In my desperate search for a good cassette deck, I just got Pioneer CT-F1250.I also have Yamaha K 850 and Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2, both 2-head. I really like an idea of using a deck, which i consider much easier and convenient than managing with turntables and LPs while the difference is SQ can be not that much.
Cosmetically, CT-F1250 looks very good, mechanics also seem to work fine. The problem is in SQ though, there is an obvious luck of middle and hight frequencies, dynamics and soundstage are not good as weel, sometimes the sound just almost disappears accompanied with a strong distortion (at the beginning the left channel was just silent, after a few minutes of use the sound appeared and remains stable).There no comparison with Nakamichi CD 2 (the Yamaha is out of order now), in mid-high frequencies and soundstage as well.<This is surprising as Pioneer CT-F1250 is supposedly a much better deck. I have a quite limited time to return it, but before doing so, I, of course, would like to know if the problem can be settled somehow (service/repair). The heads look fine, but I suggest, that if the problem is with the head(s) then this is just hopeless (replacing the heads seem to me unrealistic). Can the luck of mid-high frequencies be caused by other things (like capacitors etc.), or it is most probably that the heads are no more good?
Thanks in advance for your input!