From: kautz@research.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.audio
Subject: some cassette deck purchasing experiences
Date: 12 Nov 92 03:46:34 GMT
Reply-To: kautz@research.att.com
Distribution: rec
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

For the past few days I've been auditioning cassette decks of two types:
(1) cheap single-well, non-auto-reverse decks (as a gift for a
relative who will mainly play back pre-recorded tapes);
(2) mid-range Auto-reverse single and double well decks, for use in
recording radio shows, dubbing tapes, etc.  (Several people suggested
I use a VCR for recording radio shows --- unfortunately the deck in my
car is not VHS-compatible! :-)

To test playback quality, I prepared a test tape (using metal tape) on
a 3-head Nak deck, with selections both in Dolby B and then repeated
in Dolby C.  (My main selections were Joni Mitchell's "I was a free
man in Paris" --- the piano really shows up flutter! --- and a
brass quintet.)  Armed with the test tape, the original CD's, a blank
tape, and a pair of headphones, I was visited a range of dealers, from
reputable hi-end dealers to Sears and the dreaded 6th Avenue
Electronics.  The prices in the following are the actual retail I
found, not the list prices.

Results: even the cheapest single-well, non-auto reverse deck was
quite satisfactory for playback.  And even the most expensive
auto-reverse deck sounded fairly awful by comparision.  In the
playback test, a $129 Sony TC-FX170 easily outperformed the $270 Denon
DRW660 single-well autoreverse deck, and even beat a $430 Sony ES dual
well model (I forget the model number).

For recording and playback, in the inexpensive single-well category I
liked a $250 NAD 6325 unit best, and it also had nice, simple
ergonomics.  The $229 Yamaha KX-260 was also quite acceptable, but I
did not like the way the mechanism clanked when shifting gears.  The
$190 Denon DRM-510 has a particularly annoying design blunder --
whenever the deck is turned off and on, it comes on with Dolby
switched OFF.  I can just imagine how many times a user would make a
recording and then realize they forgot to switch Dolby back on.
Otherwise, the sound quality was about the same as the Yamaha.  I
heard that there is also a less expensive Yamaha model which is like
the KX-260 but lacks music search, but I did not find it in stock.

I did not listen to any more expensive machines, since $250 was
already over my limit, but the Nachimichi Cassette Deck 3 (around
$300?) would be obvious candidate.

In the auto-reverse category, the story is simple: everything was
pretty much equally good, or equally bad, depending on your point of
comparision.  The only single-well autoreverse deck I auditioned was
the $270 Denon DRW660, but it did not sound any better than any of the
cheaper dual-well autoreverse decks.  The Sony ES decks had more
features (e.g. a headphone volume control) and much studier
construction than the similiar non-ES models, but did not
sound any better.  I think the best course for this category is to
simply buy according to price and features.  A good value here is the
Sony TC-WR690, which at $249 is very rare in including dual record (so
you can record up to 4 hours) and it's own remote control (so you
don't require a matching-brand receiver for remote or remote timer
operation).  In addition to the Sony's I listened to various Pioneer,
Denon, and Technics decks.

Finally, as far as stores go: I did not find the expected big
discounts at places like 6th Avenue or The Wiz.  Nor were the various
mail-order prices much better, for items with a US warranty.  There
was a difference between hi-end stores --- some offered about 15%
discount off of list price, while others tried to go for full list.
For low-end mass-market equipement, a regular department store such as
Sears (horror!) offers very liberal exchange and return policies,
often (but not always!) for very little more than the sleazy discount
places.



--
---- Henry Kautz

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