Thanks Scott, Daniël. Scott, prior to me making this decision, I had some good tactical points from Tony, who owns both the TC-K950ES and TC-KA3ES, Good thing I opted for the 950ES. Yes, I believe it has the TCM-200D transport. If anything, this deck seems to sense any tape skew, tape slack and stops playback before any damage is caused to the tape. The first day I got it, I must have logged about six hours of playing time and probably 10 hours in total since owning it.
This past Thursday night was my first attempt at recording with my new Sony. Downstairs, I have a Pioneer CD file changer holding 100 CDs - a PD-F904. I patched it directly into the CD Direct inputs of the Sony. Then I followed the OM on proper calibration procedure for the bias and level. I left the Rec EQ Cal in the Normal position. I used a new Phoenix Blue Chrome C-90 tape for the recording and I enabled Dolby C and HX-Pro. My CD changer is across the room, probably 15 feet way from my Sony cassette deck, and I didn't have my remote control handy so I had Geri cue the track I wanted to record on the CDP. I, only, wanted to do one track. Once I completed the test recording, I rewound the tape to listen to the recorded song. Very nice! I would say the recording had a slightly stronger bass tone than the source material, but it might have been the tape formulation. Any of you other Sony TC-K owners find the same? I usually like to monitor my recordings with headphones, but I skipped that for this test-recording. Happy with how that song turned out, I continued with another, then another, until I completed Side A. Each time I had Geri hit the Play button on the CDP as I began the recording on the Sony. Whatever CD was loaded into the changer was what I recorded a track from. The band playlist goes in successive order: Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Saga, Toto, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and a double-track from Queen.
This is a very nice deck for recording and once I get it looked over it should be up to factory-spec.
Nando.
