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Chime in.What's the Best Cassette Recorder ever ?

I just recently purchased a used Teac V-900X from a local
used Hi Fi shop and was amazed at the specs of the machine,But more amazed at the sound coming from this unit. I had my CD of Ray Sings Basie Swings and dubbed it onto my Teac cassette recorder with DBX fully engaged on the machine and levels kept at 0 DB or -4 on peaks with my Maxell New XLS Type 2 tape. All I could say was WOW, WOW.
The tape copy had lower noise then the CD and more dynamic punch. I used my old Mit 330 Cable as a dubbing cable from my Toshiba DVD SD 2705 to the Teac. I know thats not much of a front end for playback, But I do not have hardly any Cd's in my collection just tapes and reel to reel live recordings along with a huge collection of live Dat recordings as well .
I did some research on the net and came upon the specs of the Nakamichi 1000ZKL. The freq. response is better then the Teac, But the Teac is no slouch either.
The owners manual on the Teac V-900x state Freq. response 30 to 21k + or - 3 DB. Signal to noise 92 DB(dbx in at 1K,
dynamic range 110 DB DBX IN, 1KHZ PEAK LEVEL. I opened the lid to the machine and I noticed it only has one belt in it not the typical 8 or 9 belts seen in others. The machine has 3 motors 1 DC FG SERVO DD capstan motor,1 DC REEL MOTOR,1 mechanism control motor.Now all I need to do is snap up as many virgin Sealed Metal Tapes I can get my hands on and then have some real fun. I will be recording live on the Teac V 900x next week with a small symphonic community group and will report my findings to all of you on how it holds up to a live recording which I am sure will be a challenge to keep the meters at 0DB.
In the past I have heard the Nakamichi machines most all of them along with the Revox decks as well and I cannot recall the noise levels down as much as this machine can do along with the dynamic range as well.
Waiting for your comments
Don
128x12876doublebass
chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
Today that's like asking "what was best buggy whip?"But it was Nak Dragon.The last upper line Naks were all nice the 1000,CR7 etc.But Rell to Reel like a Revox was way for pro to go before DA.Too bad the inherent maintenance costs of rotary head etc made DAT a pro format only.CD-R/VD-R stored perfectly will only last 5-10 years because unlike CD's/DVD's they are not with discs "punched in" but a crystalline metal which is recorded into a higher laser temperature doomed to fail.Tape if humidity and temperature controlled can last 20-50 years.Even with video tape is best for archives.But now everything is -R or HD discs both destined to fail.That's progress right?
Chazz
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Bang & Olufsen 9000 - simply stunning reproduction. Comes with Dolby HXPro and auto-calibrates to any tape you feed it. This and the Tandberg 3014 are the two best cassette decks I've ever heard.

-RW-
888trinity
11 posts
 
I've had excellent service from Technics M-95 deck since 1979. It has four independent bias settings including metal formulation. Lack of speed variation on this monster is also notable as is on-the-fly azimuth adjustment.
76doublebass's avatar
76doublebass OP
254 posts
 
Thanks Ghostrider for clearing up the DBX issues with me.
Yes I do recall now the 3DBX had those neon flashing lights I think for 3 different bands and it did act like an expander,But more sopisticated then the old Pioneer Units. I just didn't care for that very much. So it appears I was not very exposed to a well made DBX Recorder at that time of my life until now, how odd indeed. Well I guess I got what I wished for in kinda a good sonic way with this particular machine.
I wonder if having a High End
Power Cord installed would make a difference.Many years ago I do recall using large MIT Speaker Cables and rolling it into a power cord on a JVC Cassette Recorder which did seem to improve the imaging and the bass response. I guess if its not broken leave things alone. That seems to be m y motto these days.
Well its off to symphony practice tonight on the bass trombone. Nothing like live music in your ear for 3 hours.
jlin
57 posts
 
No personal comparison experience but according to a number of British Hi Fi mags the best sounding Nakamichi was the CR7, better than the Dragon according to contemporary reviews.
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