Tape deck

maybe a denon at cinebels bangalore ? or maybe at profx ?

manek.

Dear Ravi,

I don't know about getting it in Bangalore...if you want to explore the option of getting one for you at cost price...no strings attached Sir !! please PM me.

Regards,

Junia.

P.S. If you want I can have a look at Bombay's "Chor Bazzar" ! You get good deals there too !!

Good to see commerical members actually offering to help good contributers like Ravi and Benks.

This really makes this forum different from the others I have been. We get details of new product offerings locally in Inida, sound advise and at time personal help

Thats' a huge affirmative Rajesh...

great to see the commercial members helping out people like

us..
I have made some great friends on this forum and maybe

sometime all of us can get together and have a huge ball of

a time..like Abhi says..someday,somewhere..

also i should make a special thanks to Big_Ears(Gosh! are'nt

his ears wonderful...almost as wonderful as his smart

mouth! )

He really came through for me and made the purchasing of

audio equipment in a country that was alien to my folks,

safe, enjoyable and economical all at the same time..my

folks really had a fun time buying the electronics thanks to

big ears contacts..cheers pal .


Thanks (this one word can hardly make up for the magnanimity

showed by him towards me) to Junia for helping me procuring

the drivers at such an unbelievable price and showing such

trust and faith in me(i mean after all we have'nt even met

and he purchased them on my behalf....no words to describe

my gratitude and awe) all i can do is ...

Cheers to u ...can't wait to meet you in person...


Cheers all,
Benks

Dear Benks,

You are most welcome !

I have been down that road of disappointment, which you have been as to sourcing decent components at affordable prices and would like to help as many people as I can.

I am sure if we could all pitch in some way, it would make this forum a great place to hang out at !

Regards,

Junia.

Dear Sachi

You are making me feel embarrassed now, it was nothing really.

But I must say it was a pleasure seeing the way you conducted yourself throughout the purchase. You listened to the recommendations, did your research well and were quick to arrive at a conclusion, without making absurd comparisons or going about vaguely in circles. It was refreshing indeed to see you remaining focused, deciding your parameters and selecting wisely within them.

Please feel free to contact me whenever you wish. And yes, we shall certainly get together for that drink whenever we are in the same borough.

Right, i'll stop now Vivek.

hey big ears are you rajendra or Vivek???

Hi Sub,

What's in a name....

Ya thats true..

you see there are two kinds of people in the world my friend ..those known by fame and rest known by name....heheheh..and some in between who talk from either ends to make themselves heard..for eg....Hmmmmmmmm forget it

here more for you....

Ravi, sorry for hijacking this thread. Hopefully, you are able to get your Tape deck though Junia. Though getting other list of commerical options would not hurt.

Hey manek, junia thanks a lot for your replies..

And junia thanks so much for offering to help out. In order of prefernce, I was looking for service/support availability and price, so maybe will see if I can get it from bangalore which would have service/warranty available and if that does not turn out practicable, will contact you for sourcing it from mumbai or elsewhere. I really appreciate your kind help in this regard.

Raj, Benks, I totally agree with you on what a great forum this is - and its all because of the people here that are standing examples of what an "online community" is really all about. Raj, I dont mind the hijacking.. it helped us appreciate all the virtues in the others...named or nameless

hey ravi, here one named for you...........try a YAMAHA tape deck..one for 10k...very good vfm with rugged mechanism.....don't know the model .....,but will bring home the goods..

ravi wrote :

and its all because of the people here that are standing examples

some times you know what happens when a standing example backs you up...you become a bending example....hehehe

Ravi,
Search for Technics on www.bazee.com now www.ebay.in. There is a model for around 8000.
I guess you can also get a Yamaha deck. My preference after research would be a teac or tascam model. However the question of after sales service is always there and in that sense a denon or onkyo would be better - available around 10K.
Look for Dolby B, C NR Doly S is supposed to be much better. Also look for wow & flutter figures should be less than .2%. 3 head machines are said to be better,
Rgds
Vinod

Vinodt thats a good suggestion too....how about free ads i have seen some mint tape decks sold at ridiculous prices.....reason why would anyone pay up 5 or 6k for a slightly used tape deck when philips or bpl offers dual cassette with 200 watts rms, tuner etc etc...

Dear Ravi,
might i question the purpose of the tape deck when u have cds and Mp3s that have a much better SNR compared to the lowly tapes...
i mean even if u wanted to use tapes u can as well convert them into MP3s(of almost the same quality) and instead invest the same amount in a decent CDP or something else that would capture your fancy..

as u might know the SNR or tapes never exceeds 60-65dB but that of MP3s and CDs are well over 85 dB, conservately speakeing that is..
Cheers,
Benks

ya thats a good suggestion and talk about oxide deposits in ol tapes and el paino rew and fwd

not to mention the demagnatization tape u will need to use every 6 months or so..just too many mechanical components..
But, if u are still stuck on the idea of having a tape..then how about using a car tape deck(a pioneer has a superb head mechanism) powered by an external power supply(all u need is 12-13 volts standard PS) ..u can use the preouts to feed the amps.just a suggestion..
however, if that too does'nt appeal to you then i did see Teacs as mentioned by vinodt in Music Ranch...don't go for new sony,technics(i find that the quality has degraded afr beyond comprehension)...if u do plan to buy a new tape deck then look at panasonic(probably the only big brand that carries good audio products)
Cheers,
Benks

Hi;

Having used more then 100 tape decks I can reccomend the following.

Nearly all of the Nakamichis perform well. (Except the latest ones whcih realy suck) They tend to wear qucikly so examine well before buying. Good news is that you can always find spare parts at some cost.

Nak 480 Great for playback, good for recording. Cheap
Nak 481 3 Head version of 480,better recording Cheap
Nak 680(ZX) Great for playback, great for recording
Nak 580 Great for playback and recording
Nak 581 3 Heads, Excelent Playback, good+ recording
BX300 Good 3 Heads deck, very cheap.
ZX 7 Excelent performer pricy
ZX 9 One of the best tape decks out there. Can eat your cd player

Nak is a well known brand and there is hardly a hidden gem in there. Here are some gems for you

Technics RS-M02 , mid sized deck, sounds great
Aiwa L 50, an other mid sized deck, sound great too

If you need more assistance you can write directly to m.ozyoney@remivac.com
best regards
Mertol

By the way I ve seen people asking whats the use of a tape where there are CD's and MP3's.

First I havent seen a decent deck tape that can not out perform any mp3 player. Regardless of the player MP3 encoded sources lack so much information that, it can hardly be called hifi. And the CD. Yes Cd has its advanteges. But search the net for 10 k $ worth cd players 1 khz sinus wave response. It hardly looks like a sinus wave. And then look for a Nakamichi ZX-9's output response to 15 Kzh sinus wave and tell which one would you use to record your live event?

Use a Nak ZX-9, fine tune it, and it will out perform nearly all of the cd recorders both in playback and recording easly.

best regards

phew thats a wealth of information, technical and brand related, thanks guys!

Will look at Denon for local support. Can look at Yamaha/Nak/technics etc and will then have to rely on sourcing spares from abroad and servicing it locally. I would be in Japan in a couple of weeks and will checkout any good deals on Nak/Yamaha there before deciding.

Benks, I preferred to get a tape deck for the following reasons, each of which is not reason enough by itself but together, they tip the balance in favor of a new tape deck! -

o I have a lot of old tapes lying around, being used only in the car player now. Converting to MP3, even at 320kbps would be lossy - I am personally more tolerant towards noise caused by tapes than subtle tonal imbalances caused by mp3, after spending hours to convert to mp3! So the only other choice would be to convert to audio CD but then I'll have to burn a hell lot of CDs! Also, I would need to get a good digitizer or PC card and borrow a tape deck for the conversion.
o There are some Indian albums that are not available in CDs, only tapes (eg; some Ilayaraja collections and classical music)
o Occassionally I come across the odd tape picked up from a friend etc
o I realized the joy a good tape deck can give when I listen to my Pioneer car deck that has excellent SNR and reliability compared to my previous decks. Its been 4 years now and I never had to replace the head or any of the mechanical parts! Yeah, on my old Philips stereo I had to consciously try and ignore the -40dB noise and keep a screwdriver handy to adjust head alignment every week and replace the head every 6 months on a Philisp powerhouse. Sony decks were a bit better. But Pioneer beats them all handsdown in reliability. I was hoping there are other such good reliable decks out there with great performance.

Hey Mertol, 100 tape decks - thats impressive, thanks for the detailed info on the best tape decks!