O.K. - I know that most posters here are spade neck beards in disguise.
Clearing out a small portion of the loft I came across a Harman Kardon cassette tape deck.
A quick punt through eBay suggests that they still sell for a bit and some for surprisingly much.
Is this realistic or are eBayers 'avin a larf?
The deck is an HK2000 which seems to have reasonable reviews including a posting in
Cheers
Dave R
I ran tests on a top end Nakamichi once. Even after two days tweaking I could never get left and right channels to behave the same and both were enough to make a maiden blush.
I concluded that 'cassette' and 'hi fi' didnt belong in the same sentence.
And Dolby was about as good at reduceing noise whilst -presevcng fidelity as a wind turbine is at reduceing CO2 emissions whilst still generating affordable electricity.
I carried on with vinyl till CDs arrived.
people who claimed they could tell the difference between vinyl and CDs always struck me as the sort of people who would refuse to consider an automatic "because of the fuel consumption" despite the fact they could even come close to 50% of the manufacturers spec ....
Yes, there *is* a difference. But *they* would never find it ...
I'd go for the latter. After all, charity shops won't take them.
Billionaire Sound Pioneer Ray Dolby Dies, Age 80 Ray Dolby died Thursday in San Francisco, age 80. He suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and acute leukemia.
A pioneer in the field of sound, Dolby will be remembered as the man who took the hiss out of sound recordings.
With a fortune of $2.4 billion at his death, Dolby truly did make silence golden
Obviously money isn't everything, but it probably helps.
As presumably Dolby didn't die a deeply bitter man.
michael adams
...
Checking on the US listings a few are on sale for peanuts on an AS IS basis owing to misfunctioning components wheels etc on the tape transport. Which presumably could be repaired for anyone with a source of spares.
The manuals seem to go for more than some machines, presumably for well heeled collectors who have all-original working machines.
It does make you wonder quite how much any pristine original boxes presumably including any polystyrene inserts might fetch.
Or even machines in still unopened boxes,
michael adams
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There's a wheel need for fast forward or playback which
Worse still, a forum poster has put "cassette" and "studio quality" together.
Wilkos have started selling blank C90s ?!?
It's also only as good as the width of the tape. The fact that Dolby sound reduction was very effective on 1/4, and 1/2. studio tape which was why it was widely adopted, and rather less effective but still an improvement on 1/8 inch cassette tape, appears to have totally escaped you.
michael adams
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Contary though it seems, there is always demand for old "quality" kit. I can't decide if it's nostalgia driven or the religion of audiophilia, which, of course, buys into the most bizarre logic.
Check out Techmoan on YouTube. He's forever reviewing old devices that time and tide have forgotten (the Tefifon is quite fascinating) which is interesting in its own way, but he often brings up stuff where he's found the final prices on eBay richer than his pockets - so someone must be buying the stuff!
Cancer shops certainly take electronic stuff - and I'm pretty sure The British Heart Foundation still do.
no, its so obvious I cant believe you think anyone doesn'tt know that. Especially tnp
dork
Many don't take electrical gear because of the need to PAT it before resale.
Not cassette decks and VCRs, they don't.
So how come he posted the following, in his very first post in this thread?
Two of the easiest ways to make yourself look stupid on Usenet are
a) By not reading what's been posted previously in a thread.
b) Putting rather too much credence in the outpourings of the bullshit artists and fantasy merchants, with which Usenet abounds.
I don't resort to name calling myself; as people such as yourself are clearly labouring under enough of a handicap as it is.
Mind how you go now. And have a nice day.
michael adams
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Dolby A as used on pro tape machines is a totally different beast from that used with cassettes.
Which was rather my point.
Which was made in response to Turnip's original comment about Dolby which you won't have read as you killfiled him. The reason the perforamnce of even top end cassette decks such as Nakamichi was so poor relatively speaking wasn't because of deficiencies in Dolby as such; as Turnip implied. But because of the limitations imposed by using 1/8in tape.
Basically nothing you could do with 1/8 tape could match the performance offered by wider formats. Which for some strange reason Turnip appeared to think possible.
The fact that in addition this limitation made it impossible to implement Dolby A is a side issue. Even Dolby B offered a big improvement on what would have otherwise have been even poorer sound quality resulting from the 1/8inch limitation.
michael adams
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As someone who accepts VCRs and cassette decks on behalf of a charity (annual jumble sale): over 90% are DOA, despite assurances that they "ran perfectly fine just yesterday"... Usually they chew tapes -- probably rubber bits in the transport system hard.
Plenty of folk ask for a cheap cassette or VCR player, to look/listen to old tapes.
Thomas Prufer
The main issues will be belts and rubber parts, plastic gears and capacitors. In a loft if not used for a long time all of these could be now somewhat knackered.
It might need a lot of renovation if any parts are still around. I'm not sure who's deck it used. Many used Nakamichi ones, but I've seen Akai and others in these third party decks as well. I'd also suggest that for sound quality the DBX decks made by Technics cannot be beaten. I have some all bar 1 have issues to do with belts motor or plastic fatigue.
I have a Sony 2 deck system which is still pretty good and a Denon three head design which was always a little disappointing performance wise. All sort of work. Brian
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