I'm doing some cassette transfers for a client and I'm looking for some advice on purchasing a cassette deck. I've been looking at the Tascam 130 and a few Teac decks but I'm open to anything. I hear Nakamichi decks are the best. Basically I need a low noise, wide frequency range deck with very low wow/flutter. A deck with dbx NR would be a plus.
Any suggestions?
Comments
The best deck you can get - bar none IMO is the Nakamichi Dragon
The best deck you can get - bar none IMO is the Nakamichi Dragon.
However - they aren't made any more so tracking one down will be very difficult.
Even used they fetch around $1k.
If its for duplication - the Tascam 202 MkIII. It's basically 2 units in one box (both decks record.)
No doubt, yup. I agree. The Nakamichi Dragon was unbelievable.
No doubt, yup. I agree.
The Nakamichi Dragon was unbelievable. Crazy signal/noise ratio with amazing wow and flutter specs.
Yeah I saw a few Dragon's on ebay. Quite pricey, but if they're
Yeah I saw a few Dragon's on ebay. Quite pricey, but if they're as good as everyone says I might go for it.
Thanks!
The Dragon was a good unit. I went with the Tascam 122 MKIII. 12
The Dragon was a good unit. I went with the Tascam 122 MKIII. 12+ trouble free years and it matches my Tascam TU-690 FM Tuner and Tascam DA-30 right above it in the same rack..
The Dragon is the Rolls Royce of tape decks. I cut my teeth on
The Dragon is the Rolls Royce of tape decks. I cut my teeth on one of these until we went to a DAT (which was to my and others dismay as the Dragon sounded FAR better than the first generation or even later/current DATs). Bear in mind though, there is a lot of maintenance involved in keeping a Dragon up to spec. (Such as picking its scales, keeping fuel in it's mouth for fire-breathing... Oops, wrong dragon...)
A very good and much cheaper alternative is the Technics RS-TR575. It's a full logic deck with Dolby B and C and an auto-calibrate feature which is worth its weight in gold. (It auto adjusts level, azimuth, bias, etc.) Plus its metering is excellent too!
You can pick these up for a decent price if you can find them. Most people who have them won't sell them. (I'm one of them. I have one and NEVER will I sell it!)
J.