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Cassette decks. How good can it get?

I know some guys are going to just want to say a bunch of negative stuff about tape decks and tell me how bad they sound.  There is a lot of music that comes out on tape only (you usually get download too) so I have been acquiring quite a stack of cassettes.  I have a couple of Nakamichi decks BX100 and BX300. The 300 is not working and was thinking of trying to repair.  I am wondering how good of sound you can get out of cassette?  Has anyone taken the leap up to something like the much more expensive Nakamichis or other brands even.  I enjoy the sound. Mainly it's the background noise more than anything but even that is somewhat tolerable.  

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travelinjack's avatar
travelinjack
153 posts
 

I loved my old BX-300.  I think it is worth fixing if the price is not crazy.

middlemass
876 posts
 

Nakamchi 680Z

shangyien
9 posts
 

I use my Braun C3 at double speed, which greatly improves sq and dynamic range.  It was the cheapest way to record my record collection on physical media and take it to my holiday home.

bruegel
9 posts
 

It's a specialist area but during the 80's in particular musicians used to demo to cassette and rough alternate versions of many famous or unreleased tracks only exist on cassette. I was in A&R back then and have demo versions of song ranging from major artists (George Michael) to unreleased tracks of very niche bands (obscure but important ones such as The Raincoats) in my collection. The Pixies distributed a cassette of their original recordings to record companies when searching for a deal. I've seen it for sale for $1,000 plus!

alaric62
72 posts
 

Nakamichi ZX9. Metal tape and the heads adjusted correctly after a degaussing.

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