- Joined
- Jun 12, 2010
- Messages
- 9,962
Hi all,
I have been looking for a second reputable cassette deck for recording duties to lessen the load on my venerable Esoteric V-9000. Many of my other decks are fine for recording but I have been accustomed to the features of Dolby C and HX-Pro, which aren't features available on my other three-head machines. I have been faithfully following the local craigslist for the past few weeks and there have been a number of decks that have appeared, but judging by the pictures and sparse details, I dismissed them. There were two Sony decks that seemed interesting: one was A Sony TC-K950ES for $300 and the other was a TC-KA3ES still available at $350. I made a decision to follow up on one deck after responses by Tony and Miles when I queried about problems I should be mindful of in this vintage of Sony decks.
This past week, I chose to contact the person owning the TC-K950ES and sent the seller an email with a few questions and asking for information about the deck and whether I could speak to him by phone the following evening after work. He responded by email with his phone number and I did just that. I got a good vibe from him over the phone and this deck was sort of the last hold-out to his analog days. He faithfully packed it with him in a couple of moves, even after shedding all the other components from his TOTL Sony ES system he bought new in the 90's. But he felt it was time to move on as he didn't have a single cassette - at least he thought he had none. It sounds like he had a very nice system - including twin ES power amplifiers, the coveted X777ES CDP, Dual turntable and B & W speakers. He estimated the last time he had used his cassette deck was about ten years ago. Usually, that doesn't bode well as infrequent use is as bad as clocking a lot of hours without periodic maintenance on any type of equipment.
We set a date for me to demo the deck and he recommended I bring a tape to play/record and he would ensure it was hooked up to his AV system the day of the demo. On Saturday I confirmed the time for our meeting for the following day and I offered my personal cell # in case there were any changes to our plans. He figured my home # would be sufficient. On Sunday morning ( yesterday), I assembled a few things I would need for the demo: two pairs of RCA patch cords, three mix tapes - normal, chrome and metal, and 99% IPA, swabs, and a hand-held demagnetizer. With clear directions in hand, Geri and I set off in the morning at about 8:30 a.m. to our destination. I estimated it would take us about 1.5 hours to get to his place, but we were earlier than expected, so I phoned him to check if it wasn't too early. He had called our home phone, but we were already en-route, and we missed his call. He explained he had tried the deck, as there was a pre-recorded tape already in the tape well, and he couldn't get it to play. The deck would fast forward, rewind, even, work on Automatic Music Sensor, but wouldn't play. I was disappointed and he was really apologetic when we met face-to-face. Sure enough, the deck just wouldn't respond in Play mode - the head assembly would lift into place as if to play a tape then withdraw after a second or two, but all the other mode functions were fine. Steve asked if I would still be interested in the deck at a sharply-reduced price and Geri was already slightly shaking her head side-to-side. I explained to Steve that it was likely repairs might end up costing more than I anticipated. I told him it wasn't something I was going to attempt to repair myself, and I would have to bring it to Innovative Audio to have it diagnosed and possibly repaired. So, he offers: " How about a hundred bucks, and on the honour system, if the repairs are more than two hundred dollars, I will pay the difference. Of course, if the repairs cost less you get a good deal." I looked at Geri and it was reasonable, so I quickly peeled off $100 for the payment of the Sony.
Once home, I popped the top cover off the deck and gave it a good cleaning with a compressed-air can meant for electronics and used my long cotton-tipped swabs to get into the corners. Cosmetically, this deck is in excellent condition, perhaps a few small blemishes, but looking essentially as if new. There is no packing carton - that's was long gone after downsizing to a smaller home, there is no remote control as he had been using a Master RC for controlling all of his ES system components, and he opted to not have the wood side panels as it was an extra expense that wouldn’t be seen in the stereo stand anyway. I thoroughly cleaned the heads and tape path and there was a fair bit of residue wiped from the pinch rollers and heads. Once powered up, I had a feeling I could jump-start this baby into playing. It didn’t make sense that the deck would respond in music search mode, but not play. With a cassette inserted, I toggled back and forth between record mode and pause and play and momentarily the play head engaged and the meters responded. I hadn’t connected the deck to my system for sound, yet. Geri was nearby on the desktop and was very surprised to hear it play once I did connect it to the mixing console. So, for the best part of the afternoon I played a few mix tapes, including one I had recorded with my V-9000 for Geri’s car. Both the Esoteric V-9000 and Sony TC-K950ES are great companions and I am really happy how good the Sony sounds – not that I doubted it would, but after a ten-year sabbatical I didn’t expect it would be this good. Next on the agenda is to try recording and I will bring it into Innovative Audio for a tune-up, then use it in my upstairs system as a secondary cassette deck for recording. In the meantime, I hope Tony’s mix tape arrives soon. I am dying to play back his tape recorded on his own TC-K950ES on my own 950ES.
Nando.
I have been looking for a second reputable cassette deck for recording duties to lessen the load on my venerable Esoteric V-9000. Many of my other decks are fine for recording but I have been accustomed to the features of Dolby C and HX-Pro, which aren't features available on my other three-head machines. I have been faithfully following the local craigslist for the past few weeks and there have been a number of decks that have appeared, but judging by the pictures and sparse details, I dismissed them. There were two Sony decks that seemed interesting: one was A Sony TC-K950ES for $300 and the other was a TC-KA3ES still available at $350. I made a decision to follow up on one deck after responses by Tony and Miles when I queried about problems I should be mindful of in this vintage of Sony decks.
This past week, I chose to contact the person owning the TC-K950ES and sent the seller an email with a few questions and asking for information about the deck and whether I could speak to him by phone the following evening after work. He responded by email with his phone number and I did just that. I got a good vibe from him over the phone and this deck was sort of the last hold-out to his analog days. He faithfully packed it with him in a couple of moves, even after shedding all the other components from his TOTL Sony ES system he bought new in the 90's. But he felt it was time to move on as he didn't have a single cassette - at least he thought he had none. It sounds like he had a very nice system - including twin ES power amplifiers, the coveted X777ES CDP, Dual turntable and B & W speakers. He estimated the last time he had used his cassette deck was about ten years ago. Usually, that doesn't bode well as infrequent use is as bad as clocking a lot of hours without periodic maintenance on any type of equipment.
We set a date for me to demo the deck and he recommended I bring a tape to play/record and he would ensure it was hooked up to his AV system the day of the demo. On Saturday I confirmed the time for our meeting for the following day and I offered my personal cell # in case there were any changes to our plans. He figured my home # would be sufficient. On Sunday morning ( yesterday), I assembled a few things I would need for the demo: two pairs of RCA patch cords, three mix tapes - normal, chrome and metal, and 99% IPA, swabs, and a hand-held demagnetizer. With clear directions in hand, Geri and I set off in the morning at about 8:30 a.m. to our destination. I estimated it would take us about 1.5 hours to get to his place, but we were earlier than expected, so I phoned him to check if it wasn't too early. He had called our home phone, but we were already en-route, and we missed his call. He explained he had tried the deck, as there was a pre-recorded tape already in the tape well, and he couldn't get it to play. The deck would fast forward, rewind, even, work on Automatic Music Sensor, but wouldn't play. I was disappointed and he was really apologetic when we met face-to-face. Sure enough, the deck just wouldn't respond in Play mode - the head assembly would lift into place as if to play a tape then withdraw after a second or two, but all the other mode functions were fine. Steve asked if I would still be interested in the deck at a sharply-reduced price and Geri was already slightly shaking her head side-to-side. I explained to Steve that it was likely repairs might end up costing more than I anticipated. I told him it wasn't something I was going to attempt to repair myself, and I would have to bring it to Innovative Audio to have it diagnosed and possibly repaired. So, he offers: " How about a hundred bucks, and on the honour system, if the repairs are more than two hundred dollars, I will pay the difference. Of course, if the repairs cost less you get a good deal." I looked at Geri and it was reasonable, so I quickly peeled off $100 for the payment of the Sony.
Once home, I popped the top cover off the deck and gave it a good cleaning with a compressed-air can meant for electronics and used my long cotton-tipped swabs to get into the corners. Cosmetically, this deck is in excellent condition, perhaps a few small blemishes, but looking essentially as if new. There is no packing carton - that's was long gone after downsizing to a smaller home, there is no remote control as he had been using a Master RC for controlling all of his ES system components, and he opted to not have the wood side panels as it was an extra expense that wouldn’t be seen in the stereo stand anyway. I thoroughly cleaned the heads and tape path and there was a fair bit of residue wiped from the pinch rollers and heads. Once powered up, I had a feeling I could jump-start this baby into playing. It didn’t make sense that the deck would respond in music search mode, but not play. With a cassette inserted, I toggled back and forth between record mode and pause and play and momentarily the play head engaged and the meters responded. I hadn’t connected the deck to my system for sound, yet. Geri was nearby on the desktop and was very surprised to hear it play once I did connect it to the mixing console. So, for the best part of the afternoon I played a few mix tapes, including one I had recorded with my V-9000 for Geri’s car. Both the Esoteric V-9000 and Sony TC-K950ES are great companions and I am really happy how good the Sony sounds – not that I doubted it would, but after a ten-year sabbatical I didn’t expect it would be this good. Next on the agenda is to try recording and I will bring it into Innovative Audio for a tune-up, then use it in my upstairs system as a secondary cassette deck for recording. In the meantime, I hope Tony’s mix tape arrives soon. I am dying to play back his tape recorded on his own TC-K950ES on my own 950ES.
Nando.
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