Return of an Old Friend, the TEAC Z6000 Mastering Cassette Deck.

[TLS Guy]

The belt, that turns the cams under the control of the deck logic, of my TEAC Z6000 cassette recorder broke a few months ago. I bought this beautiful deck as a master recorder in 1984. They were specified as studio mastering cassette decks. I used to master my outside recordings for duplication prior to being able to produce CD in quantity in the home. I had a bulk duplicating rig, and the main use of this machine was to record the masters.

After a lot of searching I found belts. With great difficulty I replaced the belt. Unfortunately it did not work after replacement. After inspection the belt breaking had damaged a plastic cam. So I got in touch with BC electronics of Littletown PA. They specialize in TEAC open reel and cassette recorders. They will not service auto reverse models. They had a good supply of parts, in all probability the remining world supplies. This is a very rare machine with few produced. I thought it worth repairing as when I checked used sales, only two had sold as far as I could tell, one for $1000.00 and the other $2000.00. So that saved it from the recycling bin!

In this view you can see the Revox MK II and IV reel to reel machines, the switch bus for those local recorder, the Dolby unit and the dbx II tape and disc decoder.

Unfortunately when it returned, it still did not work, as the solenoid that threw the heads up to contact the tape had jammed. So I did not want to get into it again, so I returned it.
I guess FedEx had thrown it around, and caused damage despite a superb pack.

I got it back three days ago. I bench tested it, and then reinstalled it this afternoon.

This why I was not eager to wrestle with it again.

It was always a really good sounding deck, and it is back to its previous state I'm glad to say. I have never been over enthusiastic about the cassette as medium, but this unit does put its best foot forward so to speak. So it is now back in its place in the museum section. I have to say that BC Electronic were highly ethical and professional, and I can recommend them without reservation for TEAC tape machine service.

 

[3db]

Im glad things worked out in your favour Mark.

Many people here have put down the cassette medium using the same old rhetoric of tape hiss, muted highs, audible wow and flutter as issues. After I got back into cassettes again, I have to say that the rhetoric has become noise in itself. I have some very good decks myself and my friends cannot disginguish beween the CD source or the recorded version of that CD source. I dont record CDs per say as I digitize them. It was just for a demonstration purpose.

 

[Eppie]

That's a pretty special deck. The Nikko ND-1000C that I have also has a broken belt, but it's just the take up reel and tape counter belt. It will work temporarily with a thin rubber band in place of the belt but I need to find a proper replacement. Like 3dB, I have achieved near CD quality recordings with that unit. It has a computerised auto tape bias feature and is a 3 head unit, so you can monitor recordings as they record. With the proper tapes you could switch back and forth between a CD source and the tape and it was indistinguishable. The Dolby-C noise reduction was almost as good as dbx and I had a Dolby-C player in the car for compatability. With the dbx II unit I bet that Teac sounds very clean.

 

[TLS Guy]

That's a pretty special deck. The Nikko ND-1000C that I have also has a broken belt, but it's just the take up reel and tape counter belt. It will work temporarily with a thin rubber band in place of the belt but I need to find a proper replacement. Like 3dB, I have achieved near CD quality recordings with that unit. It has a computerised auto tape bias feature and is a 3 head unit, so you can monitor recordings as they record. With the proper tapes you could switch back and forth between a CD source and the tape and it was indistinguishable. The Dolby-C noise reduction was almost as good as dbx and I had a Dolby-C player in the car for compatability. With the dbx II unit I bet that Teac sounds very clean.

It does, but on this rig, you can tell it from the open reels or digital, although not easily. I used to use that deck for mastering, as that is what it is designed for. The problem with dbx II is that you really have to use it for tapes recorded on that deck. So in general Dolby C is most useful, and of course B. The issue with dbx II is that FR errors between the playback machine and the record machine are doubled.

The nice thing about that deck is that it had built in test tones for Eq, and screw driver Eq adjustment on the front panel so you could keep it in spec, or set it up for a different tape brand without taking it to the bench. It is a fully pro three motor, three head machine just like a pro reel to reel. This make the deck action very fast.

It certainly is a rare valuable machine now. I do not think many were built. It certainly is worth preserving.