Re: [ARSCLIST] Some advice on cassette decks?

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Craig:

What is the content of your cassettes? Next question, were they recorded on relatively reliable 
equipment? Next question, what condition are they in?

I think these questions will decide your cassette deck. I will argue that you do not need an 
audiophile/azimuth-adjusting deck like a Nak Dragon if you have a bunch of recorded spoken-word 
tapes that were made on decent equipment. A little azimuth drift will not have nearly the bearing 
audibility as the original recording technique (ie a built-in mic on a boomy table just won't yield 
a very good recording, whereas a feed off a decent lecturn mic will be audible whether or not 
there's a little azimuth misalignment).

The condition of the tapes will determine how gentle a transport you'll need. Generally, 
heavier-duty/more-precision transports are gentler and less likely to mangle, but this is not always 
the case.

Finally, what are your input parameters? Do you have a balanced pro-level system? If so, you'll 
probably want a balanced-output/+4 nominal level cassette machine.

If your collection is music, where you need speed-accuracy for proper pitch and a high-fidelity 
playback of wide both dynamic and frequency range, then you need to focus on audio quality first and 
then very close second would be mechanism, although they're intertwined since you can't have 
reliable speed/pitch without a reliable mechanism. If it's spoken word, I'd focus on a good 
heavy-duty mechanism balanced against cost requirements because just about any cassette deck with a 
reliable mechanism will have audio playback quality up to this task and then some.

I think just about the only people making pro-grade cassette decks anymore are Tascam, but there 
might be others.

One man's opinion here, but I would not buy a cassette deck used on ebay. I've seen lots of 
beat-to-hell decks from studios and duping facilities and radio stations there. The guy Richard Hess 
knows who restores Dragons would be a good source if you have budget for the ultimate deck.

I have here Nak MR, a Tascam 122, a Yamaha dual-deck (for making backups of conference recordings 
for the transcriber) and a Nak consumer deck, forgot the model number. The Nak MR's are usually used 
for transfers due to excellent audio quality and pretty gentle mechanisms. I like the Tascam very 
much but it's more a sentimental like since I made many a dub on those things in the studio where I 
worked during high school summers. It rarely gets used for transfer jobs because its audio quality 
is not as good as the Nak -- but it does reproduce some Dolby B tapes better. The Yamaha deck is 
strictly there for double-speed dupes, although it has surprisingly good audio quality at 
regular-speed playback.

One final thing. I would suggest that cassette transfers should be done at high resolution because 
there may be a need for a few digi-tools to clean up the sound. The more resolution the digi-tools 
have to work with, generally speaking, the better the resulting file sounds. Whether you save the 
final file in high rez or not is a topic of debate -- I would since storage is cheap and redoing 
this kind of work is not. Always back up your digi-files, of course.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Breaden" <breaden@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 1:56 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Some advice on cassette decks?


> I am embarking on a fairly large project involving digitization of
> audiocassettes.  None of the players in my archive have an azimuth
> controller.  I have two questions: is Nakamichi my best or only choice if
> I'm looking for this capability, and does anybody have a recommendation on
> where I should buy? If I have to go with ebay, I'll need to make a fairly
> strong argument to our accounts folks to make that plunge ("ebay" is
> anathema to them), so if there are some ebay stores that you rate highly,
> that info would be helpful too.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Craig
>
> Craig Breaden
> Media Assets Archivist
> Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
> Main Library
> The University of Georgia
> Athens, GA  30602-1641
> 706-542-5782 (phone)
> 706-542-4144 (fax)
> www.libs.uga.edu/russell/russell.html