Cassette Decks in 2019

Markum
Truly you need to hear my zx7 playing a great tape say on TDK SA formulation.
Or some of the really good pre recorded tapes issued on chrome tape.

It would blow your mind and radically alter your perception of " inferior medium".

Sorry to bang on but I own and play hundreds of tapes and my level of replay right now is simply stunning and close to my Pioneer rt707 R2R playback.
And that has been completely restored and recapped with Nichicon parts.

And as for lack of parts or repair?
Not sure where you get that information from. Sure it can be spendy but there are people out there working on them very successfully.

uberwaltz 
Do you have audible hiss?

Not in the slightest, never have on any of my Nak decks.

My 582 was a great deck, the 660zx that followed it was better still but my present zx7 is in another dimension.

I am likely the largest and most vociferous proponent of cassette on these forums ... Lol.

You have to pay to play in the big boys sandbox no doubt about it though.

I also have on old CEC belt drive CD transport that is a permanent fixture here too.

... why would one even consider cassette media would be worth listening too.

Mark, to add to Uberwaltz’ comments I would feel safe in saying that if, as I did, during the 1970s and 1980s you had purchased a considerable number of cassettes that were issued on the Connoisseur Society In Sync label you would not have asked this question.

That series of cassettes presented classical music performed by highly distinguished artists of the past such as pianists Ivan Moravec and Ruth Laredo and violinist Wanda Wilkomirska, among many others.

And regarding sound quality, as I mentioned earlier these cassettes were duplicated on chrome tape in real time. Meaning that every cassette sold was copied from a master tape at normal playback speed, rather than being duplicated at high speed as was usually done by other labels. The resulting sonics, as in the example I cited in my earlier post, were often spectacular.

Regards,
-- Al