Top 10 holy grail cassette decks?

[kevinmasters]

I'm ready to make the jump to a TOTL cassette deck. I know about the Nak dragon but not sure about other manufacturers. I've been reading threads trying to figure it out but I figured a collective "two cents" might be helpful to me and others. GO!

Side note: Please feel free to message me with offerings of holy grail decks! :thmbsp:

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Studer
ReVox

 

[guiller]

I'm far from being an expert, but some popular decks that have been nominated on the net are:

Tandberg: 3014A

Nakamichi: Dragon, CR-7, 1000ZXL

Revox: B215, B710 and Studer: A-710, A-721

PS: of this list I own a CR-7A, the best cassette deck I've ever had. Other decks that I have are Tandberg TDC-440A and TCD-330, Nakamichi Cassette Deck 2, Tascam 122 Mk 2, Akai GXC 570D and Onkyo Integra TA-2360.

 

[kevinmasters]

Great! Keep em coming! Maybe we can a actually hash out a top 10 list!

 

[fiream773]

Almost pulled the trigger on a Nak DR-1 in '93, got cold feet about the $700 price tag and bought a Marantz SD-62 for half as much.

Shoulda bought the Nak...

I'll nominate the DR-1 over other vintage Naks because of the goofy Nak-only biasing used by their earlier decks. If you're only ever going to record & playback on the one deck, it works fine. If you're like me and make tapes for use in the car or elsewhere, the Nak biasing results in muddy, garbled, quiet recordings on other machines. This experience plus the price were the two main factors that scared me away from Nak decks. I have since learned that the DR-1,2,3's were biased like other decks so the tapes play fine on everything.

DR-1 gets my nod...

 

[Hajidub]

Aiwa AD-F990?

 

[Tarl Of Gor]

Pioneer CT-F1250

 

[kmulkey]

Though it doesn't have the rep of the Naks and even the Tandbergs, the HK CD-491 is stellar, especially the quality of the recordings. I owned the 491 and a Nak CR-7a and I'm not convinced the Nak was that much better.

 

[parkerdom]

The Sony Dolby S decks from the mid 90's were excellent, regular line or ES.

 

[parkerdom]

Though it doesn't have the rep of the Naks and even the Tandbergs, the HK CD-491 is stellar, especially the quality of the recordings. I owned the 491 and a Nak CR-7a and I'm not convinced the Nak was that much better.

I owned four HK's in the '80's and 90's and all of them were excellent as well.

 

[zedex]

Just out of the nakamichi line up.
Dragon
CR7
zx9
zx7
1000zxl
Pretty much any nak with "zx" in it is no slouch.

Tandberg 3014

 

[squirrelnest]

I use a Sony TC-KA3ES cassette deck....works great & built like a tank....

 

[KentTeffeteller]

The Sony is good, but not holy grail. Technics made a TOTL deck with a separate record/play electronics and transport which was 3 motor/3 head direct driven. A 10 best for sure. Pioneer's CTF TOTL models would be in there. No Dolby S machine will be in the grail lineup, they usually were a notch below.

 

[Alex Hayes]

I would throw a vote out there for the JVC TD-V711. It's a very solid deck. It's built very well and sounds spectacular. It's not one that I see talked about a whole lot but I have heard that they were used in studios. It's got every feature you really need in my opinion and being a newer deck, you can probably find one in good working order and since they are a little under the radar, won't cost you too much.

 

[jammasterj13]

Technics RS-M95?
Aiwa XKS9000?

 

[Redikilowatt]

Teac z6000/z7000

 

[Blue Shadow]

I'm surprised that Kent is not mentioning the Tandberg 910 and 911 as the best decks ever. The company made a couple other top notch machines but these get the accolades. The 911 being playback only. That alone indicates it must be a great performer selling for over a grand.

Other rare machines that might not get much mention are the Luxman K-05/Alpine AL-90 twins and the next step down the K-04/AL-85 pair. I don't know where the Luxman Laboratory Reference Series 5K50 fits on the list, if it does, as it was manufactured a couple years before the best cassette decks came out.

Let us know when you get the 910 and the K-05/AL-90 and compare them to the Dragon, Revox and Studer machines already mentioned.

 

[Ultralyd]

It's so funny.

There are so many threads with similar subjects.

"Name the three best cassette decks".

"Here's The top ten list of cassette decks"

"What's the holy grail of cassette decks?"

The fun factor is that every time, not three, not ten and not THE holy grail but somewhere between maybe 25 and 250 different decks are mentioned as being among the absolutely very best top decks evermade in the whole wide world.

Most, almost all, of these decks are completely irrellevant in this context.

This thread will just repeat the pattern over again.

Holy grail is TCD 910 (leaving out the 911 due to the PB only).

Top three will be TCD 910; TCD 3014A and TCD 3014

Top ten will also include TCD 3004, Nakamichi ZX-9, CR7, Dragon, the Teac Z-6000, Luxman K-04, Nakamichi 1000ZXL.

The reason to prioritate Z-6000 above Z-7000 and K-04 above the K-05 is the difference in sound quality obtainable when tape allignment is done manual.

Why bother to mention any Technics, any Sony, any Pioneer, any Philips or any of all the other random attempts to create mediocre decks?

 

[KentTeffeteller]

While the Tandberg machines are grails (they sound superb and easily the best of cassette). I can not recommend them due to their very short to non existent spare parts and difficulty of servicing and high maintenance. If you can find one which is in correct operating order, they are beautiful machines, but many need work. Few in the USA can correctly repair one. Re: Technics! There are at least two no holds barred Technics cassette decks which in good order will stand comparison to any cassette machine ever made. That 2 box machine deserves grail status. It's easily the equal of the ReVox and Studer in many ways. I would also add the Bang & Olufsen Beocord 8000 and the Eumig deck to the lineup of grail decks. And lastly on my Grail list for historical significance would be the redoubtable Advent 201, the first cassette deck to ever be regarded as acceptable for hi-fi use and which paved the way for the entire medium. And the only machine on the list which is USA made.

 

[ConradH]

Regardless you're still dependent on tape quality and all these old decks will likely need new belts. The catch there is the original perfectly fitting factory belts won't be available and you'll have to install a not-quite-perfect belt (sometimes even if it came from the factory) and the performance won't be quite as good as when the deck was new.