Yay or Nay.....

Natitude

Super Member
I’m wanting to add my first tape deck into my listening space. I don’t want nor can I afford to spend a lot on a deck. The question I have is, there’s a JVC TD-R431 I can pick up near me. I understand that this more than likely won’t be my last deck I buy, that being said.... Is that a decent deck to consider to start out with? My only pre-requisites is the deck be reliable and black to match the rest of my components......
 
Auto reverse decks do flip the heads when the direction of play/recording changes. The problem with this mechanism is head alignment. Head alignment is key for both playback and recording. Poor head alignment will give poor or very rolled off high frequency response, muffled or distant mids. Auto reverse decks may sound good in one direction and poor in the other. Thats why auto reverse decks are shunned upon. Try and stay away from auto reverse decks.
 
Auto reverse decks may sound good in one direction and poor in the other. Thats why auto reverse decks are shunned upon. Try and stay away from auto reverse decks.

Makes sense. Not being familiar with it... is there a way to turn off auto reverse?....
 
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unless it's going to be the absolute last thing you buy, depending on the price and the value to you,
buy it. you can always upgrade to some nirvana machine down the road.

meanwhile, buy (CL, ebay, thrift shop) a cassette with music you know. bring it and headphones
(hopefully ones you know the sound quality of) and listen to it. then buy or not.

take it home and using qtips and alcohol or aficionado-approved-and-nakamichi-Revox-approved
cleaning fluid, clean anything that moves (capstans, rollers, guides, heads, etc) and then
enjoy the music. (I would suggest demagnetizing the heads but no one ever does this).
 
Turning off the reverse won't really help much. All of the ones I have seen, (and owned), had the head mounted inside this little swiveling mount, and the mount develops a lot of play (movement) the same day you take it home from the store; the head moves "by design". After very little use, you have a head which is adjusted for an "average" of what alignment should be; best analogy I can think of is trying to align the steering on a car with a worn-out front end.
 
unless it's going to be the absolute last thing you buy, depending on the price and the value to you,
buy it. you can always upgrade to some nirvana machine down the road.

meanwhile, buy (CL, ebay, thrift shop) a cassette with music you know. bring it and headphones
(hopefully ones you know the sound quality of) and listen to it. then buy or not.

take it home and using qtips and alcohol or aficionado-approved-and-nakamichi-Revox-approved
cleaning fluid, clean anything that moves (capstans, rollers, guides, heads, etc) and then
enjoy the music. (I would suggest demagnetizing the heads but no one ever does this).

I can almost bet it won’t be the last one I buy, I’m sure it’s like the rest of the things in this addicting hobby:biggrin: I can get it for $25.... that’s why I think it wouldn’t be a bad one to at least start with....
 
I have three Yamaha decks which I purchased used, two KX-800s ( I got for cheap but are rather pricey now on Ebay) and a KX630. The KX630 needed a head alignment which I got done and its now good. Naks are good decks but IHO, your paying for the name. I would look at decks from Yamaha, Teac, Pioneer, Technics, and Sony.
 
I suppose one could make the argument that spending 25 bucks now might save you money in the long run by helping you to decide what features are most important when you set out to purchase your "dream deck" in the future. If it really looks that good and works I would probably spring for it too. Lots more money than that gets wasted by me most every day without anything to show for it.
 
Its a nice looking deck. :) Worse case its a door stop. A Mcdonalds dinner is $25 and you feel like shit afterward monetarily and physically. :)
 
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