I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but can the sound from CDs sound fuller and more musical when they are recorded onto tape and played back? I use a Nakamichi LX-5 deck for recording and playing back, and a Music Hall CD-25 cd player.
There could be multiple things taking place here. My comments were based strictly on the electrical characteristics involved with cassette decks and the sonic signature that it imparts on whatever is recorded. Sean >
I seem to remember this issue coming up before, perhaps in context of direct to disc recording. There is some characteristic of a magnetic tape recording (on a top notch machine) that is pleasant to the ear.
I used to dub everything onto tape either from vinyl or cds. They do sound better on tape granted my tape deck and tapes were all good ones; whereas, the rest of my system wasn't as great (first generation CD player etc.). I always used DolbyC. Old Nak does sound fuller/warmer.
As you increase the recording level on a cassette, the high frequency response begins to roll off faster. This is true of any deck using any type and brand of tape. If you want to achieve wider bandwidth, keep the levels down. Doing this sacrifices signal to noise ratio though, so you're damned if you do and damned if you don't :( Sean >
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