Looking for a cassette deck

[mvpranesh]

Fellow members,

Have about 100 odd cassettes from years gone by. Looking for a decent cassette deck to hook these sources in to my AV receiver.

Currently using a portable panasonic walkman (3.5mm to RCA). Battery runs out after every tape.

Do advise.

 

[navinsinha]

Till the time you get a nice deck, do use rechargeable batteries, they are better as well and cost effective in the long run.

 

[nakamichi]

I have a nak 480 up for sale perfect working condition...

 

[Viki]

Can offer you a Yamaha K-540 cheap, PM me if interested.

 

[jmascreen]

Till the time you get a nice deck, do use rechargeable batteries, they are better as well and cost effective in the long run.

I have seen most of the rechargeable ones of 1.2V wherein walkman requires 1.5X2. So will it work?

 

[greenhorn]

why not use a DC adapter ?

 

[mvpranesh]

Thanks for the pointers guys. Right now using rechargeable batteries. Need to find an adaptor the small pin seems to be the problem. Tape deck seems enticing. But I do doubt if quality will be greatly different.

 

[navinsinha]

I have seen most of the rechargeable ones of 1.2V wherein walkman requires 1.5X2. So will it work?

I have used the rechargeable batteries in Ion Cassette to CD Converter (which is similar to Walkman) and it worked fine.

 

[greenhorn]

I'm sure getting the right adapter won't be hard at ritchie.

last time i checked, I had seen a few good decks at the record player seller at moore market for about 3.5K, which is a fair price if they are in good shape. I can tag along for a visit next weekend if you want any buying help

there are dual decks on olx, but would recommend you get a good single deck

 

[rbalu72]

Thanks for the pointers guys. Right now using rechargeable batteries. Need to find an adaptor the small pin seems to be the problem. Tape deck seems enticing. But I do doubt if quality will be greatly different.

It depends on the overall chain. For ex., the Nakamichi tape decks sound awesome if you have a decent amplifiers driving the signal from Nak.

I recently bought a Nak 581Z from FM Nakamichi and overwhelmed with the kind of output the cassettes are throwing (My chain Nak - DCB1 - Jean Hiraga 8W - Frugal Horn). I was in similar situation, have more than 250+ cassettes of various genre (carnatic music mostly) and the sound stage Nak creates was superb, never experience similar outcome from other stereo cassette players i was using Aiwa 1000W, Sanyo, Panasonic etc.

May be any quality deck in that class produce similar result but certainly that is many notches above the walkman + headphone setup. You wont be regretting the money spent

... just my 2 cents.

PS : Dealing with FM Nakamichi is a very good experience and he will handhold you starting from noob stuff all the way to tweaking.

 

[mvpranesh]

I'm sure getting the right adapter won't be hard at ritchie.

last time i checked, I had seen a few good decks at the record player seller at moore market for about 3.5K, which is a fair price if they are in good shape. I can tag along for a visit next weekend if you want any buying help

there are dual decks on olx, but would recommend you get a good single deck

Greenhorn, thanks for the generous offer. I may take you up on it.. hyeah:

 

[mvpranesh]

It depends on the overall chain. For ex., the Nakamichi tape decks sound awesome if you have a decent amplifiers driving the signal from Nak.

I recently bought a Nak 581Z from FM Nakamichi and overwhelmed with the kind of output the cassettes are throwing (My chain Nak - DCB1 - Jean Hiraga 8W - Frugal Horn). I was in similar situation, have more than 250+ cassettes of various genre (carnatic music mostly) and the sound stage Nak creates was superb, never experience similar outcome from other stereo cassette players i was using Aiwa 1000W, Sanyo, Panasonic etc.

May be any quality deck in that class produce similar result but certainly that is many notches above the walkman + headphone setup. You wont be regretting the money spent

... just my 2 cents.

PS : Dealing with FM Nakamichi is a very good experience and he will handhold you starting from noob stuff all the way to tweaking.

Oh my! Looks like you are a DIY electronics geek (I mean that as a compliment btw). I am not such a devout audiophile. My set up would be Nak 480 (if bought) + Yamaha RX-V677 + KEF C5 right now. I may upgrade to a stereo amp & better speakers later on. My music too is of various genre (contemporary carnatic included). To be honest, I haven't bought any major equipment second hand. The apprehension stems from there I guess. But I am getting sold in to a Nak investment. May be I should wait for a better Nak? Do they appreciate in value?

 

[Hassan Khani]

Nak 480 is one of the best 2 head (if not the best) cassette deck. Fully mechanical. Sounds superb. If main usage is playback 480 is great choice. Please ensure the deck is in fully working condition before buying.

 

[Technics_Fan]

480 series gotta be the best a series of two head deck from Nakamichi...
Everything in it is Nakamichi...You might find it a tad warmer when compared to the newer sankyo based tranport but has great dynamics and head room...

There are few issues that you may have to mitigate when buying a classic Nakamichi like 480 ...
480s was made three decades ago ...even if they do work good when you buy eventually they will fail and will have to be serviced....

These classic Naks are prone to multiple problems...The transport suffers from problems like frozen pivot arm , broken mounting post, eject lever post broken... and not to mention the capstan belts...Nakamichi's are very sensitive to Wow and Flutter and with some cheap belt installed this will sound horrible...These have to be of really good quality like the one from Fred Marrs...The belt kit alone will set you back 66 USD...

Also one of the other issue with the older Nakamichi are the OCD (Orange Capacitor Disease)...The orange colored polyproplyene capacitors in the dolby circuitry..Bias oscillator go bad will have to be replaced...
If you have access to a tech who can do a proper job of restoring it back to factory spec plus if you can score it cheap...under 5K then it may be worthwhile...
A newer model like the CR1 or a DR3 will nicely fit the bill of 10K or even cheaper (I have sourced two of them one for me and one for my friend under 6K)...They are slightly more reliable than the older models due to age and gear driven idler and still do sound really great...

 

[greenhorn]

I would say that you buy a Nak only if you have a competent technician in your area - since you're in chennai, this should be fine.

I prefer buying decks which I can keep running with minimum maintenence, and Nak's don't fall in that list

 

[navinsinha]

I would say that you buy a Nak only if you have a competent technician in your area - since you're in chennai, this should be fine.

I prefer buying decks which I can keep running with minimum maintenence, and Nak's don't fall in that list

Hi Greenhorn,
Are there decks available with very low maintenance but SQ not very inferior to the Naks?

 

[jmascreen]

I do prefer the old hard transport like of Sonodyne/Cosmic etc. I feel the nak & sony which i have has very delicate system and somewhat erroneous.

 

[greenhorn]

My Choice would be a Sony/Akai deck from the early 1980's or earlier with an F&F/Glass head

 

[reubensm]

my opionion - amoung the hard-button mechanical decks, the best i've experienced is the AKAI GXC39D

 

[greenhorn]

Sansui pre deck - Madurai - TV - Video - Audio

check if the head is original and get after a spot of bargaining - the price is decent, looks good, but one of the keys is a bit misaligned
If possible, try to have it checked out locally - buying from remote sellers is a risk