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Used vintage cassette deck for under $200?

TellMeWhy

TellMeWhy

Active Member
Dear all, I am thinking about revisiting the wonderful world of cassette tape, more for enjoyment of the warm, fuzzy analogue sound than for archiving. I would welcome your suggestions on an easy maintenance vintage unit that would sit well between my Marantz 2230 and Thorens TD160MK1 (a 70's style silver unit with big VU meters and ideally a wooden case would be great...). Without going into crazy money territory, what would be a good balance between vintage looks and good, solid sound? Cheers, Jon
 
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Not a fan of the piano key decks (i.e. 70's). What about silver faced, wood wrapped, flouroscan meters?
 
I have a Nak BX-100 that I bought for $5 at a garage sale. I spent $14 on new belt and pinch roller rubber and about 2 hours of DYI time. The heads are in great shape and it sounds fantastic.
 
AKAI GXC-760D

Not as big or heavy as other AKAI like the 730.
Same Classic 70's design paired with modern soft touch color lit buttons.
Has every function i would ever need for a cassette deck.
Built like a tank, mine is original and still going strong.

Yes i'm an AKAI fanboy.

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Any NAK BX series deck would be a good buy.

I stumbled upon an Onkyo TA-RW544 at Salvation Army for $4.99 last year. It was dirty but a little cleaning and adjusting brought it back to tip top shape. It has all the goodies, i.e., dual auto reverse record and play, Dolby HX Pro, blank skip, relay playback, repeat, high/metal/normal bias selector, fluorescent display, etc...

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I just dragged this guy out of the garage the other day, thanks to my crackhead friends on AK:

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It was a match to the 2252B I used to own. Only niggle is the "woodgrain" wrap on it, which I am considering painting gloss black.

Should be able to find a serviced one for <$100.

Sony made some nice decks at that time too, with wood, and even top loaders.
 
I'd go with a basic deck, no fancy stuff, no soft touch controls, auto reverse, etc. The decks are getting old - the more components - the more chance for failures. Those Akai decks have very special pinch rollers, cannot be sourced for replacement and the originals do turn to gum, wow and flutter gets terrible. (I have one) Basic good brand deck with nice sized VU meters, silver face. Beware the dual well black faced decks, might get lucky and get one that works, probably not.
 
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