Who has Decks and What Kind

derek92994 · May 1, 2013

I love my Beta-Hifi, 80db dynamic range (whatever that means? its written on the top). Very hard to find these with good Hi-Fi heads, this one was used until first set of belts/idlers wore out then sat for 10 years till i got my hands on it. Sound/Picture is superb (Sorry Mr VHS!) :toothy10:

Elite-ist · May 1, 2013

derek92994 said:

That's a nice group of vintage cassette decks. I bet the JVC TD-V661 and Harman/Kardon TD 420 are, particularly, good. Incredible...look at all those cassettes! I hope, you hadn't spent all evening lining them up for that shot, just for us.

I have a Sony Super Beta Hi Fi Stereocast SL-HF750

Nando.

derek92994 · May 2, 2013

Elite-ist said:

Nice, sony is very strong too in the beta hifi department, I just looked it up, that's the one with the sliding mechanism on the tray, very neat, my dream machine is a SL-HF950 of that same style.
That's how my cassette tapes live and I still have another box or two sitting near the stair well + two more draw racks similar to the ones in my cabinet, trying to keep all tapes down stairs in the cool. I did a video of my beta hifi playing back a clean vinyl recording of Yes - Roundabout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX-kdJK5Lag (excuse the rats nest of wires, it has been cleaned up since!)
Sounds quite nice. I use the beta hifi for audio recording as well. I think I have recorded around 60 normal cassettes in the last month, recently took the cd player out of the car and installed a fairly good pioneer auto reverse cassette deck, loving the sound :toothy10:

Elite-ist · May 2, 2013

Derek: Cool video and a great recording onto Beta. That's a nice Beta machine! Years ago (80's), I used to record long FM radio broadcasts, from a particular late night talk show I still enjoy, onto VHS using my Mitsubishi hi fi stereo VCR. Then, I tried recording music from records and CDs. Very nice! Looking at the audio specs of the better VCRs, it's no wonder. All my vehicles have factory cassette receivers, including Geri's 1996 Volvo 850 GLT. I have a bunch of older car audio gear, too.

derek92994 · May 2, 2013

Elite-ist said:

Audio specs of hifi beta audio are great, its just that the format is very bulky. With my sanyo I should sit down one day and write down the counter numbers for each album starting point. It doesn't have the timer counter like the sonys do. I notice with hifi vcrs that they don't saturate very easily audio wise unless you have that recording level screaming at 10+db, I think this is due to the helical (diagonal) tape scanning method which gives lots of bandwidth for the sound recording. That video there was pushing 8db at times with no distortion (maybe a little vinyl crackle though).

Older car gear is great, I especially like the Pioneers that were in the mid 1980 ford falcons, for a factory cassette deck they were extremely strong and clear sounding. I owned one for a while which took the tape in long ways, not side ways like most of them, what a great deck, very well known for its solenoid "clunking" when changing transport modes

Elite-ist · May 2, 2013

derek92994 said:

Derek: You have a better grasp on recording to Beta than I do. I hadn't realized how much input signal you could get away with, cleanly, on a Beta recording because of it's head design and tape path. Speaking of peak input signal, while recording: I had been so accustomed to taping hot in the past, but I find the recording is much less compressed with a reduction in hiss at slightly lower peak input signals. I am sure Perry can attest to this, too.

I"ll take a few pictures of my older car audio gear and post them in the car audio sub-forum on the weekend. I have some late 70's to 80's gear. I was using the car audio Pioneer Component cassette deck, tuner, amp(s), and speakers as my home stereo for many years - in fact, I still do, in the downstairs bedroom.

Nando.

derek92994 · May 3, 2013

Elite-ist said:

I noticed the same with Hi-Fi VHS, I believe that beta is more superior in terms of quality and reliability, VHS Hi-Fi tends to be more sensitive to slight impurities/wear in the tapes and can "flicker" or drop back to the mono track more so than a beta does. I have only just Migrated to Beta Hi-Fi, the results are impressive, I chose the Sanyo because it is easy to work on and I had another machine here for spare parts. Cost me $150 for the Broken Sanyo VTC-M40 Beta-HiFi (belts/idlers, lube, clean etc), hard to get at that price (especially with good hi-fi heads), they go for much more in working order. If you can turn the tracking dial all the way from the far left to far right and not lose the hi-fi track, this is a sign of good hi-fi heads with low hours.

When I was a teenager I used to push 8db on an old national NV-850 Hi-Fi VHS machine whilst recording film clips off analog tv, I didn't really know about recording levels, it just sounded louder, but somehow still clear and distortion free. I saw some pre-recorded Hi-fi VHS tapes hit 10db (one I can remember is Prince's Purple Rain) and remember being blown away by the sound from that movie, was also cool to see those last two increments on the meter light up for the first time.

That note you made re slightly lower peak signals, do you mean it sounds better at a lower level? I thought the louder you recorded it provided it was distortion free the lower the hiss levels as the recording loudness would drown the hiss out? I'm still learning here. With cassettes I stick to +2-3db for ferrics, +4-5db for chromes and +6-7db for metal, this is with a HX PRO capable machine. I don't know what Nakamichis are like but I plan on obtaining a BX-300 in the future, I hear these don't have HX PRO, does that mean you have to record lower db with them? Either way it doesn't bother me really.

I look forward to seeing some of your 70's car gear, let me know and possibly send a link if you get a chance.

Great talking audio with you =).

Elite-ist · May 3, 2013

derek92994 said:

I noticed the same with Hi-Fi VHS, I believe that beta is more superior in terms of quality and reliability, VHS Hi-Fi tends to be more sensitive to slight impurities/wear in the tapes and can "flicker" or drop back to the mono track more so than a beta does. I have only just Migrated to Beta Hi-Fi, the results are impressive, I chose the Sanyo because it is easy to work on and I had another machine here for spare parts. Cost me $150 for the Broken Sanyo VTC-M40 Beta-HiFi (belts/idlers, lube, clean etc), hard to get at that price (especially with good hi-fi heads), they go for much more in working order. If you can turn the tracking dial all the way from the far left to far right and not lose the hi-fi track, this is a sign of good hi-fi heads with low hours.

When I was a teenager I used to push 8db on an old national NV-850 Hi-Fi VHS machine whilst recording film clips off analog tv, I didn't really know about recording levels, it just sounded louder, but somehow still clear and distortion free. I saw some pre-recorded Hi-fi VHS tapes hit 10db (one I can remember is Prince's Purple Rain) and remember being blown away by the sound from that movie, was also cool to see those last two increments on the meter light up for the first time.

That note you made re slightly lower peak signals, do you mean it sounds better at a lower level? I thought the louder you recorded it provided it was distortion free the lower the hiss levels as the recording loudness would drown the hiss out? I'm still learning here. With cassettes I stick to +2-3db for ferrics, +4-5db for chromes and +6-7db for metal, this is with a HX PRO capable machine. I don't know what Nakamichis are like but I plan on obtaining a BX-300 in the future, I hear these don't have HX PRO, does that mean you have to record lower db with them? Either way it doesn't bother me really.

I look forward to seeing some of your 70's car gear, let me know and possibly send a link if you get a chance.

Great talking audio with you =).

You can check out this post by Perry on TH: http://www.tapeheads.net/showpost.php?p=299312&postcount=73

I have been trying to record at peak input levels about 2dB lower than the values you use for the different tape types.

The pictures of my car stereo gear will be posted in the car audio section, Derek.

Nando.

fitz43 · May 3, 2013

Elite-ist said:

Tells me to login. Guess you have to be a member....

derek92994 · May 3, 2013

fitz43 said:

Easy to do, its free and has a wealth of information =).

ColColt · May 4, 2013

Compared to many, I'm deck poor but I'm working on it.

RTR:

Teac A-4300
Teac X-10R

Cassette:

Marantz PMD 502
Nakamichi DR-3
Nakamichi ZX-7
Sony TC-WE475

BubbaH · May 4, 2013

I forgot to mention in my other post, I have an RT-1011L.

Nick Danger · May 4, 2013

ColColt said:

Welcome aboard! Sounds like a pretty nice collection to me.

Elite-ist · May 4, 2013

ColColt said:

It's nice to have you join up, ColColt. That's an impressive line-up of decks.

Nando.

derek92994 · May 5, 2013

Good to see you here colcolt, I have seen on you on another forum that I visit. Those decks are very nice, can't wait to get a high end Nakamichi myself.

ColColt · May 5, 2013

Thanks, all. I had a little problem with the ZX-7 not wanting to calibrate properly but, Perry put his touches on it and the deck is on its way back home. I'll be anxious to get it going again. The RTR decks perform superbly and have to date had no problems with them. I sense a Pioneer RT-909 in my future...or maybe an X-1000R.

Yep, derek, I thought I recognized your handle.

derek92994 · May 5, 2013

ColColt said:

Thanks, all. I had a little problem with the ZX-7 not wanting to calibrate properly but, Perry put his touches on it and the deck is on its way back home. I'll be anxious to get it going again. The RTR decks perform superbly and have to date had no problems with them. I sense a Pioneer RT-909 in my future...or maybe an X-1000R.

Yep, derek, I thought I recognized your handle.

That ZX-7 will be so finely tuned!

ColColt · May 5, 2013

I have no doubt about that at all. He's written me about what he found and what he had to do and I told him to spare no expense in getting it up to snuff. That's going to be most likely the best deck I have. It played great but just wouldn't record properly. Now, it will be as new.

pennysdad · May 8, 2013

I've got a Teac A-510 II, but after installing a new belt, it developed some spluttering noise on the output channels. Most timely.
I've got a Nakamichi BX1, and after getting a new idler wheel and installing it, found it made no difference, and it still won't get up to speed.
Then there's my 660ZX. It's developed a 'clonking' sound, and although still plays, the 'klonk' is most irritating. I think it's the main drive cog that's possible split from centre to the teeth. A major disassembly nightmare to get to that one. Plus at one time, it suffered a feedback accident which took out the meters. (BIG SIGH)
I am still looking for a Teac A3340 (?) 10" 4-track, so I can digitise some of my 'live' gig recordings which were done years ago. Plus I just love the look of those things. Not as swish as the Pioneer ones that I've seen, but they were my first, so I have a bit of a soft spot for 'em.

So not much luck with tapes lately, and I got boxes of recordings of gigs I'd love to transfer for posterity, before they get lost....
I'll just have to keep looking. Something will come along eventually.

Off to bed now.....

Nick Danger · May 8, 2013

Here's my current lineup of decks:

Pioneer RT 1020L X 2

Pioneer CT F900 X 3

JVC TD V531

Onkyo TA 2026

Who has Decks and What Kind

Veteran and General Yakker

Administrator, (and straight-up pimp stick!)

Veteran and General Yakker

Administrator, (and straight-up pimp stick!)

Veteran and General Yakker

Administrator, (and straight-up pimp stick!)

Veteran and General Yakker

Administrator, (and straight-up pimp stick!)

Veteran and General Yakker

Veteran and General Yakker

New Around These Parts

Veteran and General Yakker

Veteran and General Yakker

Administrator, (and straight-up pimp stick!)

Veteran and General Yakker

New Around These Parts

Veteran and General Yakker

New Around These Parts

Veteran and General Yakker

Veteran and General Yakker