three motors and three heads. That means totally separate record and replay amps. The best ones also have systems to assist the owner calibrate the machines for different brands of tapes. There were some auto Eq systems, but I prefer manual with built in test tones.
That is another issue. The characteristic of tapes from different manufacturers are significantly different and you can only calibrate a machine for one brand of tape in the three categories above at a time for recording purposes.
This is obviously not cheap. I paid $2000 for my machine back in 1984.
Individuals who like tape recorders, will pay very large sums for good vintage machines, in good electrical and mechanical state of repair, that have been carefully calibrated, for Azimuth alignment, bias and equalization.
I doubt I would part with my machine for less than I paid for it, but its not for sale.
