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Boombox with best cassette deck for recording and playing?

J

jacobmob

New Member
Hi all, new to the forum, though I have been lurking for a while now.

I am taking an opportunity across the country, to a much smaller apartment, so I have to downsize a majority of my equipment and audio collection. What I can't fit in the truck I'm not taking =[

I was thinking about how would I use my cassettes without a deck, which would need amp, pre-amp, speakers, etc... which would take up too much space. Then, I thought about boomboxes or portable hi-fi systems! That's my solution. With the newfound cash from liquidating my separates I can purchase a pretty nice boombox, what would you say is the best boombox/portable audio system that I can use to play and record cassettes at a good quality? I would prefer either speakers or the ability to connect speakers, so not really interested in walk-mans.

Thank you for any help.
 
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I would keep your current cassette deck, since you're pleased with its performance, and find something small you could plug it into...like a good bluetooth speaker or something like a Bose Sounddock or even a boombox with aux-in.

What are you planning to record if you dump all your components ?
 
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Or, you could keep your current cassette deck and find a nice boombox with aux inputs to play it through... Among newer ones, perhaps an Altec IMT800/801 would work... There are a couple of boombox threads on AK, which might show some models you'd like...
 
There's some gems and there's a ton of duds, most guys record on a component deck for the boombox, not the other way around. The best recording boombox might be the Marantz CRS-5000, the only boombox with three heads! Good luck finding one, they were JDM only and even over there they are pretty rare. Personally I'd probably go for something like a mini-stereo, the AIWA 22 Series did have a "flight-case" option and it's little brother, I think it's the 10 Series, also did. The Hitachi Lo-D M1 or M2 both have mini-systems that will fit into a flight case and all of these had pretty substantial tape decks. The Telefunken M1 is another that gets high marks but it's escaped my grasp.

Some of the late 70's boomboxes were pretty heavy duty and recording was part of the sales pitch, boxes were advertised with two big mics mounted on the sides of the handle and they had advanced features like PAN POT, Echo, Reverb, independent level controls for MIC 1 and 2, the monster Sony CFS-99 comes to mind and is a beauty with it's 8" speakers looking pretty impressive.

Other boomboxes like the Yamaha PC-8 came with mic inputs, mixing sliders and even a keyboard input, but like the others, it's pretty big and heavy. The Yamaha PC-6 is a heavy "compo" unit that flies under the radar, I think it's a rebadge Sanyo but it also has input level controls and it looks like a million bucks.

The other nice system is the Sony FH Series, if they come with the ultra-rare battery pack they are considered boomboxes. The FH-7 is hot right now, I've got the FH-100W and the little tape deck is beautiful, an awesome system put out in the late 80's when most stuff was crap. I don't think these have level control but the tape deck is really nice but I've heard you need to be a brain surgeon to work on them.
 
the holy grail, the first time you spin the weighted flywheel tuning knob you know you're in the presence of excellence.

National RX 7000
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I've read these sold for $850 back in the 80's so pretty rare, and not cheap if you find one.

purchased mine back in 06 from Korea, at close to 20lbs even without the 10 D cell batteries installed really not all that portable lol.

really nice they have inputs on the rear for phono, line in/out for additional tape deck, and outputs for ext speakers rated 3-8 ohm.

I see some on eBay if your wallet is big enough, this from Russia, others from Japan for about 1/2 the price.
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if you truly want the best..............
 
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Like others here have said a boombox will not replace your separates but if you've already sold them I would look for a JVC kaboom.
I've had mine that I found at our local landfill over 10 years ago and its still filling our backyard with music. They can be found pretty cheap and have aux mic and guitar inputs.
Good luck

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I suggest looking for Sharp boom boxes. They pushed limits, and made good products. I remember a friend had one with a 2 sided vertical turntable! It actually sounded good too.
 
I have one of these, which was great in daily use, with much recording of CDs and radio, plus copying other cassettes back in the day.

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Orwell84 said:
Like others here have said a boombox will not replace your separates but if you've already sold them I would look for a JVC kaboom.
I've had mine that I found at our local landfill over 10 years ago and its still filling our backyard with music. They can be found pretty cheap and have aux mic and guitar inputs.
Good luck

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I ended up finding a KABOOM! This will do until I rebuild my setup (maybe this was an excuse to finally upgrade to a TOTL setup :naughty:). I gotta say, this things can really punch out some sound! The bass is crazy on this too, plus on the bright side with the mic/guitar input it plays and records pretty nice.

Though I gotta say I should've followed Nautiker or BillyTheKids' advice .....but you live you learn
 
jacobmob said:
I was thinking about how would I use my cassettes without a deck, which would need amp, pre-amp, speakers, etc... which would take up too much space.
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How many cassettes do you have? How much space do they take up?

Digital media would take up less space. And digital recording would probably be higher quality.
 
Some guys love cassettes cpt_paranoia, I've got a million and I have a ton of digital and all the rest. There's something magical about popping a tape in having a listen, a good deck can approach digital quality and also have the warmth that digital strives for. On top of that not so long ago we used to be able to find boxes of tapes for free and there's nothing better then pulling out your Marantz PMS-6820, I was just dusting mine, and listen like we did in the 80's when cassettes dominated all media! Of course the 6820 is also kind of rare but Marantz had some really nice tape decks, the PMD-430 is considered one of the nicer field recorders competing head to head with the Walkman WM-D6.

I was the earliest user of digital music on the forum, I was moving cassette music to floppy disc in 1981 with a custom program, it was cool then when it was new but now it's kind of stale and lifeless and I think new music is suffering because of it. Sure I listen to digital just about everyday but if I find a .25 cent cassette it's going in my truck tape deck.

Tape decks also makes you feel like an engineer if your using test tapes and wow & flutter meters and adjusting all the little screws inside the machine to get the perfect sound, I don't mind having a beer and having some fun once in awhile.
 
Best maintainable portable cassette deck would be an upper end Sony field recorder like the ones aimed at field use, newsgathering. Marantz also had machines of this caliber, look for Stereo 2 or 3 head models with manual record level, and Dolby B/C and/or dbx Type II. The Walkman Professsional's another good machine of that class.
 
Trust me AudioFeline, I might have too many mini-stereos and yes they are better than most boomboxes but I consider all audio machines as a "time and place" piece, meaning...on the beach, a badass boombox, in the shop, a component tape deck, in the office, a sweet mini-system, home stereo...Nakamichi.

Don't limit yourself; audio and it's equipment should make you happy, I love the design and engineering that went into all of this equipment, if you look you will find units from any class that are ground-breaking. Don't short yourself on boomboxes, there's a reason some are going for four-figures now, amazing build quality and looks that will pull a crowd in anywhere and some sound amazing. Sure most have tiny speakers but the better boomboxes could power external speakers, in Japan they were the center of a home-entertainment system, boombox, ext. speakers, TT, and most did MIC mixing, bring on the karaoke!
 
As others have suggested, you might want to consider a pair of active speakers. These would replace amps and preamps, and a decent pair with have the inputs you need to connect your full size cassette deck. One such example would be Edifier S1000MKII speakers.
 
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