Best Portable Cassette Tape Recorders

Was there a Marantz that was like the 430 model, but had 3 heads instead of 2? I remember using one in college, but for the life of me don't know the model number.
 
Was there a Marantz that was like the 430 model, but had 3 heads instead of 2? I remember using one in college, but for the life of me don't know the model number.

Yes, the Marantz PMD 420 (2 Heads) looks very similar to the PMD 430 (3 Heads).
 
I get some strange looks and questions from friends when they see my Marantz PMD430 plugged into the dashboard jack of my car stereo intended for an IPod, or whatever. Works great, though. Having the car adaptor would be nice for saving on battery use, lol

But it is a surprisingly good deck. And, since I am a dbx user, it is fairly unique for me.
 
I have a Sony in the family of those in the first posting. I got it used. It works well, but has some belt slippage. I found replacement belts listed online, but when I opened up the case, I didn't feel confident in dismantling the layers of circuit boards and machinery necessary to access the belts.

Plan B: I went to the shop of the fellow who was the chief authorized Sony repair person for this region. He was familiar with this type of recorder. He said it would be extremely expensive to replace the belts on account of the labor involved. He went on to say that Sony did not design the belts to be replacable. This was considered PROFESSIONAL equipment. I knew these, and similar Marantzes were commonly used by radio reporters for on location recording. The repair chief said, Sony knew radio stations and similar professinals would simply replace a recorder like this if parts of it began wearing out.

He also didn't think I should feel very confident that the belts advertised for the machine online would actually fit it properly were I to try to replace the belts myself.

I still have weak belts on the machine.
 
Marantz PMD430 no power

I just acquired one of these Marantz PMD430's and I can not get it to come on. It has no power. The wall wart power supply checks out OK. I looked for a power switch and it does not look like it has one according to the manual. Anyone ever had this problem? Is there a fuse perhaps that could be burnt? It's on my bench now all apart and I can't find the problem.
 
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I just acquired one of these Marantz PMD430's and I can not get it to come on. It has no power. The wall wart power supply checks out OK. I looked for a power switch and it does not look like it has one according to the manual. Anyone ever had this problem? Is there a fuse perhaps that could be burnt? It's on my bench now all apart and I can't find the problem.

Mine just powers up when I hit Play - there's no separate power switch. But if it doesn't play it could just be a belt. The meter lights don't come on unless you press the lights button (below the transport controls). If neither of those work, try yours with batteries - that will tell you whether the problem is with the wall wart or the deck itself.

Superscope will still rehab these decks (belt replacements, etc), and sells some parts like the wall wart, belts and the rechargeable battery pack.
 
Mine just powers up when I hit Play - there's no separate power switch. But if it doesn't play it could just be a belt. The meter lights don't come on unless you press the lights button (below the transport controls). If neither of those work, try yours with batteries - that will tell you whether the problem is with the wall wart or the deck itself.

Superscope will still rehab these decks (belt replacements, etc), and sells some parts like the wall wart, belts and the rechargeable battery pack.

I tried batteries and it still does not power on. No lights or anything. It must be the deck. The information you provided is helpful. Thanks.
 
Back in the day it was the Uher. That's the one that newspaper reporters used to record their interviews. Mono, of course.
 
Which of the Sony WM-D6 and WM-D6C have the amorphous heads?
Is there a time period or serial to look for?
 
As I think has been previously mentioned, the WM-DC2, D6 and D6C all have amorphous heads, but the later EX amorphous heads have greater frequency extension (and sound better generally too, at least to my ears).

As for the D6Cs, I've had a number, and while they've been good, they're not as good as any half-decent full-size deck. The frequency response drops like a brick above 15kHz, and the speed stability, while very good for a portable of its size, is really not difficult to better with a full-size deck. From what I've read, they're incapable of biasing metals properly too, though that's not something I checked on mine (went for chromes instead).

I loved the sound of my couple of DC2s, but the DD9 was clearly better in a number of areas.

Had one of the Marantz portables, but never spent any proper time sorting it. The transport was quite clever though - had twin, contra-rotating flywheels. The Disc Drive of the Sony Pros is good too, though plug them into a wow/flutter meter, move them around, and you'll see how the movement hits the wow and flutter figures pretty clearly.
 
Forgot to mention that I've just been given a Uher CR-240. Would anyone happen to have a service manual for it? Couldn't find one on HiFi Engine or the other usual suspects. Be interested to try and get it going again.

Cheers, Jon.
 
Uher CR240 service manual

Forgot to mention that I've just been given a Uher CR-240. Would anyone happen to have a service manual for it? Couldn't find one on HiFi Engine or the other usual suspects. Be interested to try and get it going again.

Cheers, Jon.

Service manuals are available at www.hifi-manuals.com.

If you have a problem let me know and I can email a pdf.

Regards
John
 
professional?

Durring my years in HIFi, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, was one of our accounts , and they would always spec Marantz PMD 330/430 for their scientific use. They would buy at least six a year. I always pictured them being used to record undersea sounds, like whales and schools of fish, but noone ever told me exactly what they used them for. Jim:music:
 
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