Anyone into cassettes?

I had AIWA AD-F810 long time ago. It had HX-PRO in addition to Dolby C. HX-PRO was a servo on the bias. In short, bias is non-audible high frequency recorded with music that reduces distortions of the tape. Not enough bias and sound becomes less clean, too much and sound looses high frequency response. But high frequencies present in the music also work as a bias. HX-PRO allow to reduce bias by adjusting it dynamically to recorded material. As a result of that regular tapes sounded like chrome while chrome tapes sounded like metal. It was fantastic player.

Mid-late 70's AIWA cassette decks were very good performers with good build quality and looked great. The AD6550 I had specifically was gorgeous and stacked up quite well against Tandberg in a/b tests back then. I was a poo college student and could not afford Tandberg so settled on the Aiwa. More ergonomic for use in a dorm room as well.

Aiwa like much Japanese gear (save Nakamichi and a few others) went south fast after that targeting cheaper gear with more mass market appeal.

I gave my Aiwa deck to my wife to use in her apartment 25 years ago. SHe married me shortly after. Enough said. :^)

After two higher end H-Ks and one each lower end Tanburg and Nakamichi, I had an AIWA (770?, I don't remember) which offered better performance. Then I bought a Pioneer 3-head deck, about the same as their Elite cassette but without the wood end panels and for a much lower price. It sounded at least as good as the AIWA and was better built.

Not too many years ago a friend played some tapes from an unfamiliar small label with jazz club performances. I was quite surprised by the lifelike sonics. My own experience with prerecorded tapes was less than favorable.

In summer of 1974 I recorded MOUNTAIN Twin Peaks,
Live in Osaka Koseinenkin Hall Japan, August 1973 from FM
radio broadcast to my Philips radiorecorder.
Now 40 years later in memory of Felix Pappalardi, the little
big musician and great producer and I honour the awesome
MOUNTAIN.
In August 30 I will transfer my Japanese Twin Peaks edition
to a metal tape with the Nakamichi RX-505 UDAR deck and I will
play the music LOUD :_)

Yes! Recently picked up a BX300 and a Dragon for good prices and will be sending the Dragon in for a refurb, calibration, alignment etc. I reaplced the belts and the idler tire on the BX300 and it simply sings. Been enjoying some NOS sealed recordings I found at my local record shop and these decks really let me hear things that I never knew were on tape. Really looking forward to getting the Dragon serviced. Thinking about going to Willy Hermann for this. Then the BX300 will follow later. But it's certainly nice to be enjoying another analog source once again.